What have you done in the garden today?

Had to water all my pots today, everything is very dry & me broad beans were begining to droop.

Chilli-head wrote:

Dandelion wrote:Have you tried comfrey tea for tomatoes etc - smelly but free!!

I have. My god did it stink. Even repeated washings could not get the smell off my hands. Mind you, I did make it in a barrel that had previously been used to store pig slurrey samples !

Even without the pig slurry it was erm ...'fragrant'!! Maybe that's one reason why the house next door took so long to sell?

I have just spread 28 barrow loads ( 9 cu yards) of composted horse manure on our veg patch.

I can't compete with 28 barrowloads - I just moved one compost heap into the wooden crate I use to finish it off. It's not perfect yet, but in a compost emergency could be sieved to produce some useable stuff. I'm hardening off veg in modules to plant out (kohl rabi, beetroot, lettuce) and am taking the little tomato plants out for some fresh air even though it's a bit early. It seems a shame to waste the warm weather, and it's better than them stretching and getting all lanky inside. (When I say I'm taking them out, I don't mean they're having a ride round the block in my car - that would be silly.)

Phil D wrote:I have just spread 28 barrow loads ( 9 cu yards) of composted horse manure on our veg patch.

Dandelion wrote: I'm hardening off veg in modules to plant out (kohl rabi, beetroot, lettuce) and am taking the little tomato plants out for some fresh air even though it's a bit early. It seems a shame to waste the warm weather, and it's better than them stretching and getting all lanky inside. (When I say I'm taking them out, I don't mean they're having a ride round the block in my car - that would be silly.)

Erm why, exactly? My lot get to go on outings to Hereford and to Ledbury in the car, and then come home for a cool shower and a drink! *1

Some*2 people say I love my plants too much...my response is

you can never love them too much!

*1 This really happened on Thursday last week.
*2 Compostgirl and Compostman, for two

Dandelion wrote:I can't compete with 28 barrowloads - I just moved one compost heap into the wooden crate I use to finish it off. It's not perfect yet, but in a compost emergency could be sieved to produce some useable stuff. I'm hardening off veg in modules to plant out (kohl rabi, beetroot, lettuce) and am taking the little tomato plants out for some fresh air even though it's a bit early. It seems a shame to waste the warm weather, and it's better than them stretching and getting all lanky inside. (When I say I'm taking them out, I don't mean they're having a ride round the block in my car - that would be silly.)

28 barrow loads has not even dented our compost heap, I have another 1000 sq ft to amend yet, I think I will use the tractor for that job tho!

So presumably you keep horses.....???

Lots of clearing up & pot moving today, with a bit of pruning & pulling up.

Dandelion wrote:So presumably you keep horses.....???

Yes we have 2 horses.

Mr JG has just planted the rhubarb plant we bought less than an hour ago!

I've sown 5 cucumber seeds. Miss JG has sown some more mange tout.

We only have a very small garden.

We do think we can squeeze in raspberries and one blackcurrant and one gooseberry bush next to the apple tree though.

Jaded Green wrote:

We only have a very small garden.

There's a good BBC Gardeners' World book called '101 ideas for veg from small spaces' - I sent it to my cousin who is gardening in a small space in S. London. It has some very ingenious ideas for squeezing more edible plants into a limited space. (I'm sure you'll get the extra fruit in. We always do.....)

Dandelion wrote:

Jaded Green wrote:

We only have a very small garden.

There's a good BBC Gardeners' World book called '101 ideas for veg from small spaces' - I sent it to my cousin who is gardening in a small space in S. London. It has some very ingenious ideas for squeezing more edible plants into a limited space. (I'm sure you'll get the extra fruit in. We always do.....)

Thank you. We're certainly going to try to pack in as much as we can. I'll look out for the book

Phil D wrote:

Dandelion wrote:I can't compete with 28 barrowloads - I just moved one compost heap into the wooden crate I use to finish it off. It's not perfect yet, but in a compost emergency could be sieved to produce some useable stuff. I'm hardening off veg in modules to plant out (kohl rabi, beetroot, lettuce) and am taking the little tomato plants out for some fresh air even though it's a bit early. It seems a shame to waste the warm weather, and it's better than them stretching and getting all lanky inside. (When I say I'm taking them out, I don't mean they're having a ride round the block in my car - that would be silly.)

28 barrow loads has not even dented our compost heap, I have another 1000 sq ft to amend yet, I think I will use the tractor for that job tho!

I will correct this, it is a 1000 sq yards, not a 1000 sq ft. 1

My broad beans are full of flower now
Fighting the pidgeons for the peas which have lovely pods on
All the onions & shallots are stood up straight & tall
lettuce coming through as are toms, gerkins carrots & beetroot, so well pleased.

I did a lot for 50 other people's gardens!

I spent today Master Gardener-ing and helping lots of people to GROW MORE VEG!!

Lots of pots of seeds planted and taken away and lots of advice given and plants distributed.

Really good to help people get growing their veg.

Turned a compost heap. Done yet more weeding. Looked in dismay at the space where a row of peas should be. Don't understand why they are so hard to grow at the lotty; just seem to vanish, no signs of disturbance

Could it be lack of moisture, CH? Either that or them there mice, lil varmints...

My beetroot were terribly slow to germinate, in fact they didn't til I watered daily. They're another very dried husky type... good luck!

I soak my beetroot seeds for a couple of days, & they seem to come up much quicker & a better germination rate as well.

Here's a mystery - I sowed runner bean seeds in root trainers last month, red (Best of All) and white (White Lady). The red germinated well (100%) but the white was less than 50%. I have potted up the red, and today potted up the measly, much smaller white plants. On the roots, and in the compost I found eggs - about 3mm long and a dull ochre colour, rounded at one end and pointed at the other. Some of the eggs had hatched into transparent grubs. I've got the chickens involved in despatching the grubs; the eggs I've sluiced off and planted the beans into clean compost. I've grown runners for over 20 years and have never seen these little beasts before. Any ideas? And how did they get there??

Planted a gooseberry, blackcurrant and raspberry, six strawberry plants and two lettuces.

Got rather cold as it is so windy and we weren't in the sun.

Miss JG has bought a kiwi fruit tree and made a nice trellis for it out of bamboo sticks and garden twine - using her Girl Guide skills

polgara wrote:I soak my beetroot seeds for a couple of days, & they seem to come up much quicker & a better germination rate as well.

Geoff Hamilton reckoned that you should wash beetroot seed in a kitchen sieve to remove something that suppresses germination. So, you are probably doing the right thing (IMHO you can't do too much wrong by doing as Geoff did )


Investigated the peas; believe it or not they had rotted, despite the dry weather ! I've put in a long row of Waverex as a replacement - it is a family favourite petit pois type and freezes very well.

It's all prep work this week. Finished the decorative garden last weekend. Right on at half tonne of cypress mulch laid on, as well as 45 m of double layer landscape timber layed in to keep it there. Triple layer at one edge where the street side barrier has settled badly into the abyss. I do love my old historic brick lane, but it needs worked on, honestly. Took a couple of weekends, but it's finished. SIL who DW hadn't seen in person in years (just FB recently) just showed up on the door step while we were knee deep in mulch as well, but that's another story.

Clearing out back lot where the dogs run. Winterlong without scooping leaves a lot of 'stuff' to pick up. Also, there is something of a broadleaf with a hefty tap root that grows well on it, so not all bad... I think. This is also the area where I'll be putting a ~11 m run of wooden privacy fence this weekend, so trying to make sure the work site is adequately clear of obstruction. And land mines... Materials purchased, utility surveyors called out, city permit purchased, now just need the time.

Also done the first rubbish picking, raking, stick picking, mowing, and raking again of the front yard. Will run edger by walkway next weekend, I think. All done by people power, as the gas mower needs carb work. Love my reel mower, but wasn't sure if it would cut it on the first mow of season. You know how things are patchy and taller here, shorter there as they wake up in their own time (micro climates, and all). But, after a few passes, it worked a charm. Had youngest son L 'helping' as well. He's very light for a 6 year old, so he needed me to provide the momentum (not so light for a mid 30's, lol) while he steered. Somehow when it came time to rake up, he was dreadfully busy doing something else though, lol.

I've collected a mass of browns and greens in the process too. I figure I've filled the 120 l wheeled bin at least 8 times in all. Still not done yet, mind you. There will be massive compost riddling and new bin starting in my future.

I've collected a mass of browns and greens in the process too. I figure I've filled the 120 l wheeled bin at least 8 times in all. Still not done yet, mind you. There will be massive compost riddling and new bin starting in my future.

I've checked my 8ft bean poles and replaced a couple - I'm planning to get at least some of my runner beans planted out this weekend. They have been on the windowsill by day and on my desk at night - I noticed mid week that one bean was so long it had started to twine around the desk lamp overnight! They're hardening off in the garden at the moment - I'll just have to cover them with fleece if we get a cold night, clothes-pegging it to the cane.

Dandelion wrote:I've checked my 8ft bean poles and replaced a couple - I'm planning to get at least some of my runner beans planted out this weekend. They have been on the windowsill by day and on my desk at night - I noticed mid week that one bean was so long it had started to twine around the desk lamp overnight! They're hardening off in the garden at the moment - I'll just have to cover them with fleece if we get a cold night, clothes-pegging it to the cane.

If you need any more poles come and get some coppice hazel - we always use our own and can spare a few for you.

It was National Bean Pole Week, last week!