2021 - What I did today

Distracted my daughter while my husband tore down the ramshackle shed on the plot. Woohoo!

Set up Area 51 in the utility room as the dining room is still out of action. Took homemade chocolate chip cookies up to the digger driver. Got the keep the workers fed. Started tying boot & beam links together.

Brought all the pots of dahlias back out into the light - it turned cold after they were potted up so they have been under the tarp that covers the outdoor furniture. I see shoots
Planted the last of the belle epoque roses, a double white.
Sowed some seeds from one of last year's cayenne. My bought seeds haven't germinated so this is my last hope!
Weeded the gravel drive. If I spend half an hour a week I can keep on top of the weeds.

Continued weed clearing, path moving and general messing about in the garden.
As an area becomes clear, I'm looking at as a potential growing space and considering which random seeds would be happy there and whether it should be minimally random (like mixed up types of beetroot) or medium random, (beetroot, leeks and rocket) or completely random (any old seed) and should it include flowers as well as edibles?
My random mind is always pondering.

This week I've been up in Bolton getting my daughter's new house ready for her to move in after Easter. As a moving-in present I've built her a raised bed in her tiny paved back yard. I was rather constrained to only use materials I could carry through the house, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

   

The bed is currently getting just 2 hours of afternoon sun, hopefully this will be enough to get things going and it might get a bit more in the height of summer. I've given her some chitted potatoes to put in, and she's got some onion seedlings coming along nicely on the windowsill. I reckon a few sweet peas would be good on that trellis, too.

While I was up there, I made a Dowding-type no-dig bed for my son in Salford. He's not a gardener but he does like to cook so I have hopes of converting him yet. He had plenty of cardboard, I donated all my old compost from last year and topped it up with four bags of JI 2 from the local shed. I've never done this before, I've always been a digger, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I put it in the brightest spot, but it doesn't get much more direct sunlight than the daughter's yard.

   

I'm not doing much in my own garden apart from routine maintenance. Hopefully we will get some action on the house move soon, the agent is confident we should be in by the end of June at least. We'll see.

Quite a lot today:
Sowed some Bishop children dahlia seeds
Snap dragons -all saved seed

Potted on some mixed malope seeds - from NG?
Took up the clary and Cosmo seed trays to the GH
Planted in 6 crab apple hedging plants
Also 6 willow trees

Yesterday I did a load of strimming and started weeding the big gravel parking space outside the gates.
Today planted out broad beans and sowed mangetout peas.
Spent the rest of the day moving stuff from the old shed to my lovely new one built by MrPP.

I watered all my plants in the poly tunnel, fed the strawberries with a seaweed mix with water, fed the tomatoes and gherkins with a tomato feed. Transplanted some blueberries into bigger pots and fed with seaweed mix.

This week I've been up in Bolton getting my daughter's new house ready for her to move in after Easter. As a moving-in present I've built her a raised bed in her tiny paved back yard. I was rather constrained to only use materials I could carry through the house, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.



The bed is currently getting just 2 hours of afternoon sun, hopefully this will be enough to get things going and it might get a bit more in the height of summer. I've given her some chitted potatoes to put in, and she's got some onion seedlings coming along nicely on the windowsill. I reckon a few sweet peas would be good on that trellis, too.

While I was up there, I made a Dowding-type no-dig bed for my son in Salford. He's not a gardener but he does like to cook so I have hopes of converting him yet. He had plenty of cardboard, I donated all my old compost from last year and topped it up with four bags of JI 2 from the local shed. I've never done this before, I've always been a digger, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I put it in the brightest spot, but it doesn't get much more direct sunlight than the daughter's yard.



I'm not doing much in my own garden apart from routine maintenance. Hopefully we will get some action on the house move soon, the agent is confident we should be in by the end of June at least. We'll see.

I lived in Salford when I went to Uni and I stayed on when I worked. 
 A couple of places. Salford quays before the makeover - it was quick to walk into town from there. Alf from Corrie lived in the flat above  
Thems were the days!

Mostly housework and playing in the kitchen yesterday. Bob came home with a spindly twig and handed to me with the phrase make it grow   . So I made it into 5 little cuttings dipped in rooting powder and potted up. Will see what happens. Hopefully it’ll take. Apparently it’s bird cherry.