2023 - What I did today

Leek planting today - 70 each of Saint Victor, Géant de Bulgarie and home-saved seed from (possibly) à Musselburgh/Bleu de Solaise cross.
Also planted parsley, beetroot, lettuces, PSB and some pretty things - belle du jour, coreopsis, zinnia, marigolds.

Planted the last of my courg/squashes. Squash Baked Potato and the challenge pumpkin. The Pumpkin has a baby fruit, so there might be an entry in the competition. Planted some outdoor tomatoes most of them blight resistant.

Finished digging the ditch round bed 2. And started filling it.
Also a bit more work on the caravan and put the curtains up.

Put up some canes in GH2 and planted some Perfection cucumbers.
For the first time in living memory I'm not growing tomatoes in this GH - they're all in GH1 - so I have the luxury of an empty (almost) GH. Its a cooler GH so I plan to grow lettuce and other leaves in there but what else??? No need to suggest things as I probably wouldn't listen.
Filled a wheelbarrow with sticky willy, nettles and other weeds.
Had an encouraging chat with the courgettes in the pond bed.

Set out some more DFBs and outdoor toms.

Went fishing! Caught a large rainbow trout on a Daddy longlegs dry fly! Guess whats for dinner tomorrow?

Over the last couple of days I've been repairing our fruit cage, mainly holes in the roof from squirrels dropping in. There is plenty of fruit developing on a couple of cherry trees inside but we are unlikely to get many as squirrels walk through the walls and roof to help themselves while they are still green. Also, while in there, something has been eating bites out of green red currants and leaving them in piles. I don't think it is squirrels but not sure what the culprit could be - rats? One of the plies was a metre up on what looked like an old wren's nest may be turned into a platform that was quite damp. I've always thought that blackbirds were the main pest of red currants and why they need netting. Last year I got 8kg of red currants and will be annoyed if I don't get the same this year.
The other thing I've been doing is watering. The onions were starting to go brown on the tips of some leaves and some young raspberry shoots have died back. I watered the fruit in the fruit cage this morning: raspberries, gooseberries, red/black currants then mowed a patch of grass to mulch round them all. Also watered the onions, leeks, peas and broadbeans. Nearly all the flowers on the broadbeans looked like they had been got by the robber bee. I've seen it suggested that flicking the flowers is an alternative way to fertilise them. I have my doubts but I'll soon find out.

Planted out some module grown peas, filling the hole in the middle of 2 rows ploughed out by the boar. Planted out a spare pumpkin replacing one that's rotted off.
Armpitted tomatoes and looped them round their strings. Chose to ignore and just remove a possible blighty patch.
Long walk this afternoon, successfully dodging the rain, until we got home and found it had rained on the washing

Fed and watered the greenhouse, cabbage patch, carrots, parsnips and early potatoes. Weeded the dwarf beans. pulled up a load of sticky willy and nettles by a new beech hedge I planted in the autumn - just 10 of the 12 plants seem to still be alive. They will get a good watering tomorrow. SOme of my autumn planted onions were showing signs of mouldy nose so, as they are a usable size, I've pulled them up. 9 had the start of the mould which I have rubbed off and left them on some staging to dry in the sun. Hopefully drying them will arrest the mould but they will need to be watched and used first. I'll plant out some beetroot in their place tomorrow.

Potted up some of Pros's Giant Tomatillos. Watered the GHs and a few pots.
Did some washing and found that all the strings on the rotary line were covered in something sticky - sap from the oak tree perhaps?? Had to wipe all the strings before I could peg out the washing.
There's a lot of sticky stuff on plants at the moment - hope the promised rain comes soon and washes it off.