2024 - What I did today

Went to the plot on my own. Did a bit of hoeing and weeding. Planted out a few seedlings that were absolutely tiny and never put on proper leaves but turn out to have loads of roots. Maybe they'll do something with the forecast sunshine. Harvested a surprisingly decent number of raspberries and a few white currants.

I have a small oblong raised bed/planter on the patio with strawberries. I protect these from the the birds with a 'blowaway' type cloche thingy. Last year the mice got into it but all was preserved by traps.  This morning there was a squirrel inside the blowaway.  I'm determined to protect against squirrels but I'm rather failing.  We went to get some welded mesh from Toolstation and formed a cage to go over the blow away.  At this time of year the blow away is redundant but earlier it protects against frost.

              

To add insult to injury I walked up the garden to find one squirrel scurrying away from me over the veg patch and another actually in the fruit cage which, after panicking a bit, escaped through the hole in the netting it had gnawed at to get in. The solution to this problem is eluding me atm. Shotgun??

Today I planted some Disco squash inside a metal cold frame - just the frame, no glazing. I'm hoping that the squash will trail up and over the frame, rather than scramble along the ground. However, with the lack of success I'm having with courgettes this year, I'm not optimistic.
Took the lower, yellow leaves off the tomatoes in the GH. They look a bit better for their trim.

Planted out some Chard covering it was netting so I get more than the birds.

Potted up some Butternut squash seedlings.
Chucked out all the leftover tomato seedlings and pots of compost containing dead plants! When I say "chucked" I mean tipped them into a bucket which I'll use for topping up pots.
Sowed sweetcorn in modules.
Pulled up lots of montbretia, snipped off the roots into the garden waste bin and chopped the leaves onto the paths as mulch.

Surprisingly,took the car for an MOT expecting the worst! It passed with no advisories! The MOT inspector even came out and told me how good it was underneath. I don't think he had ever seen, never mind MOTd, a Chrysler Crossfire Roadster!  Vinny is a really happy bunny as I wouldn't have fancied sourcing parts for it!

Seed sowing and a bit of strimming

Same old stuff - weeds, nettle and brambles.
For a change I drained the wormeries. A couple of months ago I was given a small dustbin "wormery" but it had no drainage holes/tap. Bad idea!! I had to scoop out most of the compost as the bin was too heavy to lift. The compost was sodden. I emptied it into supermarket veg crates so that it can drain. Sadly, I only found a few worms, the rest must have drowned. I won't be using that again.

Finally planted out the sweet peppers:

Redskin F1 (new)
Corno di Toro Rosso
Jimmy Nardello

They have to live outside in summer so I've been waiting for nighttime temperatures to improve.

Also planted out the bush acorn squash:

Honey Bear F1 (new)
Harlequin F1
Table King

I interspersed these with some Valentine sunflowers. These are multi branching, slim sunflowers which don't cast shade and hopefully will attract pollinators for the squash.

Yesterday I walked through the wild flower patch and bruised all the stems of any bracken I could see.
Potted on a few more plants waiting for homes. Didn’t do as many as I wanted. Had to stop as was upsetting the meadow pipits. Another little walk to collect seawater.