Topic: A good day

[Rosyred]

Just got back from the allotment and put in some more early potatoes and weeded round my broad beans, garlic and onions using my Mothers Day present a mini hoe (didn't use my new gloves though). Dug over another bed ready for veg. Got slightly wet as it was raining when I left. Its looking good and i'm well chuffed.

[grawrc]

That's how I feel too today despite the achey bones from yesterday's digging.  :'( :'( :-\ :-\ ;D ;D

[supersprout]

I'm staying with friends in Norfolk who allow me to play in their veg garden. Yesterday we built a new compost heap, weeded the beds, planted patooties, and discovered a pile of perfect leafmould to mulch the blackcurrants. This morning I was allowed to incinerate twiggy garden waste of two years, two old christmas trees, and uncomposted stuff from the old compost heap (11' x 8', just contained by rusty corrugated iron). Atop the old heap sat a 12" layer of wet sticky stuff mixed with dry meadow hay, now bagged up for runner beans and squash to grow in. Underneath was pure gold - around 60 cubic feet of GORGEOUS crumbly compost, ready to spread. I'd call that an idyllic day ;D

Sadly for the achey bones their house is a Work in Progress and they don't have a bath yet  :'( ;)

[Curryandchips]

Lovely to hear Supersprout, but sorry to hear of no soak afterwards. I hope the kitchen was fully operational though, as you had a good appetite no doubt.

I also had a good weekend, planting potatoes, parsnips and onions. The greenhouse is also filling with seedlings.

[grawrc]

I think parsnips are next on the list for me. Do you plant them among your onions like the carrots Curry?

[Chief]

Just to update everyone after getting my ten pole uncultivated bramble patch at the begining of the year I have managed to clear off all the top growth and build a shed.This week end I started the real pain and marked out an 18 x 4 foot bed and dug it over removing bramble & nettle roots as well as twitch.Then on Sunday planted up 26 toilet roll tubes with broad beans and 30 tubes of early peas.
I also ended up with aches in bones and muscles I had forgotten I had,but what a joy - don't you just love it when a plan comes together.

[kentishchloe]

Got to the plot for the first time in ages on weds: weeded & raked the whole plot, admired garlic, onions, daffs & tulips romping away and planted a double row of lillies and my first row of tatties (Rocket) Think I've finally banished the SAD - toms are all up, dahlia seedlings need transplanting, sweet peas looking good and loads of bedding plants under way. Just thinking about what to sow today....

[SMP1704]

Not just a good day, but a FANTASTIC day.  Spent all day at the plot, met more neighbours - one guy has had his plot for 36 years :o

Finally managed to plant -

Spinach - Hector - seedlings and direct sow
Peas - Feltham First - in loo rolls
Broad bean plants
Sowed a bed of carrots - 3 varieties - Amsterdam Forcing, Early Nantes and Maestro
and Gladiator parsnips in their own individually tailored parsnip pits, fashioned using my own parship planter design - a 1"x1" pole pushed down about 8" and then rotated and waggled about a bit ;D
and a little rown of Little Gems to fill in the gaps

If it doesn't rain on Friday, I'll be back to the diggin' and weedin'

[supersprout]

Sounds like an ideal day, lots of sowing and planting AND communing with the neighbours (very important, that!) Hope the parsnip planter does its stuff ;)

[SMP1704]

Always important to stay in with the neighbours, this old chap was telling me how lovely the blackberries on my plot are - he picked 30 lbs of them last summer :o :o

I've planned for losses to birds and marauding kids but elderly neighbours  ;D

[supersprout]

Because of the wind, we decided it would be good to Finish the Greenhouse instead of building a shed. SS & son headed for the plot about noon for the first time in ten days.

As we opened the gates, we saw the sad sight of our newly built greenhouse tilted at a drunken angle with several panes missing :o Close up, it was clear the wind had given it a real shaking - five panes smashed, some roof panes sliding out, nuts and bolts scattered on the ground, one corner dislocated, and the whole thing shifted off its foundations on the skew. It was actually shuddering and twisting in the wind. We both took a Moment   ??? :'( :-[ :-X

BUT ... big BUT ... SOMEONE had taken lengths of rope and lashed down the building to iron posts, inserted props inside and outside, removed some panes of glass and stacked them at the side of the plot, and obviously done their best to save the structure. Which they had :D. In spite of the wind, and the unfinished state we'd left the greenhouse in, the damage was limited to five broken panes of glass. Along came lottie neighbour Percy, and it turned out 'twas he and Tony the lottie supremo who together had spent an hour toiling around the greenhouse to save it on Tuesday afternoon.

Son repaired dislocated structure, lottie neighbour put more props in, the greenhouse stopped quaking, and we all stood proudly round in the gusts to admire the result. Once the wind dies down, son will shift the greenhouse back onto its foundations, screw down the structure to the foundations, put in the missing panes and attack them with the sealing gun.

Always important to stay in with the neighbours

I feel we had a LOT to be grateful for today. Nasty old wind >:( Three cheers for vigilant and selfless lottie neighbours ;D ;D ;D

Now, what can I do to thank them properly? ::)

[lorna]

How nice to have lottie neighbours like you have.Glad the damage was not too horrific.
Best wishes Lorna

[grawrc]

Last time I went to my lottie I found someone had left a bag full of gardening books in my greenhouse. Awww