The snow came back and might have killed my plants!

My planned blog post of today has been postponed and hijacked by the vagaries of English weather. Today, after all my talk of "hopefully the frosts are over" etc etc, it snowed.

And not just a light dusting; it was down to -4 and for periods of the day the blizzards were so thick they reduced visibility quite substantially.

Last night I looked outside and thought "I'm going to go out put my cloches back on" but I forgot by the time I got back home. And boy do I wish I hadn't forgotten.

This is what I came home to; these are some new compost bags I bought yesterday (125L each and they weigh a ton!).

The shop bought Coriander, which only a few days ago was looking sprightly and alive, is now hanging over the edge of the pot and looking dead. The leaves feel claggy and sticky and the snow, while only a centimetre or so deep, is sticky as well. This plant is NOT looking very well.

The Chives are not looking much better and also have the limp, sticky unhappy feel when you touch them. This is because, I think, the cells have frozen and burst. I REALLY hope I haven't killed them!

I have brought both the Coriander and the Chives inside to the warm to attempt to revive them. Fingers firmly crossed (from you as well, please!) that they get better. In the background you can see the repotted Geranium - thank goodness I didn't put that outside the other day too...

Just quickly to review the state of the plants which are remaining outside (as they are an experiment in "what happens when...")

The snow very nicely sets off the Broccoli here which appears to be taking the snow in it's stride, but is still looking a little nibbled.

The least successful of all these outside plants remains, as per, the Lettuce. That tiny splash of green is, I promise you, a Lettuce seedling. I will be surprised to get any harvest; I remain hopeful though.

Last but not least the Onion spikes still alive and looking very much the same as they did pre-snow. Onions seem to be REALLY tough!

While I am on the slightly "disaster" themed update, I did stupid last night and managed to knock one of my self watering planters off the windowsill; the one which had a tomato seedling in it. And yes the seedling did fall out onto the floor in a pile of soil :(

Fortunately I was able to pick it up and avoid damaging its roots too much so it is now sat back in place and, about 16 hours after the accident, is still looking healthy and alive. *wipes brow*.

Anyway, the blog I had planned for today (planting Begonias) I will now push out there tomorrow. I can't be doing two blogs in one day now, can I!

Keep growing.

Learning my lesson and repotting my carrots

So as promised yesterday the blog post today is a demonstration that yes, I CAN learn from previous mistakes.

If you remember when I re-potted the Crossley Specials they started to droop pretty much immediately and I worked out that this was because of the temperature of the compost I was moving them into.

Well, I have decided (because of the mildew in the Carrots) to re-pot the carrots (and originally I was going to do the Parsnips but I have ultimately decided against this)...

On Saturday I gathered together the containers that I am planning on putting the Carrots and Parsnips into. The terracotta pot at the back was ultimately discarded.

I have filled each container with compost to quite a good depth as you can see.

I am also going to re-pot the Geraniums and I have decided to use these two pots for this; once again, filled with very cold potting compost.

And this is the evidence of me learning; I have brought the containers in and put them next to a radiator so that they lose the dead cold from this horrible weather we are having at the moment and hopefully the seedlings will thrive a bit better immediately.

*over night break*

This morning I was up early and managed to recover most of the toilet rolls with Carrot seedlings in them. This is the first one which I set into the new compost. Fingers crossed the mildew goes soon. The compost inside the toilet roll was totally sodden though.

I have filled up one of the containers completely, and the other one has a few seedlings in. I am finding that growing Carrots is much harder than I expected - having lost all of them last year. My fingers are, however, firmly crossed.

The Geraniums are very much ready for re-potting; well at least one of them is really well grown and the other is a little smaller but still ready for re-potting I think.

The larger of the two Geranium seedlings safely re-potted into the dirty white flower pot and, as you can see, has been watered in slightly.

So, there you are - I can learn from my mistakes (and I will report back on how healthy the seedlings are when I next post a blog).

Keep planting.

First sight of 2013 Tomatoes, and other things

Hello there, it's the weekend and so it's time for a flurry of blog posts.

I am so busy in the rest of my life that the weekend is now firmly the only time I get to do any real gardening; other than a daily round of all the seedlings and watering them as needed. This is frustrating for me (as I want to be doing it more often) but it does sit will with the original purpose of the blog; how does trying to grow your own food work when you are busy busy busy.

So this update is my standard fare for the first one of the weekend; a load of progress pictures and chatter so, without wasting more of your time (or mine typing this) here we go.

**FANFARE!!** The 2013 Tomatoes are starting to show - this is a Moneymaker and was the one which I over-watered when making the self watering planters. I did not know this had started (as I've been away for a couple of days) so it was a great sight for me to see when I did my rounds just now.

Not one but both of the Moneymaker Tomatoes have become seedlings. This is the one on the front windowsill next to the Crossley Specials and the Mint. The Gardeners Choice still have not started but I am sure they will not be far behind.

A happy and settled looking Crossley Special Chilli fully settled in it's new home and clearly showing good second growth. All six of the moved plants are now looking happy (though a couple do still have a small amount of wilting still on the tips of their first growth leaves) so that is really good.

Another Crossley Special. As you can see they are looking happy and healthy and are enjoying being in a location where they get daylight every day. This is because I have put them behind the curtains so, even if we don't open them, they seedlings get the advantage of light.

Moving on, the Ghost Chillis are still in the heated propagator and the first seedling is now showing second growth. If you enbiggen this picture (by clicking on it) you can see that the back seedling has a couple of droplets of water nestled on the leaves. I think I will leave these in the heated propagator for another week or two at least to see if they establish themselves a bit better.

This was a very great surprise to see; this is the first green of the Globe Artichoke. I think this has only been in the compost for a week or two so I was fully not expecting to see anything.  By contrast, the Echinops Ruthenicus still hasn't shown at all. I am starting to wonder if it is not going to happen with that but I will leave it another four or five weeks.

The Foxglove seedlings have not really done much recently; these are confusing me slightly as I expected them to be quite strong seedlings standing tall (as Foxgloves do when they are fully grown) but they are spindly and tangled and not really putting much more growth on over the weeks. Anyone got any ideas?

The two Geranium seedlings, one of which is very advanced now. I am going to repot these tomorrow and there will be a blog about it you can be sure of that.

This is a very sad looking, almost certainly dead, Carrot seedling. I think I have made a few mistakes with my toilet roll idea - the main one was putting too much water in the tray. What has happened is mildew has set in and the seedlings have come up very spindly and they have started to fall back onto the soil and the soil is (as you can see) covered in mildew.

By no means, however, are all the Carrots looking unwell; this one is standing proud and has it's first growth leaves open to all daylight available. Whether I have made mistakes or not I am going to put these seedlings into deep soil tomorrow and hope that the mildew goes away and the seedlings become stronger and less tall and spindly. I will also be putting these outside in the next week or two as I hope the last of the frosts have been and gone.

The mildew affecting the Carrots is also encroaching on the Parsnips as you can see from this picture. The seedling has it's seed casing still attached which has been removed carefully to release the leaves.

Three Parsnip seedlings in a row all reaching towards the light. The Parsnips are looking much more healthy and solid than the Carrots but I will still be repotting them into the deep compost tomorrow.

My seed grown Coriander is now starting to properly flourish and has really started to look like proper Coriander. Pretty soon I will be giving a few of these plants away to people to spread the love of growing things and free up space for other things.

Going outside this is the shop bought Coriander which is looking very battered with the horrible weather we have been having for the last week or so however it is now established and I am confident it will mean that we do not have to buy any Coriander again this year.

A tiny Lettuce seedling. As I have repeatedly complained these have not really done much however, where before I only had three seedlings now a fourth has appeared so maybe something is going to happen here soon?

Four Onion spikes in a line; there are maybe ten or twelve spikes still looking strong and alive however I would suggest that the early planting has not really provided much impetus, nor the spring onions I was hoping for.

The Broccoli seedlings still looking the same as they did the last time I put a progress picture up and the time before and the time before. It is starting to frustrate me slightly that these have not given me the head start I wanted but I suppose I should not be surprised really.

Last but not least the shop bought Chives sat on their new bin-home. If the sun were to come out then these would be in the full glare of the morning sun however, since I moved them, the sun has not really made any appearance at all. They are also battered by the winds but I think they are established and will survive all year and into the next.

So, there you are... a lovely long and interesting update I am sure you will agree.

Tomorrow I will update you on re-potting the Carrots, Parsnips and Geraniums and will show you that yes, I do learn from previous mistakes.

Keep growing.

Repotting the Crossley Specials and replacing them in the Heated Propagator

As the Crossley Special chillis have made such outstanding progress I have decided to re-pot them out into bigger pots, making space for some other seeds to be started off in the heated propagator.

The three heated propagator trays with Crossley Special chillis in them.

The larger pots ready for compost putting in them.

A larger pot filled with compost prior to creating the hole.

All the pots with compost in them. An issue (ignored due to impatience) is the compost is very cold having been stored outside, and the seedlings are currently in lovely warm compost having been on the heated propagator.

Look closely and you will see that I have dug a depression into this compost ready to accept the new seedling.

Two seedlings ready for re-potting.

Very carefully moving a seedling by pushing my hand right underneath and avoiding disturbing the root system.

One Crossley Special seedling safely transferred and (fingers firmly crossed) happy in it's new home.

Having freed up these three trays I am now going to plant three more different seeds.

First of all a couple of Birdseye chilli seeds nestling in the palm of my hand.

The Birdseye chilis in the compost before they are covered over.

The Kerela seeds in the compost; I have no idea what will happen with these but hey, I may as well give it a go...

Two Globe Artichoke seeds prior to planting.

The Globe Artichoke seeds in the compost.

I have brought these large pots into the front room which is the warmest room in the house and now I have to hope that they take to their new homes. I am writing this about three hours after planting and sadly I can report right now that they are ALL looking very limp and unhappy. I think this could be because I have not warmed the compost prior to repotting.

I will keep you informed about what happens; Seriously hope I haven't killed them!

Keep planting :)

Edit **** Edit **** Edit **** Edit

I am updating this on the Sunday morning. It looks like the seedlings are going to make it!

This is a sad looking seedling struggling with the change in environment, specifically the heat in the soil.

However, I have come down this morning and...

This Crossley Special has recovered to be upright, though you can see evidence of stress in the tips of the leaves as they are still slightly curled up.

This one, on the other hand, looks completely happy and there is no evidence that it ever drooped or suffered any stress at all in the process.

I am carefully watering these in; I went to sleep last night worrying about them hah :) Fingers crossed they continue this path of surviving and are happy in the next pots.

Cheers

Removing Seed Casings

This post follows on nicely from the one yesterday. You will remember that, when I was taking my update photographs I noticed that the Carrots, which are growing well, had a large proportion of seedlings with the seed casing attached to the plant and preventing the leaves from spreading.

This is a common problem and is addressed in many places on the web but I thought I would quickly post a blog about what I did about it just now.

This is one of the Carrot seedlings with the seed casing still trapping the young leaves.

A lot of blogs suggest moistening the casing which will allow it to be removed easier and, to be fair, I think that when I come to the next round of carrying out this task I will do that. This time, as I was impatient, I tried it without using moisture.

I got a Stanley knife, and a pair of needle-nose pliers, and very carefully and gently loosened the casing, being sure to not uproot the seedling. With a minute or so per seedling of effort I was able to detach the casing without causing any tearing of the leaf.

Just on the very tip of these needle-nose pliers you can see the removed casing.

This is what a seedling should look like, with no casing trapping the leaves and able to grow healthily and well.

Anyway, that's a short update for you today.

Keep Growing.