Kitchen Garden Forum

Well, I'm sitting here with a cold tinny after taking down a row of leylandii ( well, we managed to get three down before the chainsaw packed in). They were put in I don't know how many years ago inside the boundary fence of our new lottie, and they now stand about 30+ foot high and not only stop the light but they take all the goodness out of the soil. Once they are chopped into nice size logs they will be going on the wood burner to heat the greenhouse.
Yesterday I pricked out six different varieties of tomato, and a whole host of half-hardy annual flowers. These are grown in the greenhouse at home where I have electric propagators hard at work.
The seedlings in the allotment greenhouse are all through so I will be busy down there this week pricking those out and getting the rest of the tree thugs down.
Going to pick up another half a dozen hens tomorrow night. Then it's sit back and watch the feathers fly as the others put them in their place.
Hope everyone else had a productive weekend.

Evening Tea-shot, you have been busy, glad you have found a use for those conifers.
The wood from these never fails to amaze me, when it's first cut down it weighs a ton, but soon dries to be a very light wood.

I didn't get done as much as i was hoping, we've had that much rain i've had to keep off the allotment.
I have potted loads of tubs up with forced bulbs, polyanthus, and hyacinths though.
But i think the biggest job i've down this weeekend, is to consume cooked breakfasts a large dinners.

fraid ive done very little this weekend except sit on the roof terrace of brother in laws house in sunny spain with a tinny, me and the missus had to tear ourselves away to bring mother in law home from her 2 month holiday here. theve dug some spuds down the road today, there are green tomatoes in the plastic houses and cauliflowers fit to pick in the fields.
next weekend it will be seed sowing at home, ive done none yet because of this weeks absence, was tempted to buy some tomatoe plants in the market on thursday, but my spanish isnt good enough to find out what sort they were.

What a mission Tea-shot but really worthwhile. You've got a woodburner in your greenhouse - I'm very very very jelous

I got well & truely rained off this afternoon, but got up the allotment yesterday and this morning. Have got the shallots and broad beans in and helped my husband clear a bit more of the remaining untamed wilderness on his allotment. Only got a couple of small areas left now

I even washed all my plastic pots yesterday ready for the off. Sitting on a low retaining wall in the garden with the sun on my back, the frogs purring away in the pond and the chickens watching my every move in fascination (they are easy pleased - bless), I even enjoyed it.

Sue, I'm afraid there's no hope for you if you enjoy washing plastic pots.
We cleared our garden of leylandii when we moved in and it made a tremendous difference. They edged both sides of a 140' garden, with one or two in the middle for good measure. The previous owner was extremely proud of the fact that the garden could not be overlooked. Don't know what he used to get up to!!
I spent all summer shredding, but produced loads of material to add humus to the soil (once it'd composted down). Those leylandii kept us warm for a whole winter too, and I'm still using the woodash today.
In fact, I did use some today, around the raspberries, blackcurrant and gooseberry, topped with plenty of garden compost, ready for the spring. Also did the usual weeding and mowing, but slowly getting ready for spring. Also noticed today that the cabbages I sowed are apparently Calendula and the Calendula are cabbages. With me in charge I'll be lucky to get any sort of crop this year.

I managed to finish glazing my new (second hand) greenhouse in spite of the showers.
The ground on the allotment is waterlogged so working there is a no goer at the moment.

My shallots and onions are sitting in the nursery greenhouse in seed trays just beginning to sprout along with some cauli seeds. Now that the greenhouse is finished I can get down to some serious seed planting

Bit of a sad weekend really for me, 'cos I had to clear all my stuff off the allotment as we're moving. The worst thing was, it was all under about a foot of water!! I couldn't believe it - I've NEVER seen it like that before. We were wading through right up to the tops of our wellies, trying to wheel things to the van through acres of mud. Terrible. Tried to keep off the beds as much as possible, but even the greenhouse was under water.

Now I've taken all my 'precious' plants to a friend - we've got a gap between houses and we're going into a holiday flat for 5 weeks. I feel bereft without vegetative entertainment. sniff

Poor maz, sounds terrible.

We had a lovely dry weekend with sun so Nugget and I went to the plot. He slept and I planted garlic and cleared some old bark chippings off a path. Then he played with his Taggies blanket and I planted some lettuce under glass. He greeted a bit as well, but overall it was a wonderful day at the plot. I didn't take any photos though, shame.