2024 - What I did today

Sowed rocket seeds in GH2.
Pulled up grass, dock, hogweed, buttercup, brambles, campion and, of course montbretia all growing where there is supposed to be a path. I've only cleared half a path but I can see gooseberries alongside the next half, so that's an incentive to clear the rest of it.

Potted on a few more things. Sieved some old compost.

New mesh arrived for the fruit cage, I think I know what I'll be doing all day.

Planted the climbing winter squash/pumpkins and tied them to their supports:

Potimarron
Sweet Dumpling
Thelma Sanders

Three plants of each.

Planted La Diva cucumbers, dwarf zinnias and nicotiana sylvestris.
Potted up the chilli peppers in their final pots and tied them to their bamboo stakes.
Still have a few trays and pots of various flowers and edibles that need to be planted. Nearly there!

Put net bags on some peaches,
Pruned the lower branches on an apple tree so that the mower can go beneath it more easily.
Cut down some bamboo, a self seeded birch that was growing through the lilac, lots of brambles, dead headed some sedge before it seeds everywhere, concentrated on the patch nearest the house today for a change.

Planted out some straggly overgrown tomatoes in any spare space . Ditto for some DFB. Tied in and armpitted toms.

Planted out some straggly overgrown tomatoes in any spare space . Ditto for some DFB. Tied in and armpitted toms.

Rinse and repeat today. I'm rapidly running out of room, I fear some toms will go to compost, I'm hoping to keep the DFB going until I've picked and dug up the broadbeans.

Planted the Sugar Baby watermelons and the Old West Virginia melons, put up string supports for them to cling on to. Found a female watermelon flower so hand pollinated it.

Finished putting bed number 5 into the cottage garden. So it’s surrounded by rocks, filled with the best soil/ compost mix I could scrape together. Planted it up this 3 varieties of aquilegia, flowering currants, azalea, french tarragon, skimmia and a thing beginning with v that I can’t say or spell. Topped it off the wood chip.