Author Topic: What have you done on the plot today?  (Read 248312 times)

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #75 on: 03 August, 2008, 08:11:06 pm »
Dug a bit more ground out and planted Natasha endive, April cabbage and Munchen Bier radishes (funny name for a girl).  Went to Wickes and got a Quiet shredder - should have been £119 but for some reason it scanned as the Impact one which is only £85!  :thumbsup:  Hope this won't invalidate the guarantee if it goes wrong.

Then harvested the first of my compost after 2 years or so, it looks great.  Shredded about a third of the loose clippings around my garden and completely filled the bin up again - going for a 'hot' heap where it heats up quickly and you keep turning it till it stops heating up.  Pissed on it.

I also called in a horsey place this afternoon and they said I could take as much of the manure as I wanted any time.  However with this new pesticide that has certain "side effects" and I think has now been banned don't know if it's a good idea to use it.

I also got some chicory seeds, something else I like a lot and pay a small fortune for in Waitrose, and some Japanese onion seeds which are sown around now and harvested next summer.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #76 on: 03 August, 2008, 10:13:47 pm »
Nothing. Had a quick look. It's been raining on and off all day. Running out of potatoes and onions so I'll have to go back in the next couple of days.

I did eat some of my runner beans and potatoes with a tuna steak. Nice.

Kale's looking good. Nice yellow courgettes this season.

Grass and weeds going wild, need a good long session with the shears soon.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
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Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #77 on: 06 August, 2008, 06:01:26 pm »
Harvested the last of the broad beans and composted the plants. Dug over the bed and sowed two rows of Early Nantes carrot.

Harvested the last (and first!) of our first attempt at Early Nantes carrot. Harvested the first of the French beans.

I also piddled on the compost heap and noted the reappearance of brandlings!  :thumbsup:
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #78 on: 09 August, 2008, 10:17:33 pm »
Harvested some kale before the caterpillars do it for me.  Added this to the courgette soup and served with home made bread rolls for lunch.  I think I got all the caterpillars off first though..

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
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Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #79 on: 11 August, 2008, 03:47:49 pm »
I think I got all the caterpillars off first though..

But they are only another form of kale, surely?
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #80 on: 19 August, 2008, 07:43:20 pm »
I just harvested 1lb of French beans.

This is my best crop this year, although the small number of runners on the tipi are improving. However, the French bean plants are being eaten, I think by very small slugs. A couple of plants at one end of the row, next to an ancient brick wall, are badly affected.

I've also exterminated lots of snails.
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #81 on: 19 August, 2008, 10:03:13 pm »
I cut my first courgette tonight.  The sap was glistening on the stem after the blade slipped through and within half an hour it was being added to the pot.  I saved the last piece to eat raw and it was so delicious I swiped about 3 more out to eat them raw too.  I'd like to stuff my face with the things and feel juiced out for the foreseeable future till some more had grown.

Si

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #82 on: 21 August, 2008, 08:58:53 am »
tsk, turn your back for a couple of days and what happens?  championship sized marrows everywhere!

I could stuff 'em or make soup, but they are so big that I can only carry one home at a time.

Turnips have come up well, nice white golf ball sized ones, but I think that I have planted them a little too close to the kohl rabbie as it seems a little thin.  So, what can you do with a sack of turnips?

Beetroot - think I've over done that too.  Spent the other evening pickling.  The fugg has now left the kitchen and the house doesn't smell too much. Problem is that I've used all my jars and still have 3/4s of the crop left  :-\

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #83 on: 21 August, 2008, 12:43:24 pm »


Beetroot - think I've over done that too.  Spent the other evening pickling.  The fugg has now left the kitchen and the house doesn't smell too much. Problem is that I've used all my jars and still have 3/4s of the crop left  :-\

If you cut the foliage off 2 inch from the bulb then pack in sand or peat in layers and cover so completely dark they will store without rotting

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #84 on: 25 August, 2008, 08:57:18 pm »
Picked some more French beans.
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #85 on: 25 August, 2008, 09:42:12 pm »
Ive eventually started digging up the lawn to have a veggie patch now what to plant to grow for autumn?

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #86 on: 31 August, 2008, 07:34:34 pm »
Converted about half a huge heap of cleared weeds and overgrowth into two bags of chopped up mulch.  Of course, checking the calendar, I realised that Garden waste is picked up every two weeks, and the pickup was last Friday. >:(

I shall have to see where the local recycling centre is, and trailer them around on the back of the bike.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Si

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #87 on: 31 August, 2008, 08:12:54 pm »
You are not composting it?  I find that given time in a black composter, in the sun, even couch grass, docks, dandelions, etc all melt down in the end.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #88 on: 31 August, 2008, 08:21:43 pm »
There's rather a lot to compost, and I don't really have anything to do with it once it's been composted, most of the garden is gravel (with varying amounts of weeds!)

At least if I take it to the recycling centre it'll be useful.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Si

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #89 on: 31 August, 2008, 08:47:32 pm »
You have to do something with compost?  Based on the many books and forum discusions I thought we just composted for the art of it!   ;D

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #90 on: 31 August, 2008, 09:57:40 pm »
See my previous post about Natasha endives etc - well none of them came up apart from the radishes.  This is uniformly common sowing straight into the ground, something must be eating them.  I sowed exactly the same seeds into a seed tray a fortnight ago and pricked them out today - 20 lettuces, 6 chicories, 8 endives and 9 cabbages, plus some spares in case any fail / get eaten.

This is in addition to landscaping a pond I've dug - only a small one but I'm fascinated by all the plants you can get for it, plan to turf over the liner which I've already cut holes through, make a rockery / heather area at the back and marginals for the front, maybe some bulbs too for next Spring.  I also have a small sandstone trough left in the garden for a water feature and bog plants.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
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Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #91 on: 02 September, 2008, 05:21:57 pm »
I just picked a good bunch of runner beans, killed a load of snails and Mrs Wow and I shared the first walnut of the year.
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Si

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #92 on: 15 September, 2008, 07:34:19 pm »
Ye gads, you go away for a couple of weeks and when you come back it's all weeds and marrows  :-\

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #93 on: 20 September, 2008, 09:40:49 pm »
Weeds and Marrows. If I could live on weeds and marrows..

I haven't done anything on the plot today. I went out for a ride because it was warm'n'sunny. Good it was too, except some knobber in a car managed to hit me with a part-filled bottle of coke.

Ms. P and her friend went tho' and came back with carrots! we have never been able to grow a decent carrot but these looked great- big and straight. Just stuck the seeds in the ground real late, didn't cover them and didn't thin them either (sown thinner than usual tho').

Had a meal today consisting almost entirely of stuff from the allotment (except for flour, butter and eggs). Dessert too- from blackberries and dropped apples from next door's overhanging tree.

Kale has recovered somewhat from caterpillar attack, sweetcorn still not quite ready.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #94 on: 20 September, 2008, 10:04:52 pm »
Dug potatoes today. Much better crop than last year. Took one bag home in the trailer at lunch time and took the bigger trailer after lunch to bring 4 more bags home.

Had risotto at lunch time with carrot, onion, pepper, baby sweetcorn and aubergine from the allotment.  :D

Any ideas what to do with the multitude of chilli peppers that are ripening at the moment?
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

RogerT

  • Playing with a big steamy thing
Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #95 on: 21 September, 2008, 08:21:14 am »

Any ideas what to do with the multitude of chilli peppers that are ripening at the moment?

Dry them and store in a kilnerjar to use for cooking..but.. caution..they get even hotter once dried.  ( found out the hard way )

rae

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #96 on: 21 September, 2008, 10:40:52 pm »
Dug a 6 foot wide bed that was 40 feet long.  OK, it wasn't all today, I did a bit of it last week-end.  It is now sown with red clover as a weed cover and nitrogen fixer, all to be rotovated in some time in April.   

I'm knackered. 

If I am to restore the veg patch to its former glory (currently it is effectively a bramble patch), then I have to dig 7 more of those beds.   The next bed will be too late for clover before winter, so I'll dig it, then rotovate in a tonne of horse poop. 

I might give in and hit the paths with grazon - or maybe repeated flymoing will do the job. 

Harvested a load of marrows and sweet corn from the bit of the patch that was still cultivated.   Harvested a load of apples.

Fixed the cutter deck on the lawn mower: if someone from Countax is reading this: "I would like to shove the blade belt engagement mechanism up your arse".   A more awful piece of engineering is hard to imagine.   Anyway, with new bearings, it cuts perfectly.  Now I have to weld up the grass collector so that it sits at the right angle. 

I also pulled the rear tub off the Series III as it failed the MOT - more welding.   This is a vital piece of kit because I can then get the sankey trailer out and fill that with weeds, rather than taking the poxy wheelbarrow to the heap every 10 minutes.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #97 on: 27 September, 2008, 05:58:27 pm »
I had to go get some secateurs from the allotment shed today (going to help create a cyclocross course tomorrow).

Haven't been for a week and.. not too bad! the weeds aren't growing as fast now. Cut the grass with my hand shears (don't do that very often) and then just sat down, drank coffee, looked around and enjoyed it for a bit.

Got some potatoes, kale, strawberries. The pumpkin was too big, I'll have to go back with the trailer.

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #98 on: 27 September, 2008, 07:28:36 pm »
.... The pumpkin was too big, I'll have to go back with the trailer.

Nah, you just need a Fairy Godmother with a wand, then you can just tow the carriage back (sans Cinderella et al). ;D
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Re: What have you done on the plot today?
« Reply #99 on: 29 September, 2008, 06:10:15 pm »
Took the boys, two of their friends and Mrs HH down there on sunday. I had carefully planned some activities for the children, planting, watering etc, but the best bit by far was the enormous mud pie that they made.

For the first time in three years, the digging is almost on schedule.
Stropping rocks