Allotments 4 All

Transplanted my big tomatoes and peppers, helichrysum and nicotiana and lots of different herb cuttings for the plant sale, tied up the ,now huge, sweet peas and moved some things outside to give me a bit more room in the poly  ;D

Painting wood for more raised beds, double digging, BBQ ;D, digging in manure and weeding.....long hard day, aching all over but very satisfying, the previously abandonded plot is slowly coming back to life :)

Planted my potatoes ;D but didn't get much else done due to the appalling weather, tomorrow is set to be even worse :'( Garden centres here we come ;D

Had a good few days at the lottie on Sat and Sun.. I double dug over the area where my currants are going 3mt x 5.. pulled out / collected about 2 wheelie bins of bad perennial weed roots and couch.. then found out the 2 black currant bushes promised by a neighbour turned out to be brambles... "but they do have black fruit he said!!"  :P

Moved all the spare flagstones off the proposed tomato bed and gave away to a plot  neighbour all the broken flags I've collected and dug up recently. He used them to make a floor for his shed. 

Replaced my small lean to roof shelter with a stronger version which is over my doorway on my shed which was too weak and got ripped off by the wind the other night!!  It protects me from the hot sun and rain when I sit under it to have a brew... It also directs rain water into the shed gutters..

Made a roof over the IBC area to catch more rain water.. I can now catch 60 gallons (270 LT) of rain from a 1" rain shower.. !! I now collect from the shed, GH, Cold frame and now the IBC roof.. How cool is that! 

Planted a double line of peas (mange toute and some freebies from BirdsEye) in guttering in my GH as I have not dug their patch yet..

Sowed my gemsquash, courgettes, butternut and hubbards in my spare bedroom.

Manured most of the rest of the plot ready for digging in asap and collected and stockpiled more freebie manure we get delivered to site ready for the final parts to get dug.. Hope it dries up soon so I can dig, dig, dig!! I should be ready in time as I plan to plant out all my courgettes, sweetcorn, peas, cabbage and beans in mid May... I assume this will be the right time..  so 5 weeks to double dig 12 mt x 5... I'm double digging the whole plot as it was in a really baaaaaaaaad state.. Oh and I need to ridge up my spuds before they show through.!!

Only managed a couple of hours after tea due the rain. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Worked a 2/3 of a shift last night so 10pm to 4am so when i got up looked out the window and seen the wind and rain i decided  i was just 2 tired to do any of my jobs.

Sneeked out later and moved my plants up so they got more of the daytime sun and poured a lot of the water out of the various plant trays into the ground so plants had were not so water logged (over an inch in most of them).

I am going to plant up my 2nd propagator up with peat plugs tomorrow so going to sit down with my seed list and work out what next to plant :) IF (big IF) its at all dry tomorrow for 20-30 min i will get some weeding done.

-carried on clearing the lottie my daughter-in-law has just become a partner on-she's busy with house renovations so am tackling it for her.  To be honest, it's the part I like best- I love taming the wilderness and seeing nice tidy soil emerge.  It took two hours to dig out about 1 square yard- nettles, old raspberry canes and brambles, plus the usual couch grass-oh, and old metal mesh and posts buried in the roots-lovely!

Nothing on the lottie for a week, I'll be over there this week, as the rest of the family are going up to Hartlepool today.     :)

Checked my plants outside and looks like another inch or so has fallen over night have emptied the trays again while its try although its very dark sky out.

Checked propagator and the poppy seeds have all germinated :) no sign of anything else though.

Planted up the 5 giant fuchsias which arrived a few days ago and left them to soak up some of the rain water and my daughter bought me (by sneeking into the trolley) 2 bleeding heart plants in the supermarket to her credit i do love them and have been looking for some and they were in the sale so only £2.99 for the 2 again these were left to soak up some rain water and have been planted up into larger pots so as to accommodate the size of the well looks like a dry twig but i am sure something will happen :)

I have (with the advice of ninnypoop/downtoearth) been though my seed box and now got a large bag of seeds to crack on with. Tonight i need to get the propagator sorted and tomatoes, chillis and peppers planted. I know i am a bit late but i am going to raise the chillis indoors to extend there growing season. Also got a nice list of things i need in the garden centre when i am paid :)

Transplanted tomatoes and filderkraut cabbage. Got everything watered to last a few days, off to York on thursday until sunday for a break  ;D

Planted a short row of Stokesley Peas sent to me by a plotty friend.. I'm doing these at home so I can collect seed (and eat some!!) without them cross polinating at the plot..

Also found a kids swing being binned at the side of the road so i knocked on and asked if I could have it for my beans!! - it's now at the plot..

Planted my last two Kestrel in a black bin
Earthed up and sheltered Challenge spuds
Earthed up a few later planted RDOY that are showing their heads
Weeded
Watered Rhubarb
;D

Another trip to the tip with rubbish left by the previous tennant, finally emptied compost heap 1 and topped up 2 beds with it, far too wet to dig the new beds so made do with a couple of brews in the shed instead ;D

In peat pots now have
pomodoro cuore do blue
marmalade extra
pantano romanesco
plum San marzano
plum fryer
egg plant
pepper mini mixed
pepper bullhorn
chilli Anaheim
chilli chololte haranaero
chilli bolivian rainbow

2 more trays to fill :) that's my job tomorrow :)

Nowt....Had my daughter today and the weather was unpredictable so we shopped then she hogged the tv remote  ::)

Will make up for it in the week though,few things need hardening off and a large bed needs fine digging  :)

Potted on about 200 Marigold seedlings in my Gh to plant on my potato ridges to try to chase them pesky slugs.. worth a try as I believe our site does have a slug problem..

Just got back from lotty,we got rained off :(OH put in two lrg posts for our new tayberrys,I planted leeks and some flowers around my new mini pond (bucket size)  ;D hoed about the place then the rain started OH through in the shovel ;D it was a bit heavy saved me watering  :).

Checked and opened the greenhouses, checked the mouse traps...  :-X

Quote from: gavinjconway on April 11, 2012, 13:56:39
Potted on about 200 Marigold seedlings in my Gh to plant on my potato ridges to try to chase them pesky slugs.. worth a try as I believe our site does have a slug problem..

Gavin you sure you got that right about marigold and slugs. you may find that slugs are very much atracted to marigolds or is the idea the slugs feed off the marigolds and leave the spuds alone

Put compost on  the salad  tatter lanes to build em up a tad.

Sowed another container with parsnips and another with carrots.

Sowed some Cues,Gherkins and bubble wrapped em in the polly.

replaced 6 panes of glass in me GH,dunno if its kids off school or wind damage but pished off either way.

sowed another 50 detroit beets.

gave me salads a sprinkle in the polly,nearly ready for a snack from em soon.

done enough,just home to get dinner ready for Mum Jude and I..... :)

Gazza