Sunday 17 May 2009

Potting in the Rain - Dodging the Rain

Plot 144

Today was a rain dodging day, so I started with pottering around here and there and everywhere.....




So in no particulare order - these are my parsnips which are now thinned to 15cm or 6 inches. It seemed such a shame throwing baby miniture parsnips away, but that's the rules - they have to be thinned.


Under the cloches are the outside (for obvious reasons) Aubergines - the others will stay in the Greenhouse to see which does best!











After another dash to the Greenhouse for cover, I put some more planks down and decided to put out a couple of courgette plants. However I forget now which ones they are but think they are "Green Bush" but I could be wrong. As you can see they are by the Sweetcorn which was getting more of a battering in the wind!












Just behind the Twirly are 3 tomato plants that Sicilian Sam gave me yesterday, so I added two of my own today. The ones I grew are "Roma" and I have 4 in the green house and now 2 outside - it will be interesting to compare the results.










I bought some lettuce slug resistant barriers today and put my iceburg lettuce plants under their protection - Arthur (who incidently gave me the lettuces) swear by them. At £9 for six they are not cheap but should last a lifetime.
p.s. I did water them well after I took the picture! (just in case you were wondering)









I put in the next lot of peas and then the first lot of Mange Tout. So the peas are in the background and the mange tout in the foreground of the picture. I immediately re used the trays where the seedlings were growing and planted some more in the Greenhouse so that will be the 3rd lot of peas on the go and the 2nd of mange tout.


So all in all and 3 trips there and back, quite alot achieved really considering the rain kept threatening all the time. At one stage the sun was hot and warm and very soothing, then 2 minutes later, the black clouds came, it went cold and I dashed for the warmth of the Greenhouse. One thing I did notice today though was how warm the soil was when I was planting things out - it was lovely to stick your hand into the earth and feel the natural warmth that was there.
Plot 121 - nothing to report - sorry - rain has stopped play & there is no shelter down that end of the site for me e.g. no shed to hide in or no-ones greenhouse to run for

4 comments:

Kella said...

You sure got a lot done today. I also found myself dodging the rain today.

In 2007 I was running late with getting my beds ready and so bought some lettuce plants off of eBay, they were a hearting type and it didn't even occur to me that they might have been an iceberg variety. I started harvesting them when they were huge but still blousy (truth be told I had forgotten they were a hearting type). Anyway the last five or so were harvested after they had hearted up and blow they were the best iceberg lettuce I have ever had, the taste was different from when they were still open and blousy. It was like getting two types of lettuce from one set of plants :) So I’m sure you’ll enjoy yours.

Maureen said...

Ali, you always amaze me with the amount of work you can do in one visit to the lottie. It all looks great. I love the pot things around the lettuces, where can I buy some from ? I hope my parsnips do as well as yours.

Scattered Gardener said...

I think you were quite brave being down there at all today - some quite heavy showers on this side of the borough!

Mandy said...

Looking Good.