|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 4, 2019 20:55:53 GMT
And here is the basket of veg
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 5, 2019 20:55:05 GMT
It looked like rain today but it managed to stay fine. I went on the allotment this afternoon. I had cut all the spray chrysanths that were any good yesterday for the harvest. The few that were left were no good,spoiled by the rain.I had cut some of the plants down before but this afternoon I cut all the rest down to about 6 inches. Untied all the labels from the top of the canes and tied them onto the stools so they are now ready for boxing up. I took all the canes home .Most of the gladioli had finished . I didn't dig the corms up but I removed the canes and took them home. Another job I did was to get rid of a row of radishes that had got too big. They should have been used a few weeks ago.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 6, 2019 21:57:49 GMT
A bit showery first thing but dry rest of day. Went to the allotment this afternoon. Planted the winter onion sets (got them from the hut)I plant them on the brassica bed in spaces where cabbages have been removed.Raked some growmore in first and planted them 6 inches apart. I plant them here because next year this bed will be the root crop bed which doesn't get manured. I wouldn't be able to manure a bed if it had onion sets in ,would I? My compost area has three equal sized bays. One bay contains fresh green material which is being added regularly . The next bay contains older material which should be ready for using this winter. Today I turned this material into the next bay which was empty . This aerates it which helps it to decompose. I always keep one bay empty for this purpose. The empty bay had weeds growing in it so I had to get rid of these first.
|
|
|
Post by lesley on Oct 7, 2019 7:49:26 GMT
Basket looks beautiful Derek
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 7, 2019 21:46:03 GMT
Thanks, Leslie A bit showery again this morning but dry later. No gardening today though .Been at Blackleach all day mostly carrying on with my writing. I am there again in the morning and I will take my computer because I have another month of seasonal jobs ready for typing and I have more time to do it there than when I am at home. After cutting the chrysanths for the harvest I still have some left so I decided we will have some in the house. automatic dice
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 8, 2019 19:39:56 GMT
After Blackleach this morning and shopping this afternoon I went on the allotment. I dug up all the spray chrysanth stools and brought them home. Will probably box them up tomorrow. I also put all the courgette plants on the compost heap because they have finished cropping.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 9, 2019 21:11:07 GMT
Heavy showers today . Some of my hanging baskets are well past their best. I took two down a few days ago and I took two more down today. I emptied them all and potted up some plants from them that I want to keep till next year to take cuttings from. Two of the baskets that I emptied I replanted with winter and spring plants for my daughter , Heather, in Wales. We are going there the week after next so I will take them to her. I then boxed up the spray chrysanths into four mushroom boxes. Some of the disbud varieties are still flowering but I boxed up four varieties that have finished into two boxes.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 10, 2019 20:43:41 GMT
It was nice for the health walk this morning but it has rained nearly all afternoon. The polythene covers are still up over my chrysanth bed . When I got home about 3.20 I worked under there for a bit. Cut down a few more plants and tied some more labels on the stools. Shifted all the canes and V clips from all the plants that had been cut down . Went in the greenhouse after and potted up some more rooted geranium cuttings.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 11, 2019 21:15:12 GMT
It was raining this morning. It dried up this afternoon so I went to my son Martyn's to cut his hedges for the last time this year. He has an electric hedge trimmer but I don't like using it when the hedges are wet so I did them with my hand shears. When I got home I boxed up another 3 boxes of chrysanths. The varieties that I haven't done yet are still flowering so I will leave them a bit.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 12, 2019 21:05:29 GMT
A decent day today for a change. We had a nice walk round Blackleach this afternoon. When we got home I started removing the coolglass from the greenhouses .You need a dry day for this as it just wipes off with a cloth. when it's dry. Got it all off the sides but didn't get time to do the tops.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 13, 2019 21:23:43 GMT
A bit showery today. When it wasn't raining this afternoon I went to school for some tomatoes and I took some onion sets to plant. When I got there, though, it started raining .Went in the polytunnel for the tomatoes but there wasn't many. So I decided to pick them all including the green ones and bring them home. I will ripen the green ones by putting them in a drawer with a banana skin. Because it was raining I couldn't plant the onions so I stayed in the polytunnel and cut down all the tomato plants and removed the canes. Also removed the cucumber plants. I brought away four bags of compost in which I had grown potatoes and took them to the allotment. It had stopped raining by then. I will spread this compost on some of the allotment beds. It was supposed to be apple day on the allotments but it was postponed due to the weather.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 14, 2019 21:36:27 GMT
Went to the allotment this morning because she wanted some sprouts but I brought two sweet corn home as well. All the gladioli have finished so I dug them up and gave them to someone else on the allotments as I always do. I always buy new ones each year. Spent the rest of the morning weeding the onion bed again. Went to school this afternoon to plant the onion sets. Didn't have to weed the bed because I had done it before.The children usually plant these, of course, but as you know there is no garden club at present and I still don't know if it will be carrying on next year. I raked growmore into the bed before planting. There was one of the main veg beds that wasn't weeded and it was rather bad so I decided to carry on weeding this rather than go to the allotment again. I didn't get it finished, though, because it started raining at 4.30 .
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 15, 2019 21:33:57 GMT
After Blackleach this morning and shopping this afternoon I went to school and finished weeding the bed I was doing yesterday.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 16, 2019 21:10:25 GMT
Today it rained till mid morning but has been nice this afternoon. This morning I cut the remaining chrysanths and gave them to Sandra (Alan's wife across the road).I then cut the plants down and boxed up those that I want to keep so all the boxing up is done now. I removed the remaining canes . The wires to which the canes had been fixed I tied along the fence. Thirty catalogues came yesterday from Dobies for me to distribute to people on the allotments and members of our horticultural society. We get 40% discount off seeds and 10% off plants, bulbs and equipment. This afternoon I took the catalogues to the allotments and left some in peoples greenhouses or polytunnels.I have been phoning people this evening to tell them that I have left them a catalogue. There are many new people on the allotments whose phone numbers I don't know and who probably don't know about these discounts. So I have left some catalogues in the toilet and sent an email to the secretary which I have asked her to forward to everyone on the allotments to tell the about these catalogues and explains the system. People can either give me their orders or send them themselves by post, phone or on line. If they send them by phone or on line they must quote the number at the top of the order form to get the discounts. I spent the rest of the afternoon carrying on with weeding the onion bed.
|
|
|
Post by derekbrooks on Oct 17, 2019 22:07:20 GMT
A nice day today so we had a nice health walk at Blackleach this morning. Somebody brought some kaffir lilies (schizostylis)to the hut last Saturday to give to anyone who wanted them. I used to have some of these on my allotment , on the half that I have given up so I have lost them now. So I decided to take some and plant them at Blackleach and I have planted them this afternoon. I got rid of four large sedums which were taking up too much room and planted the Kaffir lilies at the back of this space so there is room for other plants at the front. I have some nice penstemons on this border. I think I showed you a picture of them in the summer and they are still flowering. There is also a nice Salvia "hot lips" which somebody gave me. This afternoon I took some cuttings off both of these plants and I will plant them tomorrow.When I got home from Blackleach about 3.30 I had an hour on the allotment and finished weeding the onion bed and started weeding the path behind it.
|
|