2025 - What I did today

Sorry to hear about P's fall. Hope he hasn't fractured his wrist - its easy to do. Don't ask how I know. Anyway, stop working him so hard!

Yesterday we took the bean frame/netting  down its now stored indoors.   Then we removed the  GH shading and spotted  a apple tree branch had broke a pane of glass   so trip out to buy a replacement.

After that the tree was pruned it looks a bit one-sided but it can't reach the GH now.

There was the threat of rain by lunchtime so we both chose to do outside in the morning and inside this afternoon. When I made room nextdoor to thug blackberry for the new thornless one, I transplanted a tayberry originally from Lidl into a huge pot. I never expected it to take. It had never done much, was rather weedy and the fruit came before the blackberry and was eaten by wildlife. The pot was placed on the hardstanding near the gh so got watered during the heat. Now it is thriving and has several runners(?) probably 10ft long. My plan today was to transport said pot with incumbent tayberry into the fruitcage and then tie its runners to the raspberry straining wires. I had to weed the grape hyacinth from the ground it was going to stand on. As ever, doing one job creates loads more to be done first. Mission accomplished, all by myself, P was no use with a poorly wrist and anyway he wasn't there. Then cutting down stuff, weeding, restaking toms.

Spent some time playing with seeds as its been wet all day here. Just a quick mooch around the garden with Ted , then back indoors.

Nipped to Aldi in the morning for sugar then made blackberry and apple jam,

Nipped to Aldi in the morning for sugar then made blackberry and apple jam,

WHAT!!  Already? It's not even 9am!

I should have said that was yesterday,  I'm not that organised on a Sunday morning. 

I should have said that was yesterday,  I'm not that organised on a Sunday morning. 

I am so relieved,  I was feeling decidedly inadequate.

Cleared the greenhouse borders to make room for my lettuce buckets, dismantled the self-watering system, and gave everything a wash.

Made some chutney this afternoon.

I've processed all the mushrooms I picked yesterday - all 9 kilos of it! We're having one helluva year for the big shrooms, and I could not believe it when I found so much yesterday. No trumpet chanterelles though, which I was hoping for, but it could just be that I don't know what it actually looks like lol

So I'm drying some in the dehydrator and frozen the rest, either whole or chopped up. A friend of mine is a real whiz at pickling them, so we're going out picking together one day, and she'll show me all her tricks!

I've also started taking cuttings from pelargoniums whilst prepping them for overwintering somewhere cool. They'll probably live in the basement once it cools down.

I have to plant out my mock orange cuttings, that have taken beautifully, for them to survive the winter. Pots simply won't do.