What have you done on the plot today?

[Riggers]

4 varieties of garlic in the allotment now.

172! That's right! Whether they'll all grow – who knows!

[MikeFromLFE]

My garlic bulbs (not as many as you!) including the Elephant Garlic are all sprouting already. I'm told this is not a bad thing.


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[spindrift]

Made a leaf pile. Every year the council sweep the road and tons of leaves go to landfill, breaks my heart, so I wheeled the garden wheelie bin down, raked up a load, wheeled them back and piled them up. Did the same last year and filled a bed about fifteen feet deep and six wide and the leaves just..disappeared. By July they'd pretty much gone so this year I'm making the pile about 20 inches deep. Did you know leaf mould can hold up to 300% its weight in water? Marvellous stuff.

[rafletcher]

Emptied one of our 3 compost bins out to mulch the roses, then transferred the contents of a second into it. Now my wife ha an empty bin to fill. The third one will sit for a couple of years.

[Aunt Maud]

Planted three new white, single shrub roses "Kew Gardens" from David Austin roses, beautiful bare root plants. Pricey but worth the money.

Planted 30 6-8 foot Beech whips in the new 2 acre coppice......only another 200 to go after I've cut what's there and dug the whips up. That should keep me busy for a couple of weeks before the frost comes and I can start cutting the Birch coppice.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Dunno if you'd call it 'the plot', but due to pressure from the landlord I had to do stuff on mooring on Sat.
   
So

After due consideration I agreed with his assessment that mooring pole needed resiting. Unfortunately that meant digging it out (it was only half-dug in due to flood washing out bank). Dug new hole for it to go in three feet further up bank. Dug down next to pole/concrete.
   
This is a 6" square steel pole, which I thought was only 6' long, 3' in concrete, 3' sticking up. I was wrong. It was 9' long. So I dug, and dug and dug. Then I dug out my new home for it some more.
   
Got farm jack out (I love that farm jack) and started jacking up pole - the pole is attached to a 7meter steel beam. This is all attached to a steel pontoon and a 20ton barge. Oh, and I rigged a rope to another pole on the bank and winched that tight, so the whole lot wouldn't fall over when I jacked it up. This didn't go quite as smoothly as I'm making it sound, the jack slipped off a few times, jammed on it's linkages a few times and there were a few fboab words said. There was the stage when all of it was swinging in the air and I had to scrabble in the hole and scratch a bit more soil away.

But finally it dropped into place. Job's a good-un.

I did have offer of help from someone else who had a boat on adjacent pontoon, but I'd only just met them and this sort of stuff is very prone to going wrong - make a mistake and people get very hurt. I don't want to be responsible for someone losing teeth (common accident with farm jacks slipping or handle kicking back) or getting crushed by hundreds of kilos of steel falling on them.

[jamesld8]

Planted the garlic last weekend, hope they'll be more successful than in the past.  A "hard necked" variety called Red Duke, supposedly a really pungent one.

I`ve given up on garlic growing now after 2 years just getting small chestnut sized bulbs.

Over last few days have cleared up last of leaves--a big pile now going to mulch, cut lawns on Xmas Eve  , did more firewood from the increasingly large `leftovers, hard to split etc pile`, and pruned apple and pear trees.

[Bledlow]

Digging.

Odd about the garlic. Summat missing from the soil, perhaps? I had some pretty small bulbs this year, but also plenty of decent size ones.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Pruned the two small apple trees and cut back the bastard bamboo again. MrsC said she'd get me better secateurs [translation; she doesn't like me abusing hers] but she didn't. Bastard bamboo is a bastard to cut.

I don't like pruning. Too worried I'll get it wrong.

[HeltorChasca]

8 shrubs transplanted (fruit) and 22 trees (mostly fruit) and roses pruned. I'll leave transplanting my summer raspberry canes till tomorrow. All organic. Off for a sarnie and cider.

[campagman]

inspired by this thread I planted some Garlic in Oct or Nov. It is now poking it's heads above the soil. The local allotment has some plots to rent and I was very tempted. I then thought about how I am not keeping on top of my home garden, so to take on more garden would be silly. I decided that this year I would try to make best use of the small plot and Greenhouse I have at home and keep on top of the rest of the garden. If that goes ok then I could take on a half plot next year.
I sowed some chilly seeds which are now keeping warm in the airing cupboard. Last year I had good success with some seedlings that I bought in Tesco. I had some seeds that I'd saved so thought I'd sow them to see what happens.

[Bledlow]

Digging.

[spindrift]

Cutting back a 40 year old privet.

[spindrift]

[mrcharly-YHT]

I cut back effing bamboo.

Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with the stuff? Cutting it off at ground level results in little razor sharp stubs all over the bed.
I was wondering about slates dug in vertically to stop it spreading.

[Riggers]

Depends on the variety (is it 'running' or a more slow-growing variety) but it'll come down to dig it up. If it starts to come back – dig it up. It's amazingly resilient, and yes, it isn't easy digging up a 'clump' that's been there for years. I've seen a seemingly insignificant piece of rhizome (which looked gnarled and dead) spring back to life.

[Riggers]

Checked my 172 garlic last weekend, and not all have been successful, but we'll just have to see how the rest do. Haven't counted what remains.

Found a couple of bed supports (with metal bars) which I rescued from a street, and now up the Lotty. When supported vertically, will make a splendid ready-made framework for growing green beans, etc.

[SteveC]

I cut back effing bamboo.

We have been living in this house for sixteen and a half years. MrsC objected to the bamboo in our first summer here. I am still digging the wretched stuff up and cutting it back when I find it.
My next door neighbour dug a trench and lined it with slate to stop the bamboo appearing in his greenhouse.

[ElyDave]

Yesterday, mainly pruning of shrubberies including the tree hydrangea and fig tree, plus general tidying up of all the standing seed heads etc from the winter, picking up leaves and whatnot.  Pulled out as many brambles as possible.   Filled the green bin.

Decided to get rid of the grape vine as it is simply not consistent enough with the warmth we get.  Will relocate the lavenders below it to a sunny patch and turn that area into a herb bed as it's just outside the patio door.

Today started the indoor plantings, now in my office to propagate.
- 2 varieties of courgette
- cucumbers
- harlequin squash
- 2 varieties of chilli
- Brussels sprouts
- Some Gazanias and some yarrow for the flower beds

Will do a bit more clearing of the veggie patch as well this afternoon and see if I can get the parsnips in.

Need to get out and buy a few more packets of seeds as well.

[spindrift]

Bloke down the pub reckons you sow sunflowers indoor on St Patrick's Day. I planted some plug lobelia in a Belfast sink in a sheltered bit but if we get a frost it will probably do them in. £3 for 24 in Wilko.

[ElyDave]

parsnips did not go in.

I spread the compost from one of the heaps on the veggie beds and then the heavens opened, wind, hail, rain.

I beat a retreat and have been inside since

[Marmitegeoff]

A bit more digging and planted 1 row of garlic, and 3 rows of shallots.  A bit late but we will see what happens,  we have the plot just to the north of the boundary hedge, so I am not that hopeful.

[MikeFromLFE]

Nice and warm in the sun today down at The Plot. Even warmer after I'd done some digging, and some more digging.
Mrs M has almost finished cutting down the Autumn fruiting raspberry canes. We've had another good bunch of daffodils. The new redcurrant bushes on the second plot are starting to show some leaf growth which is heartening.
I've put some beetroot in - maybe a bit early, but I'm an optimist.
I'm trying some 'temporary-semi-raised-beds' this year - about six-eight inches depth of mixed composted-wood-chipping/old-grow-bag mixture/soil/old cow muck edged with planks - the beetroot have gone into one of these. It's the same arrangement that the garlic are successfully growing in (without the cow muck). The hope is that it will ease weeding, make harvesting easier, and add some roughage to the heavy clay base soil.
Oh, and a bit of a bonfire too.

[ElyDave]

Put the wild garlic in a pot prior to relocation
Direct sowing of parsnips and beetroot, after grubbing up last years chard which yielded up enough for a meal
Also indoor showings of some brassicas, tomatoes and cucumbers, and some early beans and peas in peat pots in the greenhouse
Indoor sowing of some pretty flowers selected by swmbo

My new office seems to be very good for propagation, the other cucumbers and some flowers are up after less than a week.

[ElyDave]

can't believe the effectiveness of an east facing but quite light office with the boiler in it as an incubator.

All my courgettes, squashes and cucumbers planted 10 days ago are through and romping away as are gazanias and yarrow.  Chillies which have always been slow are just peeking through.  The batch that are going great guns through are the cosmos that I sowed last Sunday and were germinating by Tuesday and are now up to 2" tall already