What I did today - 2017

[Jungle Jane]

My friend got me an extra light for my birthday the other day so Ive chained it onto this shelving I made out of my walk in blowaway pieces & the light can be raised or lowered however the plants want. It's nearly ready for seeds!

[Dynamo]

This was the view from my bedroom window this morning.....



....so I spent time indoors washing my plant pots before storing them for next year.

[lolie]

Pruned back dead leaves on the herbs and the zucchini. This is a daily task now with everything growing fast.

Scattered some snail pellets. They haven't attacked my plants yet but I'm beginning to see occasional snail trails.

Wrote a list of everything I want from the garden centre. I have a bad habit of completely forgetting something important when I go there.

[Dynamo]

Wrote a list of everything I want from the garden centre. I have a bad habit of completely forgetting something important when I go there.

I've been writing a list of seeds I'm going to try next year. I'm surprised at how long it's getting

[Newt]

Pulled up half the wooden dividers marking the beds.
Cut through and brushed up about 1/3 of the remaining overgrown weeds and long grass.
Covered 1/3 of the allotment in newspaper and laid the pulled-up boards over it.
Relocated the small green compost bin.
Sorted through the mound of good compost that was in the small green compost bin.
Gathered up all recent weed and grass and old veg cuttings and pullings and mounded up next to the small green compost bin.

To Do This Month:
Get enough newspaper to cover the whole allotment
Pull up all remaining boards
Cut down all remaining long grass.
Order mulch and lay down over newspaper.
Mark out beds in newly covered allotment.
Begin laying down the manure compost to rot down on the new beds.
Lay more mulch on top of the beds after compost laid down.

[Dynamo]

Saturday is pub day. However..... On the way to the pub I popped into my lottie and took a photo of my "Compost Corner" for this forum.



Then I drained off the tea from the wormeries and poured it into some bottles. After that I moved the wormeries into the greenhouse for over winter.

[lolie]

Planted out some backup seedlings in less than ideal locations, as they're unlikely to survive another month in their pots (and realistically I probably won't have the new bed sorted until the new year).

[Chestnut]

Planted raspberry canes and a couple of blackcurrant bushes ;-)

[rary]

Have sown three different varieties of lettuce, using old compost that tomatoes were in

[lolie]

Cut back excess leaves on the tomatoes and zucchinis.

Discovered powdery mildew on my mint plant (in decades of growing mint, I've never seen that before), so I savagely pruned it and sprayed it with a baking soda solution.

[bario1]

On the way to the pub I popped into my lottie and took a photo of my "Compost Corner" for this forum.

Nice composting area Dynamo!

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

OK, yesterday but forgot to post...

Planted out my module sown broad beans. They've had over a week hardening off outside during the day, indoors overnight and then in the garage overnight. We're due for a couple of warmer days and nights until the end of the week so seemed like a good time to get them in before the cold snap (-2C expected) later in the week.

Only room for 3 each in my corner squares due to the corner posts so I discarded the tallest leggy looking one and the smallest with no open leaves. Outdoor sown beans still not shown their heads so I'm expecting they are either not going to sprout or won't do anything until Spring. If they don't show in Spring I'll plant some new ones.



I also got to use one of my birthday presents - I got some nice Japanese gardening kit, some Okatsune secateurs and a Hori Hori knife, which I used to make my planting holes.

Finally used up my chilli harvest - a mix of cheyenne F1, cherry bombs and birds eye - and made some chilli sauce, which I have to say tastes pretty good. Hot, but not blow your head off. Made about 1.5l, used about 40 chillies (mostly cheyenne).



Here's the recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQqC0vursc

And finally, I moved into my garden office - it was built in October but its taken me this long to finish furnishing it. Just needs some finishing touches, but I finish work for the year on Friday!

[Mark_Riga]

Went into herbalist shop today Niels Yard I think - and saw they were selling COUCH GRASS for £3.00 per 100g. I must have thrown away 1000s of pounds of the stuff over the years.

Snow forecast so will have to take off the roof to the fruit cage (though when there was fruit in it in the summer, it was more like a bird cage).

[Chestnut]

Went into herbalist shop today Niels Yard I think - and saw they were selling COUCH GRASS for £3.00 per 100g. I must have thrown away 1000s of pounds of the stuff over the years.

Snow forecast so will have to take off the roof to the fruit cage (though when there was fruit in it in the summer, it was more like a bird cage).

I wonder if Neil’s Yard have enough demand to take on another supplier? If so, you could have yourself a new business!

[lolie]

Gave up on waiting for my cucumber plant to grow male flowers and pollinated it with a zucchini flower.

Pulled up the bean plants and planted out a tomato in their place. Will fill the rest of the space with cut off bottoms of bought spring onions.