Growing

I last posted just as April was arriving, but here we are just about to bid her farewell .. what's been happening in between? A lot of rain, and some very high winds (but then you knew that, right, if you're in the UK?!!) and a lot of growing!

All the wet has really exacerbated my problems with the little munchers who have been wreaking havoc in my growhouse .. this week I finally decided to bring in the peas, beans, sunflowers and courgette plants that had been seriously gnawed and were more hole than leaf :-( They are all perking up considerably back behind glass on the sunny recovery windowsill.

To make room on said sunny windowsills for the beleagured ones, I've put out my unexpectedly enormous quantity of baby tomato plants, as the slugs and snails don't seem as interested in tomatoes. This was a little experiment of mine, because I'd (inadvertantly) left out the last of my Ildi tomatoes on their plants in the growbags on the flat roof outside bedroom window last season - and there they hung all winter come wind, snow, storm or whatever. And there they were still in March, and several people told me to squish the dried out fruits onto kitchen roll and see if I could grow them. So I did! I put differing amounts of compost beneath and above (not really knowing what I was doing) inside eggbox lids not really expecting much .. and you've never seen anything like it. Germinated all over the place and what's more, every single one I transplanted (into its own little loo roll holder of compost) has taken. I have about 60 babies in trays of 5 or 6, all over the house!

Here are some in the coldframe, which seems to have fared better in terms of the illicit munchers. Also baby dill and marigold plants. And the start of a box of salad (against all the odds!)

They are a wonderful tomato, pretty little yellow plum-shaped cherry size fruits and really heavily laden plants. You can put them in hanging baskets or grow them up canes. I hope I will be able to find them all good homes to go to. Meanwhile, my 'proper' tomatoes, which I sowed in February, are busy flowering, would you believe .. a bit of regular nettle infusion has done wonders!

Also flowering at the moment are the strawberry plants outside, and we'll soon have the lovely chive blossoms too.

I've done better with the sweetpeas this year, soaking them helped and getting them enough light quickly enough and pinching them out at the right time (thanks to my wonderful neighbour who is expert at these things and doesn't mind a bumbling novice's barrage of questions!) Previous years they've been really leggy, so I'm quite pleased that I'm starting to get the hang of it. Won't risk these outside till the weather sorts itself out condsiderably.

April showers are magical .. every year it amazes me just how much everything GROWS in just a few weeks! Usually in March I look at the herb garden and think there's lots of gaps and I'll need a few more plants to pop in here and there. Then by the end of April everything is burgeoning. And although I love to see the flowers, there is something super special in April about all that lush bright green growth, unsullied and full of promise and newness and freshness. Every day this month I've stood by the back door looking out at the garden in the rain and its kind of visibly grown in front of my eyes. Fantastic!

Bean Update

Ooh, I forgot to show you how my little bean seedlings are doing ..

First they looked like this, if you remember?

They soon got potted up and looked like this (on a typical grey day, a week or so back!)


.. and now we're getting a bit of sunshine, they look like this


.. and I think they mean business!!

Beans Unfurling

Oh, I just can't wait to show this to everyone..





.. I was so excited!

These are my heritage dwarf beans, which were very kindly sent to me by Daughter of the Soil .. and are going to be potted up this weekend.

Aren't they just fab? And everytime I go and look they've grown a bit more.

Improvising Incubators

Today I have been sorting through my jumble of handy bits and bobs I've been hoarding in preparation for the great seed-sowing later this week.

I've been keeping plastic food trays, tin foil cat food trays, toilet rolls, eggboxes, yoghurt pots and anything else that looks vaguely serviceable!

I'm even contemplating making flower pots out of the bottom halves of 1litre plastic milk containers.. I'm thinking that the top handle part, upside down, might be brilliant as a watering device for courguettes and squashes in grow bags so that the water gets down to the roots (may be getting carried away, here!)

Have spent a happy hour making individual cloches out of drinks bottles, anyway, and looking forward to getting started.

This link has some great ideas:

Making Recycled Seed Pots

----> GET INVOLVED: Tell me your tips!

Seedlings

Warms the heart, doesn't it?

Sowing seed

At the first signs of dusk I planted my first seeds of the year. Always a lovely thing to do, looking forward to the season ahead.

I have a little propagator with individual cells so that I don't have to prick out the seedlings. This first batch was to get my tomato plants started. I'm growing a big beefsteak type tomato called 'Brandywine' that I love. Alongside I started some Pot Marigold to companion plant with my tomatoes.

I've also done an early batch of Sunflowers - one of my favourites, so I want to see them in flower as soon as possible. I'm growing two dwarf varieties, as they will be living on my roof .. and the tall ones would just sail away!! One day, when I have a real garden, I'm going to have huge sunflowers. I was really inspired by a house I saw last summer where someone had trained them up round their front door - it looked amazing!

Sown February New Moon. Germination time approx 1 to 2 weeks. Recommended germination temperature 18 degrees C (so might need a hot water bottle!)