Close Up Progress plus Planting

Waking up this morning to bright sunshine (for what seems like the first time this year) I was filled with the feeling of twitchy fingers wanting to get out and do something in the garden.

I also noticed last night that the coriander is showing some corrugation on it's second growth which is great progress.

So today, I have some close up pictures of the progress my plants are making, now the snow has gone and spring feels like it is in the air *smiley face*

Coriander starting to show second growth, with the tell-tale corrugated leaves proving that yes, those tiny little specs which I planted all those weeks ago actually WERE coriander seeds. Soon I will be splitting these seedlings up into separate pots and will be able to give a few away to people (which I always like doing; sharing is caring as they say).

The mint has put up several new shoots, and this it the tip of one of them. The main growth that was there when I bought it is doing it's creeping-thing, leaning over and spreading across the windowsill. As soon as I am confident there will be no more frosts then this will be good to go outside.

A tiny lettuce seedling; however, the second growth is finally visible and from experience once you see that, it is about to go nuts and grow like the clappers. I'm so impressed this has survived all that snow, but I won't be planting that early again because there is just no point. I'm going to be checking this very regularly though as I reckon it will grow fast from now on.

The onions. There are a few clumps like this coming up, both from areas which were under the cloche and those which were not covered up. I hope that in the next month or two these are to a state where I can pull them as young onions and add them to a salad, maybe with the first of the lettuce leaves.

The broccoli, not really any different to what it was the week or two before the snow fell. Something looks like it is nibbling at the leaves too; it looks toothed rather than slug-shaped but I have no idea what could be doing that? Any ideas?

This is something I really cannot believe; all through the winter this plant has been producing beautiful looking oranges like these. And, as you've seen in previous blog posts, it has been putting height on in leaps and bounds over the last four weeks. I am really excited about how big it will get over the summer. Watch this space.

I also woke up with an urge to plant and so I have opened and set out the Basil and Oregano pot which was part of my Christmas present.

The unopened packet, with a very attractive wooden planter pair.

The package containing the Basil. Two bags of "planting material" (according to the packet) and a TINY packet of minuscule seeds.

The package containing the Oregano. A similar amount of "planting material" and a tiny packet containing slightly larger, but still little, seeds.

Planting material in the containers, "generously watered" and the seeds buried about 6mm under the surface. These are now sitting on our bedroom window, as this gets a lot of sun, and as per usual I am now waiting with great excitement to see the first green shoots. You can guarantee that I will be looking every single morning and you will be informed the minute something shows.

Finally this week I ordered the flower seeds to encourage pollinators to come to my garden. They are supposed to arrive this week so next weekend I could be quite busy (and my girlfriend quite annoyed as the house turns into a garden nursery).

I hope you are all out there starting to get busy in your gardens and getting ready for an exciting year or growing and producing food so you don't have to buy low quality low taste low fun supermarket junk.

Enjoy :)

Chilli Oil, Garlic Mayo and Winter Growth Update

Well, I have not updated this as regularly as I expected, as there has not been as much progress in the onions, lettuce and broccoli.

In the intervening period I have been considering the growing plans for the coming year and getting frustrated at the length of the winter; it feels like I have been unable to grow anything for about two years now!

My lovely other half has, however, had a fruitful winter making use of the remaining chillis and some of the garlic (I have SO much garlic I hope to not have to buy any this year, and will definitely be growing more, but that's another blog) to make Chilli Oil and Garlic Mayo.

Starting to slice up the lovely red chillis

One split chilli, look at all those lovely hot seeds

Chop chop chop chop....

... and dropping the chopped chilli into the olve oil.

Chillis nestled in the bottom of the bottle.

My dried garlic, ready for preparation

Mmmm garlicy goodness

Peeling them under water as they are very strong and made her eyes water :D

Shaving the garlic into very thin slices...

... and mixing it into the, already garlic, mayo to make even MORE garlic mayo

So there you are, a couple of ways to make use of your produce.

A couple of final things to say about it; I did try and dry the chillis out by spreading them out on an oven tray and then putting them in with the oven on very low (about 50 degrees) but I don't think I left them in for long enough as they still got a bit moldy, which is why we decided to put them into oil to preserve them. I will try again with drying some shop bought ones, and report back on what I have learned.

The garlic I also dried in this way and it appears to have been done for long enough; I left it in for about two hours or so...

Anyway, to the MOST exciting part of my update; all the seeds that I planted before christmas have started showing! I am so very very excited. I thought I'd lost the lettuce at least, as in the summer months it sprouts very quickly indeed, but when I went to take pics for this blog of the broccoli, I noticed that both the red onion and the lettuce are showing.

So, here are the pictures:

Lettuce showing tiny seedlings; four out of the five seeds are showing :)

Onion spikes; it looks like a lot of the onions seeds have sprouted which is excellent news. It will be interesting when they develop as I may need to re-pot them to ensure a large harvest.

Last but not least the broccoli. This started showing before Christmas but I didn't get my camera out because I am a lazy sod. It looks like most of the seeds that I planted have also sprouted with these as well.

So, as you can see, my year has started with some very heartening success. I am now champing at the bit to get into the rest of my planting.

As you will know (if you are a regular reader of this blog) I have moved to a house with a small yard and no earth based garden to speak of. Today I also took a tape measure into this yard so I can make a plan of how many pots and planters I can fit in, while allowing space for the punch bag, and a space to eat outside in the summer.

I also plan on planting some flowers to encourage bees to visit so they can work hard for me to pollenise all my my plants.

So there you are, I'm back in the saddle and more excited even than last year.

With the way food prices are going to go this year, why don't you get a couple of planters and throw some seeds into some soil; you could find it saves you loads of money, and also provides you fun throughout the year.

Get involved.

First Tomato Appears!

I was just on the phone to my mother (happy birthday, by the way!) and while I was looking at my tomato plants inside and I suddenly noticed something that had missed my notice before.

I have my FIRST TOMATO!

I am very very excited.

So, for your excitement:

My first tomato. Get IN!

I have also started getting some buds developing on the chilli plants.

Nascent flowers on my chilli plants.

Hopefully I am going to have better luck with these than I appear to be having with the potatoes. The tomato plants are being very thirsty, and the plants outside are not as tall as those inside, but are looking squat and healthy with quite a smattering of flowers now.

In contrast, the Chilli plants outside are looking bedraggled and battered, but hey; with this weather can you blame them!

Finally, just for @ranty_pants:

My new camera :)

I think you have to agree that the quality of photograph from my new camera is really an amazing improvement!

Cheers