Topic: What did you do in the garden today?

[Biscombe]

Laid up with a humdinger of a cold feeling rotten! ache all over! just in time for the weekend eh!!
The cat's are happy though, they love ligging in bed with sick people!
Got loads to do in the garden too! Got to clear the tomatoes and put in 30 caulis, 60 leeks, lettuce, chard! dig beds......... :(

[cambourne7]

Hi All,

Not made it to the allotment yet will head over in an hour or two if i can move.

Been out since 11 went apple picking al la freecycle and been to a garden with 5 massive apple trees wow !!! Had a nice cup of tea and a tour of there huge garden and came home with a massive bag of bramleys and another bag of eaters all blemish free :) The wife of the couple gave me some jams and chutneys to try and is willing to let me have some recipies!!!

Drove 20 min from apple trees into town to return something and decided rather than a coffee i wanted some hot food. Got back in car and drove to the golden arches for there newly re-instated veggie delux and a crafty milkshake (not been there in months yum ) then drove 10 min down the road to sainsburys to pick up composters managed to blag 2 for free and picked up 2 t-shirts for £1.50 each!!  8)

Got stuck in traffic on the way home for an hour but i was listening to an audio book so not so bad and have just sat down with a mug of tea :)

Cambourne7

[tabbycat]

Am supposed to be having an ironing day tommorrow  :(, but if this weather keeps up, I'll be back down the plot!

It's amazing what a bit of body heat can do Tabby. ;D

That's a fair point Emaggie, but if I wore all the clothes that needed ironing down to the plot, I'd look like a Weeble  ;D

I was down at the plot again today, after re-folding my ironing pile to make it look smaller  ;) ( I know in my heart this will not fool my OH)

Dug over half of a bed and was prevented from digging the other bit by Leo, the tabby cat who lives in one the houses at the side of our site. He kept laying down where I was trying to dig and every time I bent down to weed he tried to climb on my lap - I gave up in the end and sat in the sun for a while with him.

Tabby

[cornykev]

Groomed mummies  ;D that did make me laugh.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[tabbycat]

Groomed mummies  ;D that did make me laugh.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Sorry ;D - blame a horsey childhood.

Some of the mums look like Thoroughbred racehorses - all shiny hair, nice teeth and clothes from Boden or Monsoon. I on the other hand, when in my lottie clobber, look like an Exmoor pony that has been out on the hill all winter!  ;D

Got two more beds edged and dug this morning and best of all, my OH and my girls came down too, and we all had a fantastic time.

Tabby

[cambourne7]

Well, i have just come back from the lotty. Managed to get with hubbies help all my new beds in and the one i was working on friday i managed to get finished and planted up with a loganberry plant and the surrounding space in the rest of the bed has 4 rows of garlic (2 bulbs) and 6 rows (1/2 a bag) of overwintering onion sets. So if the weather does get nasty i have at least got my garlic in. Phew!! Going to take photos tomorrow as i was gettting cold when i stopped and decided to call it a day.

So i now have 13 beds to dig out and fill and to dig out and fill the base of my greenhouse  :o

[Andy H]

Just sieved 6 wheelbarrow loads with my new tumbler. filled up 9ftx3ft of raisd beds.

[cambourne7]

I have just spent the last 2 hours pealing apples, over 18lbs worth before i have given up.

I have 1/2 soaking in booze and i have part cooked the other 1/2 plain with some suger. Just getting started on dinner and then i will cook the boozy apples :) So far i have enough apples for 8 apple pies  ;D

Still about 10lb plus of apples left to deal with  :o

And i have the rhubarb crumble for tomorrow to make  ::)

[Emagggie]

What booze, Cam? Sounding tasty. :P

[cambourne7]

HI

I am using Cognac, Calvados & Armagnac with golden caster suger and a blob of honey.

Cambourne7

[Lauren S]

I feel intoxicated just reading this.  ;D  ;D  ;D

[cambourne7]

you should have seen me 'Tasting' for flavour last night. Might explain why i got up at 11.30am!!

[cambourne7]

today managed 3 hours on the plot 2 more wheelbarrows of weeds into compost bin along with some comfry, and took home a large bag of beetroot, my last courgette and a couple of turnips as well as a bag with the last of my spuds.

Dug the last potato bed over added 2 bags of horse manure and then covered with cardboard so it will be ready for planting in febuary.

I think something has been sleeping on one of my bed as hes got an indentation, but the odd thing is that there is these white patches on the soil (looks like frost) not sure what it is but i am going to pick up some spent hops this week and add a dressing of hops to this bed which might deter whatever is doing this to the bed. I have my over wintering garlic and onions here and i dont think hops will affect them.

We have had more wood chips delivered so if its no raining tomorrow i am going to head back and move a couple more onto my plot :)

[Curryandchips]

Yesterday, I put in 55 cloves of elephant garlic, about 3 inches deep. Lost my dibber somewhere on the plot, so had to make the holes with an old stick, not quite the same !

Dug a bit more of the plot afterwards, and covered some already dug with composted weeds, to rot down over the winter.

[Andy H]

Built 2 more raised beds and filled with stuff from compost!

Got 12 now....

[Biscombe]

Sowed garlic, Japanese onions and some very late carots (had to sieve the soil for the carrots, took ages!) Loads of tidying up to do still!  :-\

[manicscousers]

transplanted Chinese leaves, various types, into poly borders, transplanted 12 winter density lettuce next to them, ray sieved compost and mulched up the rest of the beds, I covered them with cardboard
we dug a bean trench to fill for next year
picked leeks for tea  ;D

[Lauren S]

Arrived at the allotment at 8am, little chilly but dry. Moved tons of earth and hubby made two raised beds. Not easy on sloping ground. Lit a fire to burn more of the rubbish, very slow burning as the stuff got a bit wet over night. It's nearly all gone now though.
Got three pallets (all different sizes unfortunately) all delivered by the chap who brought the wood. They will be next week ends compost bins project.
Left there about 5.30. First to arrive, last to leave. Glad to get home and shower off all that grime. Both smelling like smokey BBQ  ;D
I very good day's work.
Off out later to watch our son perform with his band down town. The boys don't play *At Home* very often now so it will be a packed house.
*The Boys Are Back In Town*  8)

[calendula]

as a trial planted out loads of leek seedlings - pushing the boundaries out and just an experiment to see what happens, cloched half and left the other half to fend for themselves - picked a load of chicory witloof to force at home, dug in green manure and continued making trenches for all the kitchen peelings (better than manure  ;)) and picked masses of carrots for sunday lunch - good day in all before it started raining

[RosieMcPosie]

after my photoshoot got to the lottie at about 2, went thru all the top soil in the area for the new raised bed (8ftx4ft), put the new bed in. laid weed supressent on the path area and covered with bark chippings.
lit a fire to get rid of odd bits of wood, weeds etc. (middle brother likes a fire, it tempts him down there!) William dug out the raised area behind the shed ready to lay down slabs.
filled new bed with mixture of top soil- (after painstakingly removing all traces of grass root- grr), sharp sand, bagged compost and lime. covred our new 'high' bed with black plastic  to keep the weeds out over winter.

plan to try planting a few red cabbages and maybe beetroots seedlings through it which we had sown a few months ago and forgotten about! oops!