Does anyone keep a gardening diary on MSE?

LavenderBees

A couple of weeks ago, I dug my green manure in and covered the soil with fleece to try to encourage it to warm a little...we've had nowt but temps in the minus at night ever since

And last weekend, I had a fabulous day at lottie - only meant to go for an hour and was there all day! Guess who has a greenhouse...?!

Yes! ME!!!!

Kevin (no 6 lottie) asked me if I'd like somewhere to grow my seeds. It's a plastic walk in greenhouse that someone had given him, and he took it as he thought someone on the lotties would be able to make use of it, and the first person he saw was ME, and I said YES, PLEASE!

He even helped me level the ground, got me loads of ash tree chippings to fill the ground, erected the greenhouse, and then left me to play. What a complete gent!

And all for the price of a nice bottle of wine as a wee thank you!

So, it's up in the area that will be for the chickens eventually, but I might as well make use of the space for now, especially with such a useful freebie! I'll attach a few photos of lotties progress when I work out again how to do it .

And it was such a fabulous day last Saturday - sunny, cold then warm. A real promise of springtime to come. Please let this year be a decent year!

Apart from that, I removed all the tunnel cloches, hoed the ground to un-compact the soil and kill the weeds (already growing!) and replenished the slug pellets. Some of my cabbages and broccoli look great. Some look a wee bit stunted. But generally everything is looking good. :T

I also plucked up the courage last weekend to walk around to a nearby pig farm to see if the farmer was amenable to letting me take some manure. I've put this task off for months, and really there was no need. The farmer was lovely, pleasant and enthusiastic, and promised to deliver a digger full, and sure enough a ton of pig manure is now safely deposited on my plot. He wouldn't take any cash for the diesel or his time, so I've today, taken a nice bottle of wine and left a thank you note.

It's a shame it's piddling down today as I'm champing at the bit to play in the muck :rotfl:Ah, will have to leave that joy until next weekend, when I have 3 days off together :T

We're forecast for heavy rain today (no kidding...I've been soaked twice today), and heavy snow tomorrow :eek: Complete contrast to last weekend when it was glorious.

Will try to post photos...

LavenderBees

LavenderBees

LavenderBees

LavenderBees

EpsomOldie

Lovely - thanks LavenderBees. You've done so much prep, and it'll be so much fun once SPRING arrives: it really feels like it's round the corner now.

I especially like the picture of the manure - lovely stuff. Did you say it was pig? I use horse - there's loads of it around here.

LavenderBees

Yes, it is pig manure. The pig farm is nearest to me, so I tried there first, and hit lucky with a lovely helpful farmer. Seems pig manure is very good :T

There are lots of stables and horses around here, too, so I always knew I could get manure, it was just getting it delivered that was likely to be the problem.

I LUVS my muck heap. ..I'm at work this morning, and watching a blizzard :eek:, so, luckily, I don't feel like I'd have missed anything had I been home.

Hope I can get home...to make things worse, the work I dragged myself out of bed at 6am on a snowy Sunday morning to do, I can't get on with...don't ask!! :mad:

Ah well...Winter's last throw of the dice, I reckon, and then we're into Spring proper...

EpsomOldie

Muck is heavy isn't it? My body always knows when it's been to the muck heap at the stables. Time before last, it was so wet that my wellies were just over ankle-deep in the slurry that had formed at the front of the heap. No big problem until I (tried to) step away holding my tub-trug full of muck....my wellies were sucked into the slurry so my feet couldn't move, but my upper body's momentum caused me to fall side-ways into the heap! It was a nice soft (albeit a bit whiffy) landing thank goodness.

I hope the rotten weather clears and you get home okay. You live on the east coast don't you? I lived in Edinburgh until my mid twenties and although it was freeeezing (same latitude as Moscow), the proximity to the sea meant that snow and ice seldom 'lay'.

BTW, the first time I read your message, I thought you said you were watching a buzzard, not a blizzard. Need to go to Specsavers methinks.

LavenderBees

oh, dear! I really shouldn't laugh, but I'm afraid your description of falling in the slurry has made me laugh out loud this morning.:rotfl:Thank you for that!

I'm afraid I'm one of those awful people who can't help laughing if someone falls over

The snow has melted already...I suspect it's colder in the office than outside! :eek:

Suffolk_lass

Ooh I've missed your posts and WOW, your Lottie looks amazing. If you are stuck home later you should look back at the first pictures you took and just compare. You have done so much work.

Over here we have snow too - it started last night and settled but it won't stay long - the thatch has been depositing its own version of avalanches over all the paths which is a sure fire indicator that the surface is too warm (as the insulation from inside is excellent and it was up there for weeks in the winter). We've cracked on and DH did loads more in the school half-term hols - made the final (for now) 8th full size raised bed, and installed all the paving set into gravel with membrane underneath (looks like yours). I think we are about 3m short of membrane and a ton short of gravel and will need more slabs to go round the house, but this can wait until autumn when we do the herb garden at the front. Yesterday we collected 30 lovely bushy rosemary plants that are replacing the unfortunate privet (pruned too deeply in an attempt to let me see up the road from the car, this had died in too many places) and DH insisted he would plant 25 of them in the rain (and did) - so pretty sure they have already been hardened off because they are covered in snow now...

I also spent about 3 hours with my incapacitated gardener (recovering from a hand op) on Friday and we went over plans for the gardens and what we might buy - her village has a plant sale annually which is a great way of buying cheaply. Also she has ordered some of the plants and seeds I picked out from the RHS trials last year when I visited Wisley - so the less productive parts of the garden are also going to shape up soon. Very exciting if it would just stop being so foul outside.

I promise to take some photos and find out how to post them - I'm so flaky with photos!

Take care and well done!
SL