What have you done in the garden today?

Chilli Head they sound wonderful! I have only just planted some of mine....

You're on then - for both interesting tomatoes and a plant swap. (My tomato varieties are all very sensible ones - I could do with some excitement!)

Its a deal!

Todai I scrubbed out the Broody ark clean ( put it inside the polytunnel, so stayed dry doing so....) and finished the tidy up in the PT so all systems are ready to go. Got the heated propogators out, checked them over and filled up LOTS of seed modules. Will have a mammoth seed session at the weekend I think!

Also sorted out all my seeds..!!

Added some dry stuff to the compost bin & gave it a turn over.
Put broad beans, peas & dwarf beans to sprout
Pol

Worked in a lot more compost into new raised bed,
transplanted garlic that I started in December in greenhouse into raised bed
(I havent seen that much root on garlics before!!!)
planted 1 x row of last years white & red onion sets
(they have 2 choices & a time limit of 1 month)
moved glass panel onto bottom (deep end) end of raised bed next to other one to start warming
(ha, ha) soil
sprinkled some butterfly & bee flower mix near pond...

Squelched through the mire to feed and water the hens.
Took away some old pea netting.
Wondered when the soil would be workable

At last a weekend with at least a bit of decent weather ! Spread some compost around the fruit trees and asparagus bed, and started building a cold frame for the lotty out of scrap wood and some plastic sheeting left over from a roofing job. Hopefully I'll get some better cucumbers this year. Might even beat the muntjac to eat them

Well - On Saturday Mr C finally assembled my raised bed and filled it with compost. Now down to me to start growing things in it! For the time being though it's just covered in fleecy stuff to try and not let it get too cold whilst there's still such an overnight frost. I figure that even in my state I should be able to start some seeds off in the propagator.

Has been great out there today though wandering round and looking at all the bulbs that are starting to make themselves known in the garden.

Mrs C

Sort of. Well definitely garden related.

Dug about 10 meters of path from the kitchen door to the "carriage shed" as although this building was designed for passage between under roof cover (a "two holer" on the far side of the carriage shed) we have that passageway used for storage and so blocked off. The last meter or so dug at the risk of life and limb under a large serac*. It actually fell while I was out there but fortunately not while I was underneath.

So we can now get to our planting trays/cells, our plating mix, old compost in barrels (you'd say "bins") and of course the large trash can ("bin") with the bird seed supply so we can now refill the smaller one we keep indoors.

Then I dug from the trampled path to the summer lkitchen (bird feeder hangs there) over to try to find and excavate two small raised beds. Actually two very large flower boxes we use that way. I managed to find them and have them dug out to the level of their tops. I know not going to be easy for you to picture but that involved removing about 1/2 meter and still that's maybe 20-30 cms above ground level (the bottom of these boxes resting on the ground). At this depth the old snow is hard pack; you can walk on it without sinking in.


* Forgive this use of a mountaineering term but that's an apt description for the long curls of massive snow/ice that often hang extending out from the roofs as the snow/ice flows under weight. Can remain there days over half a meter beyond being supported by the roof before breaking off with a massive thud.

A successful afternoon, large planter emptied, turned around to fit new space refilled & blackcurrant bush & raspberry cane moved from greenhouse & planted in as they had started sprouting.

A few more bits of wood put onto raised bed...

Fed compost bin with "greens" & shredded paper

Removed cats stuff

Then into greenhouse...

First seeds of the year planted! Only some herbs for the kitchen windowsill (parsley, coriander and basil) from a nice set with pots that I was bought for Christmas, but it's a start!

Mrs C

Way to go Mrs C

First seeds planted. Well of course not out in the graden but in a tray that will spend the next month or two on a rack by a window. Well not two months as all of these are cold hardy members of the allium clan. Lots of cells of keeping onions, a few smaller cells of an early "non-keeper*" that we are trying and that we can replant August to see if we can overwinter here, and leeks of the fat sort, a variety supposedly very winter hardy that we may be able to overwinter some of. We haven't been doing leeks but are giving it a try with an ultra hardy variety. Will dig most in the Fall, use some, pot some up and stick in cellar, and leave some to see if they will be usable in the Spring.

* Not as bad as that -- should be OK for several months. But when we say "keepr" onions we mean varieties like from the "Copra" family you can have stay good till the next year's crop comes in.

I broke up the soil in my new raised bed - the soil has come from a loam pile which I made a few years ago, so the grass has rotted down, but it is a bit lumpy. It was good therapy after a near miss in the car on the way home from work - an OAP forgot to stop at a junction and nearly caused a nasty accident. Put the adrenaline to good use..... :bounce:

Planted out some garlic which I couldn't get outside during all the snow. It may not come to anything ( it is a bit late) but I might as well put it in the ground!

It's worth a try, as everything else is so late this year

It really is finally all happening in the less northerly bits of the UK, isn't it?

I know Stonehead and those up north in Scotland still have a load of snow on the ground though.

Finally spent some time outside this morning and have made a start on my grow your own plans!

Only small steps (bearing in mind my "condition") but feeling really pleased with myself!

This morning I have:
Planted in the raised bed one of these "garden in a box things" that I was bought as a gift that supposedly contains a mix of veg. I don't believe it will work as everything was all mixed up inside when I got it, but we'll wait and see,
Also planned the first of my onions in little pots that are now on the kitchen window sill.
And filled my propagator with tomato seeds.

Sadly I need to leave most of the work in the raised bed until Mr C's here to help with digging and bending, but feeling rather pleased with myself. Just need to buy more seed trays and/or small pots as I've now filled all the ones I've got!

Mrs C

Oh - and the Basil seeds that I planted last week have already started to sprout!

Mrs C

I made a 2 x 3 m raised bed and filled it with soil half full...tomorrow ( if I am well enough) I shall be barrowing compost into it

Also planted loads of seeds (assorted herbs, kale, parsnips in tubes, peas in drain pipe, some benificial flower seeds )

and finished washing all the pots and trays

Compostman pruned fruit trees, dug some more veg patch over, put in some wooden edging strip and generally did stuff...

I take it you're feeling better then CW!

It's so lovely just to be able to spend time outside in the garden. It's like having a room that I've not been able to use for the last few months and suddenly I'm allowed back into it!

Mrs C

Well, it was a fix together easily recycled plastic sort of bed, but it did need filling with soil and compost

I think you could say I feel a bit better , now

It is sited in the corner of the veg patch, and will be for parsnips and carrots etc, as our parsnips have been getting stuck in the clay soil underlying the improved soil, so I decided to raise the surface up by 25 cm or so...

Also it will be easier to keep of the carrot fly with mesh in a raised bed.

MrsC wrote:Oh - and the Basil seeds that I planted last week have already started to sprout!

Mrs C

I could never get on with the basil...