Potatoes showing green plus other outdoor progress

For some very boring reason I won't bother you with I had to go into the back garden today and, as is my wont, I went round the plants to see what progress I can spot and, wouldn't you know, something exceptionally exciting has occurred. As is also my wont, I went and grabbed my camera and have done this blog for you.

So... the big news is (not that it's given away by the blog title but yeah....).....

I have some potatoes showing green!

Here are the pictures as evidence:

The Rocket Potatoes are the ones showing the most so far; there are actually four plants poking through but I couldn't get them all in shot inside the bag. I am quite excited indeed.

The other Potato showing is the Maris Piper, but only this solitary little splash of green is evident in this bag.

The Charlotte Potatoes are not showing at all yet, but hopefully they are very close to breaking through also.

While I was outside I took the opportunity to take pictures of everything else... obviously... so:

The Lettuce is now growing fast and soon will be eatable; I should plant some more really.. I keep saying that don't I....

The Carrot is still outside and does not look like it is doing too badly; this is one experiment I hope has some good results....

The Parsnip is similar to the Carrots; not doing anything amazing but not dead, yet.

Unfortunately in the week I had a bit of a disaster with the Onion; something (probably that damn cat) had knocked the planter over and there was soil all over the ground, with some of the Onion spikes out too; I was able to save it and stand it upright and this, taken just now and a few days after that discovery, appears to show that they have survived. It is also evidence of just how well they have started growing.

The Broccoli continues to be the outside plant which is doing the best and is now really thriving.

The Shop bought Chives which  I planted out is doing ok; well it's not dead yet at least.

A similar story with the shop bought Coriander which had been picked to death to feed me... hopefully it will settle in and do what my old one did at the old house.

Last but not least, the very unhappy looking Foxglove. The same day I went out and found that the Onions had been spread over the yard I noticed that it looked like this had been dug up by something... I'm suspecting the same cat (which woke me up in the night last night howling; you can guess it's not my favourite creature right now huh)... I have re-bedded it in and it does look a little happier now but yeah; maybe this should have been planted outside later and not coddled in the heated propagator.

Anyway, there you have my update.

Thanks for reading

Keep Growing your Own

Flowers of Spring

Today I have a short but very sweet update for you.

With Spring (or is it Autumn) finally upon us I have some very nice flowers on a couple of my plants which I thought you may be interested in seeing.

The Citrus flowers which I spotted and posts a photograph about have now started to open and are looking very pretty; there are a LOT of flowers but this was the best picture I took.

The Citrus Tree is still growing well as you can see; with lots of new growth. I am tempted to prune this down at some point.

The seed grown Coriander has probably not been watered enough as it has started putting out tiny little white flowers on the top of each plant.

Well, that was the flower excitement... now for some more normal update pictures:

The late starting Gardeners Delight Tomato seedling has put out more leaves and is growing fast. Hopefully it will catch up and produce some fruit. There is still nothing at all from the other seed yet.

Both Geranium plants are looking very similar; they have very large leaves now which are soaking up whatever sun comes to them on the windowsill.

The five Begonia plants are all enjoying the new experience of having sun on them.

The Birdseye Chilli seedlings are really weedy and pathetic looking still. I really am not sure why they are so sickly still but I have moved them to a more sunny location so fingers firmly crossed.

Last but not least the Globe Artichoke is now really quite tall and seems to be thriving. Each new leaf seems more spiky than the last. I am quite excited about what will happen next and when the "globe" part of its name will become apparent.

Anyway, that's all for today. Thanks for reading and remember to keep growing your own

Bank Holiday Excitement

Happy bank holiday people.

And what a lovely day it has been. Who says bank holidays are always rainy and horrible.

The sun shining in through my bedroom window this morning encouraged me to get loads done today and, as such, this blog post is super long so I'll crack on with it without any more fuss.

First task for the day was to plant out the shop bought Coriander and Chives, and the Foxgloves.

It's the first outing of the year for the All Steel Spade, here after the planting hole (slightly too deep as it happened) for the Chives has been dug.

The Chives plant (not looking very healthy but worth planting out) watered in to its new home.

I dug a shallow trench for the Foxglove and put potting compost into the bottom of it.

The Foxglove nestled into the trench and with dirt tamped down around it.

Digging the planting hole for the Coriander with the All Steel Spade

The Coriander watered in and tamped down with dirt.

The three plants bedded down into the soil; you will notice that I have deliberately not taken all the weeds away; this is down to inspiration from The One Straw Revolution which is a book I got for my birthday and have read through without any pause; I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The lettuce are starting to actually look like lettuce now.

This is the broccoli, almost unrecognisable from the tiny little plants that were all that were there before the sun finally came out and they have exploded into life.

The Onion spikes are still tiny but they are growing again I think.

Today I also moved the Carrots and the Parsnips outside (I have put a cover over each to stop birds taking the seedlings) so hopefully these will now also start to thrive.

A panoramic photo of the growing things in the back garden. From left to right: Coriander, Foxglove and Chives in the bed, Broccoli and Onions in the terracotta pots, Parsnip and Carrot in the square white, Lettuce in the round white and finally the Potatoes in the green planters.

So, that is the update and planting from outside. The next thing I achieved today was last week I saved some seeds from a Pepper I used whilst cooking.

The Pepper seeds saved from cooking last week drying on kitchen paper.

All the seeds separated from the casings and ready for planting or storing.

I've used my last empty TicTac box for the Peppers.

I have planted four Pepper seeds into my empty Heated Propagator trays.

The Heated Propagator is now on the bedroom windowsill which gets more direct sunlight than the dining room window which is effected by the kitchen extension blocking the sun.

The two Ghost Chilli seedlings in the sun; I am sure that with the increase in direct light these will have a growth spurt.

The Birsdeye Chillis have now started showing some second and third growth and as such are looking much healthier than they were a few weeks ago.

Three Crossley Special chillis in a location which gets solid afternoon sun and demonstrating just how much they enjoy the sun; shortly these will have to be staked soon to stop them collapsing as they have started to do so.

One of the most exciting updates is the Citrus plant has suddenly got LOADS of flowers on it; fingers crossed all of these will turn into fruit. I am expecting to have to self-pollinate, but maybe I'll just keep opening the window next to it.

This is the middle Begonia seedling, and I picked this picture to show the tiny hairs on the stalk .

All five Begonia seedlings with two very well established at the edges, and the others much smaller; the picture above is of the seedling in the middle of this tray.

This detail of the Bromeliad shows how the red leaves start brightest at the centre, and as they spread out and down they start to lose their red colouration and turn green (look to the bottom left of the picture).

The Gardeners Delight seedling which has finally sprouted has already put out second growth; I think this is going to sprint now to catch up with its Moneymaker brothers.

And here is one of its brothers; the Moneymaker Tomato.

Lastly for this monster length update this is the Dining Room window sill now; with (left to right) Moneymaker Tomato, Geranium, Gardeners Delight Tomato (not sprouted yet), another Geranium and finally the Gardeners Delight Tomato which has sprouted.

So, there you are; it's that exciting time of year when everything starts growing and gardeners get outside after the freezing cold of our extended winter.

I did take some other pictures of the trees in the garden showing shoots but thought you'd probably have enough pictures to look at here.

Keep growing, keep reading.

The Self Watering Planters

As I was going around this morning doing my normal morning watering routine I spotted something very exciting indeed.

The Gardeners Delight tomatoes, which have up until now shown absolutely no sign whatsoever of ever germinating, has suddenly got one seedling!

I planted two, and the other one is still showing nothing, but I am very excited about this.

It really is an excellent advert for the efficacy of the Self Watering Planter that I am using; because the Moneymaker Tomatoes had started so many weeks previously I have ignored the two containing the non-responsive Gardeners Delight but, because they are self watering, the compost remained moist and now I have a little plant to make me so happy.

The tiny Gardeners Delight Tomato seedling taken this morning, to much celebration.

The obvious success this demonstrates gave me the inspiration to do a blog post study of one of the Self Watering Planters (actually the one which contains the Moneymaker which has been on the floor twice).

So here you can see how, two months in, my Self Watering Planters are looking.

As I was warned by my mate, there is quite a lot of algae developed in the bottom of the planter; I'm using tap water and this is not so thickly coated that it isn't easy to clean if you want to.

This particular planter is stood in a warm area of the house, which receives regular direct sunlight. You can see that the water in the bottom has started to evaporate however, as the reservoir is sealed, the water condenses on the sides and collects once again; I have only had to refill these once in two months.

You can see the root system of the Tomato plant here, as the plant fills all the space available to it. There is also some green algae in the compost but this does not seem to be causing any problems to the plant. I am presuming this is down to the fact the wick keeps the soil very moist at all times.

Finally, as I move up the planter, this is the incredibly healthy plant which is growing in this 2 litre bottle.It is amazing to me how well this has grown.

And this is the full height of the plant in it's planter.

So there you are; I cannot recommend this homemade Self Watering Planter highly enough; it recycles waste and allows you to grow amazing plants with minimal effort - ticks all the boxes for me :)

Cheers for reading...