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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 25, 2013 21:12:51 GMT
Christmas day is the only day of the year when I never do any gardening (apart from opening and closing the greenhouse doors). We go to church in the morning then Martyn (our son)comes for his dinner and his tea. He has just gone home about half an hour ago. We are going to his house for tea tomorrow (He always cooks for us on Boxing day ). This afternoon I have just been doing some gardening crosswords in a book and started reading a carnation book that somebody has given me. I have got most of tomorrow for gardening before it is time to go to his house so I will see what the weather is like.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 26, 2013 16:45:15 GMT
The ground was frozen a bit this morning so I didn't think it was any use going on the allotment.
Went in the greenhouse first and planted the hyacinths fom three and a half inch pots into bulb bowls.There were 18 (9 pink and 9 blue)I start them in pots then I can match them up better in the bowls.The have gone into 4 bowls, some have 5 in and some 4.
Decided to wash all my seed trays after. I do them under the car port in the wheelbarrow filled with hot water and some washing up liqid and armillatox.Some were cracked and need repairing so I put these on a shelf in the greenhouse to dry. When dry I repair them with brown parcel tape.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 28, 2013 22:54:31 GMT
I have just spent 15 minutes typing what I have been doing today but it wouldn't post onto the forum. Don't want to waste time again in case it happens again and we are going away to Wales tomorrow till Thursday.
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Post by Tel on Dec 29, 2013 13:32:34 GMT
I have just spent 15 minutes typing what I have been doing today but it wouldn't post onto the forum. Don't want to waste time again in case it happens again and we are going away to Wales tomorrow till Thursday. Never mind Derek, have a good time in Wales. Happy New Year to you and yours for 2014.  |
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 29, 2013 22:34:41 GMT
Thanks,Tel and a happy New year to you and a good growing one too. I am in Wales on my grandson's computer now so I will try and tell you what my own computer wouldn't let me do yesterday. It was a decent day. The gale force winds that we had on Friday had gone and it hadn't rained much for a week and the ground wasn't frosty.So I decided to go to the allotment and start digging the trenches for the runner beans and sweet peas.As soon as I arrived ,a friend on another allotment said" I hope you are not going to do any digging. I have just dug up some leeks and the ground is just like rice pudding!" My plot must drain better than his because I thought it was O.K.It is not usually any drier than this at this time of year.
I grow two rows of plants about 4 feet apart (I have shown you pictures of them before),therefore I dig two trenches. I dig out the first one just a spades depth and pile the soil along the edge. I then fork over the bottom and put a good layer of green material in the bottom. The soil from the second trench goes on top of this ,then the second trench is filled with the soil from the first one.I didn't get time to fill in the second trench before it went dark so it will have to wait till next weekend. But I'm glad I went and was pleased that I had got them nearly finished. I am here till Thursday then at Blackleach on Friday so it will be Saturday before I can go again.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 30, 2013 20:25:46 GMT
I had trouble posting what I had written last night onto the forum ,Heather had to sort it out for me.So it is not a problem with my computer because it has happened on this one as well.
It was a horrible wet and windy morning so we didn,t go out . However it improved this afternoon and was quite nice.Heather was off work today so she took us a ride to a garden centre.Didn't want to buy anything but we still like going to garden centres and having a look round.She is working the rest of the time we are here so we will have to amuse ourselves.We will probably have a ride to other places, weather permitting.
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 31, 2013 20:32:56 GMT
I have just typed another message but it wouldn't post onto the forum so I don't know what I have done wrong and Heather is not here to help me as she is working.
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2014 10:49:29 GMT
If you are getting these problems regular Derek best thing to do is 'before clicking post....highlight the text...right click on it and select copy, if you then post and it goes missing just right click in the area where you will type it again... select paste and the message will be there again, or do the typing in a word document first then copy it to the forum
I have no idea why some go missing, looks like it happened to Cherry while posting pics too?
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 1, 2014 22:50:42 GMT
Thanks,Steve. I will try again tomorrow when I get home.I will write your instructions down in case I need them.
It has been raining most of the day here so we have not been anywhere
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 2, 2014 20:20:04 GMT
Arrived home from Wales at 6.00 so back to "normal" again. After yesterdays rain it wasn't bad this morning so we just went a walk. The other days it has rained in the mornings but fine in the afternoon. I got some small peat pots from Wilkinsons to start off my beetroot and kohl rabi seeds . I find these germinate better than sowed direct in the ground. I also bought a new wooden mallet because my other one was a bit past it. I have tried to repair it with screws but it isn't very good. I use it a lot on the allotment to knock stakes and canes into the ground. Some canes need knocking in very deep particularly for large plants like dahlias which might otherwise get blown over by the wind.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 4, 2014 21:54:38 GMT
It hasn't rained today but I thought the ground would be too wet for digging. So I just went to the allotment this morning because she wanted some sprouts. On the root crop bed there were still some swedes, turnips and beetroot. I will soon want to dig and manure this bed so I brought them home even though she didn't want any yet. I washed them just to see if they were still usable . Put a few in the bin that weren't any good and put the rest in a tub of old compost to keep them till she wants any.
This afternoon I decided to clean the windows in my larger greenhouse but to do so I had to move plants that were on the shelves and remove the shelves as well. While the shelves were down I thought I may as well wash them in armillatox before I put them back. A 2 feet square sheet of glass slid out of the greenhouse onto the floor but thankfully it didn't break. I had a job fixing it back though because I had to move a lot of things behind the greenhouse to get at it which took me a while. Some of the shelves could do with replacing because they are beginning to rot.In fact, one broke in half so I will have to replace that one.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 5, 2014 22:21:26 GMT
Raining this afternoon so couldn't go to the allotment . Nothing much to do in the greenhouses either so I just repaired the cracked seed trays and washed all the pieces of glass that I put on the seed trays after sowing.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 7, 2014 22:50:42 GMT
I start taking chrysanth cuttings about the middle of this month so I will soon need to make some seed and cutting compost (I use the same compost for both). I normally use peat, sand and a Chempak seed base. Last year we had no peat in our supply hut so I used multipurpose compost and mixed 4 gals. of sand with each 75 litre bag. This year we have no Chempak so I will have to do the same.
I needed to go for some wood to replace the rotting greenhouse shelves that I told you about. Where I get the wood from is right opposite the hut so I killed two birds with one stone. I got my wood and then went in the hut for 2 bags of multipurpose and 2 bags of sand. I have said before that I'm glad I have my own key to the hut so I can go in any time and get what I want. The hut doesn't open till a week on Saturday (the 18th) and I didn't want to wait till then. I will obviously pay for what I have had today when I go on the 18th. There is no danger of me forgetting what I owe because I write everything I buy in a book both at the hut and elsewhere. I mix my compost under the car port so this is a job I can do when it is too wet to go on the allotment or when I can't have the car. I had an hour spare when I got home so I did go to the allotment and carried on digging the runner bean/sweet pea trenches but didn't have time to finish them.
I hadn't much time this afternoon but I put the new shelves in the greenhouse. I just had to cut them to the right length.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 8, 2014 23:03:03 GMT
This morning I went on the allotment and finished filling in the trenches for runner beans/sweet peas. The ground needs levelling but I will wait till it is a bit drier and rake it.
This afternoon I couldn't have the car so I mixed the two batches of seed and cutting compost under the car port. Two 75 litre bags of multipurpose and 4 gals of sand in each. This will almost be enough to last me all season. I told you yesterday that I was doing it this way because we had no Chempak seed compost. I looked for some in the hut yesterday morning and would you believe , I saw the person who does the ordering on the allotment this morning and he told me that he got some yesterday afternoon!. He knew I was wanting some but he got it half a day too late.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 9, 2014 20:54:15 GMT
It rained very hard last night and today was very showery so no chance of going to the allotment. Decided to go in the greenhouse and start sorting the dahlia tubers out ready for boxing up. They had all been in boxes on top of each other under the staging. Because the boxes are stood like this some dry better than others. When putting them in the boxes I deliberately mix the varieties in each box. This is just in case I lose the tubers in a box that doesn't dry properly then they wont all be the same varieties. I have far more tubers that I need so I can afford to lose some of each variety. It has never happened though as they are usually all O.K. Today I sorted them all out into varieties on the greenhouse floor and began tidying them up by trimming off the small fibrous roots. I have, I think,18 varieties.
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