2022 - What I did today

Not much done today as I had to go to the Docs for my annual blood letting. My appointment was late morning so I had to stay clean until then.
Had a visitor this afternoon :eek Took cuttings from a yellow sticker thyme and cracked open a passion fruit for seeds.

Avoiding gardening isn't what people usually mean by "staying clean" before a blood test!

Not much done today as I had to go to the Docs for my annual blood letting. My appointment was late morning so I had to stay clean until then.
Had a visitor this afternoon :eek Took cuttings from a yellow sticker thyme and cracked open a passion fruit for seeds.

Avoiding gardening isn't what people usually mean by "staying clean" before a blood test!

I read Veggie's post the same way Pros, but couldn't think of a polite way to take the mickey  

If you lot have finished making fun of me, I'll tell you what I did today.
Sunshiny in the morning, so I cleaned up the overwintering plants in GH No 4 - scented geraniums, dianthus, strawberries etc.
Planted some Marconi DFB seedlings in a trough and the remainder in the bed in GH No 2. Hoping for a few early DFBs.
Tied in a few more Bijou mangetout - they're up to the GH roof now JJB.
Watered and weeded the GHs, gave Mr Greedy a snack and a stir.
Did a bit of Montbretia pulling in the garden.
Picked a few snapped daffs.
Turned windy this afternoon and the rain followed soon after.

What makes you think we've finished making fun of you? You know there'll be another session just round the corner, immediately after your next brilliant scheme.

I planted out 6 pots of sweet peas as an experiment to see if they survive. I’ll give it a week and then get the rest out.

Potted on the Veranda Red tomatoes from the seed swap. I have five plants and they all look identical to me so we'll see how they end up.

Sowed some more tomatoes.

My parents have brought over the plants they have been babysitting for the past 2.5 years - the ones that have survived anyway! I now have my kiwi issai, Szechuan pepper, walking onions, and honeyberry. They have also brought me some extras from them and from my Grandma: a redcurrant (or possibly a whitecurrant), some violets, a white violet, snowdrops, and two varieties of strawberry. Very exciting! They have brought lots of my containers too, so I should be able to pot up my spouted broad beans this afternoon.

I have also started construction of a second bed. I've laid the cardboard and tipped the remaining half of a big bag of compost over it. Unfortunately, I can't lift the full bags on my own, so I will have to wait until I've part emptied the next bag before I can lug another one up the garden. The alternative is to take it a bucket at a time, but that will take forever. My garden isn't suitable for a wheelbarrow, so it's slow and steady or nothing!

I've sown a few more seeds as well: pre-soaked parsley in the propagator, lettuce and rocket in a module tray, and a salad mix in a container in the greenhouse.

Today's plan was to spend time cossetting tomato seedlings, baking and generally messing about. That all got changed after a phone call mid morning. We had a call to 'arms', or more precisely loppers.

Maybe a fortnight ago the farming contractors finally got round to topping the hedge along our road after 4+ years neglect. The new growth on the tatty English elm hedge must have been 6ft or more. It was cut with a flail cutter and made a huge mess along the verge and pavement where the kiddies walk up to school, 6ft branches and all sorts of smaller rubbish. We naively thought they'd be back to clear up, but no. So a group of us elderlies went and did the job. Three hours later the road looks less like a devastation site and a group of self satisfied wrinklies very proud of their work.

I noticed that my nicotiana sylvestris seeds had germinated but I must've been very heavy handed with my sowing as there was a carpet of miniature seedlings which had to be thinned out.

I grabbed some tweezers, reading glasses and listened to a podcast as I patiently removed the bulk of the tiny seedlings so the remaining ones have room to grow.

Amazing how such miniscule seedlings will grow so large in one season!

Lovely sunshiny day -just the weather for a bonfire.
All the bamboo has been burnt, still lots of root to dig up though.
Also burnt all the old pallet fences that separate the middle garden from the end garden where the veggies grow in the glassless greenhouses. Had just enough 6' high chicken wire to run from one end to the other - perfect!!
Dug up lots of plants that were in the way - brambles, elder, honeysuckle and 2 very thorny yellow roses - all consigned to the bonfire.
The only rose that has survived is the thornless Zephirine Drouhine ?sp. I'm going to turn her into cuttings and stick them in along the wire netting.
Also came up with a plan for the 3 joined GHs that are covered in debris netting. Whenever there are strong winds the GHs dismantle themselves. There's also a lot of moss in there and very few raspberries and brassicas. The plan is to remove the netting as its causing more problems than its worth. I'll use the structure for growing beans and tying in raspberries. It was a good idea for several years but hasn't stood the test of time.