2022 - What I did today

Did some seed sowing and checked on my stored dahlias and begonias. The dahlias seem fine, but I'm not optimistic about the begonias. They seemed a bit shriveled!

I went out in the garden after work today and sowed a few more red russian kale seeds as the little seedlings that I potted up last week all pegged it.

I then carried on with the concrete shifting, scraping off the top layer of shrapnel and chucking that into the pond. It's almost got as much concrete in it as we can fit in there - next is a thick layer of compost. I probably won't have time to do that tomorrow though, as I have an online session with the Open University tomorrow night.

Had a good look around the garden to see the wind damage. The pallet fence on one side of the veg patch has blown down and needs replacing before I plant anything there - probably use chicken wire, fire guard or baby gate.
The 3 GH frames, joined together and covered with debris netting (where I grow raspberries and brassicas) has taken a hammering. The middle frame is the weak point because its doesn't have any bracing across the frame where it joins GH 1 & GH3.At the moment, I'm thinking of removing the middle frame and turning it into 2 small netted GHs. GH 1 has the door end and GH3 has the back end. The debris netting was joined in the middle of GH2 so, If I remove the join it'll leave debris netting over the roof and sides and a bit hanging down that I may be able to wangle across the open ends..
On the bright side, its quite mossy in there, and has been on my list of Jobs to do for a few weeks. There's not much growing in there apart from a bucket of perennial kale cuttings that reach the roof............and that was another job on the list - Take cuttings of kale.
The moral is, don't rush to do things, save your energy for when the time is right!

Spent much of the morning picking up tree debris off the lawns from the big blow. Then started preparing the gh to set up leccy propagator mainly because I sowed too many toms too early and now they're too big for under lights. I hope to sow a few flowers too.

Yesterday -
Planted the last maple in the row up the drive, 2 years after its chums. It was a poor plant so spent the time in a pot being looked after. It is now bigger than the rest, probably becaue they've all been eaten by roe deer.
Planted another peach tree - the third germinated stone form the compost heap. I wonder what it'll be - round, flat or even a nectarine?!
Replanted the plants on the bank that had to be partly dug out for the extension.

And another 4 loads of gite washing!

I'm nursing my wounds . Picking up debris yesterday led me to the top where the thug blackberry had slipped its moorings. There were blackberry 'ropes' everywhere but not on the support. Gauntleted up to the elbows I eventually untangled and retied the 12ft 'ropes' into place but not before the thug had entrapped me sufficiently so I had to wriggle out of my coat to escape and in retaliation the thug drew blood from several places on my hands. You just can't tie in anything with thick leather gauntlets on and as soon as it saw bare flesh it pounced!

And this is why I won't let any blackberry into my garden!!

Seed juggling. It was lovely this morning so I sorted all the seeds my friend gave me into the correct tins. Then sorted a bag of flower seeds I’ll be sowing this year. Then I cleaned and bagged all the seeds I’ve harvested.

We've kind of made a decision where the new lights will go around the house, on the outside. I say kind of, because I think we might need more - there are still spots that the lights can't reach I think.

After a break of over six months managed to get a couple of awkward shaped tiles fitted to my bathroom wall!  A couple of days finishing all the awkward shaped bits should eventually see it finished!