What I did today - 2015

[Penellype]

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Went and picked strawberries and decided raspberries looked good too. Want to try a jam but haven't got a clue how lol

Raspberry jam is easy - see this recipe for example: Homemade raspberry jam | BBC Good Food

Its important to use the proper jam sugar otherwise the jam won't set.

[Penellype]

Spent the morning at my friend's, tying in cucumbers and tomatoes, planting out beetroot and weeding. Harvested a HUGE calabrese measuring over 10 inches across.



Came home and potted up choy sum, mibuna and komatsuna, and sowed some lettuce, mizuna and kohlrabi. Watered the back garden with slug nematodes in anticipation of a slug fest when the wet weather arrives (it hasn't rained much here so far but it is forecast to soon). Cooked 2 large panfuls of calabrese, one for the freezer and one for tea. Still more than half of it left in the fridge, but no more would fit in the pan!

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

[QUOTE=Bigmallly;1362184]Spent the morning feeding ducklings cos I'm pants at fishing................


The exact same reason I gave up Golf! I was "Pants" at that too!


Harvested the first main batch of onions! These were from sets!



Let em dry a tew days!

Cleared the bed! But waiting to see how the seed sown set compare!



Must admit! the seed sown seem to be doing "Favouraly Better" we'll see!

[kris1960]

Lovely being back at allotment, tomatos have got bigger, melons have tiny fruit, tithonia has started flowering and the weeds continue to flourish.
Dug and put in some more potatos, manicured outdoor tomatos, fed all tomatos with comfrey and began sorting the old fruit area- its a massive job and will probably take me until autumn to finish properly.

[SusieG]

Wonderful! Lucky you - I have growers envy!!

[SusieG]

Everything according to plan then!
Great to get away, even better coming home! �� Your plot needs you!

[kris1960]

Skipped shower and went straight to allotment before rain- am layering weeds with horse manure in a pile in old fruit area where small bed is going to be (I wont need it until next year), hoping it will enrich soil,keep weeds down there and provide more compost for next year. I may cover it with black membrane that will let rain through but haven't completely decided yet.
My grand plan is to make a large onion bed further down- deep dug and root free ready for sets in November. It has been overgrown for 20 years and consequently is covered in moss, nettles old currant bushes, wandering raspberries and embedded branches. I can see most of the ground now and have been keeping nettles down but not dug out yet. I need to dig out fruit that is not doing well, rake off and burn moss and wood (saving ash for fertilising) and then commence digging.
My pallet compost bin is at the top and tight packed - 1 cubic metre- I am thinking of putting a layer of manure over the top and tucking it in with left over black pond liner with some holes in the top for the winter.
Hoping that anyone who reads this will let me know if they think that I am doing this the right way or if my plan needs tweaking or refining or completely changing. I am also not sure what this soil will need for the hoped for onions and garlic.

[Two_Sheds]

- picked another 8 courgettes (omg, ffs, etc)
- 1kg blackberries, turned into juice & frozen
- loads French beans
- brought home a sack of onions to dry off in the GH
- ditto 4 trays of wildflower seed
- need to weed, but it's still raining

[Snadger]

Harvested a bucket full of strawberries and half a bucket full each of blackcurrants and gooseberries.
Back is killing me after harvesting strawberries so I think I'll make a couple of raised beds for them next year.
Watered indoor areas and seedlings with hosepipe and left for home.

[Gillykat]

At the beginning of June (5th & 9th) first my old cat Hattie died and then four days later my mother-in-law Stella The allotment kind-of got neglected apart from my watering stuff in the polytunnel. After the funeral on 23rd I decided hard work was in order so went up the allotment thinking I could do a 'bit' of weeding. Pah!!! The weeds had THRIVED on my neglect and coupled with days of rain & sun were enormous and covering the paths I have spent backbreaking sessions attempting to regain control and TODAY I finally finished!

Never again will I allow a single weed to get taller than one inch!!!!

Also started tidied tomatoes in tunnel to allow for a bit more aeration...they had begun to resemble jungle!!!! I'm so glad I followed you guys' advice and moved them further apart!!! Got a few small tommies starting to form too *so exciting!!!* and tomorrow, when the forecast is heavy rain all day, I'll finish tidying them up.

[Nannysally99]

I've been jammin today, the house smells lovely, homegrown strawberrys with a touch of rhubarb, delicious

[skeggijon]

Noticed Aubergine plants had a bad attack of greenfly, so resorted to using my last resort organic pest spray on them, then noticed another bottle of organic pest spray - thats odd, I only bought the one. Looked again at the spray I had just used - AARRRRGGGHHH, it was an organic weedkiller I'd just picked up to try out from B&M's

Quickly got the hose out - even though it was pouring down and gave them a really good spraying from all angles. Now I just have to wait and hope that its a rubbish weedkiller

Checked Melon plants for anything resembling a Melon - three plants and nothing showing so far, though the plants are absolutely full of male and female flowers and I've got loads of pollinators going in and out of the greenhouse, so ended up hand pollinating a few.

[vixylix]

This weekend I pulled up all my shallots and carrots and a few golden beetroot. This created some space so have sown some more carrots, beetroot and radish. Although success will be dependent on whether we get any more sunshine!! Also trimmed down my sugar snaps which were leaning into next doors garden.

Also sowed indoors my leeks and purple sprouting broccoli ready to go out later in the year. Just hoping I've not left it too late!! :/

[pandasyard]

I swapped a canoe/small rowing boat for some of my time. I asked someone if their canoe was for sale and they said I could have it for free as the housing association were moaning about that and the other canoes in his garden and this one is unusable on the water anyway. He said they were saying his grass needed cutting and the garden tidying so I offered to do that for him in return for the canoe!

[SusieG]

Random!!! ��