2021 - What I did today

Cleared the miscellaneous bed and topped with compost, this will be later beans next summer and then kales and cabbages for winter/spring 2022/3.
Turned the compost heaps.
Scarified moss out of the meadow to expose soil and get some wild flower seeds sown.
Started clearing alpine strawberries and primroses that have taken over the herb bed. Primroses have gone into the grass around trees, strawberries into the compost because I have millions of them!

Cutting down and clearing sweetcorn, weeding carrots being helped by miner bees that have no common sense, they think the underside of the carrot mesh is a good place to sit so I have to help them get out. Started clearing out gh where toms have finished. P is in his element digging.

Filled a wheelie bin with brambles and raspberry canes ready for collection tomorrow.
Lots more to clear out of that part of the garden - must do it soon before the daffodils emerge - it'll soon be spring!! There are lots of buds on the camellias and they're often in flower before Ssshhmas - then the snowdrop and crocus appear and it'll be time to sow early tomatoes.

Sorted out all the bean canes rather than just dumping in a corner.
Made apple and habanero maya red jelly.
Strimmed veg garden paths.
Levelled the area for the new paved path around the extension- another trailer load of clay for the tip.

Put in garlic a couple of days ago and the onions today. Then dug out a couple of buckets of perennial weeds (docks, dandelions, couch, nettles and buttercups mainly) from where the onion grew last year. Checked my saved onion seeds, variety up-to-date, that I was testing germination and 4 of the 5 seeds have germinated on a tissue so good enough for me (EEC reg. was min 70% for onion seeds).

   

This was my squash patch, carefully fenced in to keep out dogs and chooks and other marauding beasties
Today I pulled up the plants in disgust. There were 3 tiny bright yellow pumpkins about the size of a 50p piece and that seemed to be it. Pathetic!
There was one plant that had grown out of the squash enclosure and was trailing through some flowers - so I left that one until last. 
It was a bit harder to uproot, felt heavy, and there, nestling in the middle of the flowers was a huge green pumpkin (that's huge compared to the 3 yellow things).  I think its Musquee de Provence but it has a long way to go before it reaches the 20lbs advertised by Suttons.

There must be a moral here - do your best to protect your plants and they fail, let them roam free and they're the best of the bunch!!

Removed the top from from my remaining cuc hoping the 2 cucs from further down the stem grow a bit longer.
Took out a couple of Tom plants thats finished,
Pulled up bolted chard and collected Nasturtium seeds for next year.

We're having an absolutely gorgeous day here today, so as soon as I'd had breakfast I was up and out in the garden.

First I went to see to the new chickens - we've got three chickens already, but went to get three more from Fresh start for hens. They seem happy and I collected 5 eggs in total today

The front garden needed weeding, and when that was done, I planted the bargain grasses I got recently, along with three checkerberries I got from the Swedish furniture shop yesterday
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/gaultheria-...-50506083/

I also planted a Chinese Witch Hazel at the back of the raised bed, just to get it in the ground.

I've chopped back part of the jungle in the back garden, and planted up four small pots of fuschias to overwinter in the greenhouse.

When we went to Greece recently, we both fell in love with the quirky look of Norfolk island pines, and I tried to get hold of some pine cones while we were there, but couldn't find any. I couldn't find any reasonably priced here in the UK either, but low and behold as I was walking around the plants section in the furniture shop yesterday, there they were! Much smaller than what we saw in Greece of course, but I was so pleased to bring that surprise back home to Jay That's been planted up in a big pot today too.

Now on to roast beef and salt and vinegar spuds for a Sunday roast

Made a start on clearing the tunnel of things that have finished. Cut back a couple of shrubs and some perennials. Squashed even more cabbage white caterpillars!

Dug up more perennials for the compost heap.
Started to clear a row of hostas that are getting overgrown with weeds. I've been thinking of tackling them for a couple of years now. I have to use a spade to cut most of the roots as a fork only could break. There as bulbs mixed in s some are getting chopped up.