What I did today - 2016

[Cadalot]

A quick visit to plot 1A for an extended lunchtime visit to restore the water system and water in the potatoes, also watered the overwintering onions in the greenhouse and under cover plus the sprouts donated by Keith (brother-in-law)

Onto Plot 23B to drop off a spirit level, more slug traps, potato weed membrane and a blank sheet for the beds. the tool bag seat that my sister bought me a little while ago, and the super strength weed killer for the bind weed and the couch grass.

Looking at the path along plot 21A I'm going to need it. I didn't apply it today because it looks like rain but hopefully if the weather allows I can next Sunday.

I took the opportunity to apply the Wolf Miller to bed 1 as lots of little weeds are beginning to grow. I also milled the strip tuned over a week ago Sunday. I do love this tool, I know they are not cheap but they are so effective, just call me Weedy Miller (having a Trumpton moment).

[elleme]

Nipped over to the plot this afternoon to find that my mangetout and perpetual spinach are starting to come up, and did a bit of weeding too. I forked over a couple of the areas that are still unplanted as I've discovered my plot has horsetail and I missed some of the roots in winter. I got a few more out but I'm sure there are more lurking.

[Snadger]

Spent a couple of hours breaking up broken panes of glass into smaller fragments with a hammer! What an exiting life I live!Shovelled broken glass into a large bucket and tipped it along the fenceline to stop foxes digging into my plot. My plot is on the edge of a wooded area so I wasn't tipping glass shards onto another plot. After umpteen bucket fulls i still have half to get rid of but was bored so left it for another evening.

More excitement though as I left the site and spotted my runnaway white bantam hiding under a wood pile on another plot. About half a dozen plot holders managed to corner her and after numerous failed attempts, managed to get her back to her flock she'd deserted. She was scolded by the cockerel and spent the first 10 minutes scoffing corn as she must have been starving after her two day excursion!

[Jay-ell]

Sowed a bunch of squashes, pumpkins, courgettes, cucumbers and melons.

Had a look over my new plot and realised I've made a big mistake.

It was a toilet cistern and not a bathroom sink.

Had a laugh as one of the other plot holders forgot that there was a pond there and stepped right in the middle of it - about 18" deep.

Had a bigger laugh later on as another ran around chasing a chicken with a bamboo pole and a bucket. Personally I reckon the chicken was the winner. No names shall be mentioned to protect the guilty.

[veggiechicken]

You two, Snadger and Jay-ell, should make a film of life on the shanty town allotments. I really look forward to reading what daft things you've been doing each day

[Small pumpkin]

Not much done today. Work got in the way. Pricked out kale, cabbage and some flowers. Potted on nasturtiums. Bit of plant shuffling from one tunnel to the other. Planed what I'm potting on tomorrow after work.

[Gillykat]

Early finish at work so after a 30-minute snooze on the sofa (three mornings in a row of getting up at 4am catches up with you!) I headed up to the plot with the newly-arrived 48 perennial plugs and various other plants.

Potted up Honeysuckle 'serotina' and Clematis 'Julia Correvan' into bigger pots while I wait for hubby to finish making my two gate trellis structures.

Potted up the 48 plug plants.

Potted up 5 x Zantedeschia Calla Lilies.

Finally planted 10 International Kidney potatoes in polytunnel bed.

Planted various shrubs ~ Philadelphus, Escallonia, Ceanothus, Hypericum, Berberis and George's Buddleja.

Played about with pond and made centre slightly deeper and levelled shelves up. Looking a lot better so I'll probably get the liner ordered next week when I get paid.

Dug over sweetcorn bed area. I intend to do a small area of the veggie bed every day so by the weekend it should be almost done, if not finished, and then Neil can get the raised beds hammered together and sorted out.

Busy day but very satisfying.

[Snadger]

You two, Snadger and Jay-ell, should make a film of life on the shanty town allotments. I really look forward to reading what daft things you've been doing each day

Oy you! Thats prime real estate your talking about there!

PS Must appologise to Stevie the other plotholder for laughing when he put one leg in the pond! I just couldn't get my breath at the time, and was bent over just about crying with laughter especially when he said "I've got to go to the club like this" as he hobbled away with one trouser leg stained to the knee!

[bario1]

Got to the plot early this morning and raked over my roots bed. Incorporated a bit of bfb as well. Hopefully I'll get some carrots and parsnips sown before i go on holiday next week.

Finally started digging the trenches for my asparagus crowns - the bed was way too wet when they arrived, so I've spent the last week frantically digging drainage ditches (which immediately filled with 6" of water, so they were definitely needed!), and with the recent dry weather, the bed has dried out sufficiently. I'll get the crowns in at the weekend, hope they haven't suffered too much by being kept in a fishbox full of compost for a couple of weeks.

Back at home, I sowed 16 chitted sweetcorn seeds into root trainers.

Then off to work!

[Hazel at the Hill]

On Sunday I parked the car at the top of the Hill and took an armful of seed tapes and labels, trowel and secateurs down to the plot. Forgot my gloves, but no digging on the menu, so that didn't matter.

• Gave the roots bed a final rake over and made grooves; filled with some old mpc and laid out seed tapes of beetroot, parsnips, spring onion, carrots and leeks. Covered with a little more mpc and labled the rows.
• Rough dug the miscellaneous bed which will be for lettuce, squash, sweetcorn etc. Made mental note to buy sweetcorn seed. Would have done second misc bed but blisters on gloveless hands made me give up.

Came home and

• saw with pleasure the first of the tomato seedlings just showing
• filled pots (and the kitchen) with peat free mpc and had a mammoth sowing session of runner beans, french climbing beans, french dwarf beans and a couple of trays of peas.
• noted that quality of wyev@le peat free mpc is completely rubbish (rough and twiggy) compared to the New Hor1zon I've used for the past few years. Note to self: just because a product occupies the same space in the shop as a previously acceptable product does not mean that it is the same as that product.

[Scoot]

With it being such a nice day i thought today I'd get my spuds in. I know there is cold weather forecast for the end of the week but it always takes them at least a month to show so I'm hoping that when they do show at the end of May, the bad weather should have been and gone for good.

Planted a few extra sprouts, swedes and cabbages into the modules that hadn't germinated from an earlier sowing.

Finally i put a row of swedes in beside where my spuds have gone. Going to see which ones are best, the ones in modules that are in the growhouse or the ones sown direct into the soil.
Quite a successful day today.

[Martin H]

I planted out some maincrop onions that I've been growing from seed in modules. They had stalled for the last few weeks so they are going to have to take their chances out on the plot.

[Gillykat]

...but it always takes them at least a month to show so I'm hoping that when they do show at the end of May, the bad weather should have been and gone for good.

That's the way I'm looking at it too Going to sow my pea, bean, squash, pumpkin and melon seeds this week so by the time they get big enough to go outdoors the risk of frost should be over That's the idea anyway.....

Quick visit to the plot today to sow some Teddy Bear sunflower seeds and some Sweet Rocket flower seeds. HAD planned to do some digging too but guy three plots up was burning rubbish and the smoke was horrible! I'll pop back up at 6pm when Neil goes to work and do some then.

[SusieG]

What a wonderful, glorious sunny morning. Pale blue endless sky ... And I had to be at work for 8am .....
So, work, grocery shopping then had to take young son trainer shopping (sigh...)
That's my day gone then!!!
However, did manage to barrow 6 loads of homemade compost onto new veggie patch! Not a completely unused sunny, dry, warm(ish) day after all!

[Jay-ell]

Sprayed the new plot.
Sowed peas
Planted onions, garlic and shallots.
Built a path along one side of my mini - orchard

All of this without a single chicken - in no chickens appeared at all today