Every week I watch Gardeners world and I particularly like Monty's jobs for the weekend section. I am generally quite disorganised so this week I was inspired to write my own list - I didn't expect to get through it all so I prioritised it. My thought was that if I had a list it would help me to focus on the things that need to be done.
- remove leaves from last potato bed and earth up potatoes
- weed beds
- turn over compost
- make staging for polytunnel
- fasten down weed membrane around polytunnel
- fasten bird netting to polytunnel doors
- put netting over the pond
- make cloche hoops for beds
- clear last section of plot
- Cut grass
- mark out last beds
- put down weed membrane for rest of paths
- plant out sweetcorn, peas and pumpkins
- make last 3 beds (2 outside, 1 in polytunnel)
- plant tomatoes and cucumbers into grow bags/pots
- plant melons into final pots
- set up irrigation
I actually managed to do the first 8 things on the list; I was particulary pleased with the staging in the polytunnel. I bought some aluminium angle from ebay, I already had some from my greenhouse staging that I wasn't using but it wasn't quite enough.
I had timber left over from building the polytunnel, I measured all the pieces and Mr L cut them all for me - I had used some of the staging from the greenhouse so I didn't want there to be a big step between the two; when I measured them against each other there was just a small step up. I used an off-cut to make sure the batons were evenly spaced and I think it looks as good as a bought one.
I think I said on a previous blog that I had covered one of my potato beds with leaves to protect them from the frost; last week I took the fleece off of the other bed and it was covered in weeds. I spent ages clearing the weeds and earthing up the potatoes but I didn't have time to clear the other one and I was dreading what I would find. This week I bit the bullet and cleared the bed because the potatoes were starting to come through and they needed earthing up. I was really surprised to find that there were no weeds in the bed at all. I moved all of the leaves into my compost bin which wasn't ideal but I don't have a leaf mould bin. Putting them in there did make me turn the compost over though so that was a bonus!
I also bought some MDPE pipe from Toolstation to make my cloche hoops. I decided that I would put hoops on all of the beds because whilst I'm not going to net all of them if the hoops are in place there's no reason to move them and I can then cover as I need to. I got 50m of the 20mm pipe, it was the cheapest and there's really no need to get a thicker one for more money.
I also used the fixing band again to secure the pipe to the beds. I found with the strawberry bed that if I pushed the hoop into the ground and then fixed the band at the top of the bed then the hoop is really solid so I did the same again.
I'm nearly there with the structural work on my plot and the planting is very much underway; my polytunnel staging is pretty full and I generally use the Chelsea Flower Show as a good benchmark for the time to be able to plant out. Next week is the show and another bank holiday weekend so I'm hoping that the weather will be good enough for me to get everything out. I need to buy more peas to plant because the majority of mine haven't grown but I've got a good crop of sweetcorn (which I want the peas to grow up) and the pumpkins are looking good as ground cover.
I like the idea of doing a list, it helped me to focus and meant that I got more done; I'll have 3 days next week so I'm hoping that I'll get the rest of the list done; I'm going to see if I can get some more scaffolding planks to make the last 3 beds and then I can really focus on the growing.
Quick update before I go, I put the capillary matting down to keep my seedlings watered in the week, whilst they seedlings weren't completely dried out the matting was dry so I will need to go to the plot in the week to keep it watered. This week I also left the doors open with bird netting covering it so that might mean it doesn't get so hot in there while I'm away. I'll keep you posted :-)
Happy gardening everyone...
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