Some long delayed planting out and potting up

After no blogs for ages, now two in two days!

This is blog about some jobs that I have been putting off for many weeks indeed; two tasks which have probably directly contributed to a lower yield this year and two the death of maybe more than one plant.

First of all, my seed grown Coriander has been sat on the front windowsill since I separated the tiny seedlings into five distinct clumps and it grew well there (as you will see if you look back through the blogs) however a month or so ago it started getting too straggly and dry and ever since I have been planning on planting it outside; the second part of this plan was to put the Gardeners Delight Tomato plants (yes, plants; I  now have another seedling showing finally; more proof of the benefit of patience) onto this window as they are lagging badly behind the Moneymakers.

So, without any more blah blah blah words here are the pictures...

The five clumps of seed grown Coriander looking dry, covered in flowers, and seed blown; I think these have just got too dry with me only being able to water them twice a day.

Here is a picture of a hole. Yep. I want to excite you THAT much...

And here is the final result of the potting out of the five clumps of seed grown Coriander planted out around the established shop bought Coriander.

This picture is one of many which I took while planting out the Coriander; there must have been about thirty or forty bees clustered around the flowers on this bush all busily collecting pollen. In this picture you can see two of them near the middle of the picture; fantastic.

While I was outside I took the opportunity also of taking some pics of the other growth and progress...

First of all the exploding Potato plants which have completely filled their planters; I am going to struggle now to earth these up; this is going to be a challenge for tomorrow not today though. I am just very pleased they are growing so well after the total failure of last year.

The Lettuce has been shaded slightly by the Potato plants so they are looking a little yellow here; I have now moved them and watered them and will pay more attention I think.

The onions are growing and growing well; I cannot work out how the bulbs will be developing in there but hey.

Oh look it is a lot of Broccoli...

The other task which I have been putting off for ages was potting the Ghost Chilli Pepper from the heated propagator tray where it has been stalling in its growth; sadly while I was away on holiday the second seedling died.

I have some warmed compost on the left, and the Ghost Chilli Pepper tray on the right.

The surviving Ghost Chilli is looking quite strong here but, to its right, you can see the shriveled remains of its brother which didn't survive my holiday.

The Ghost Chili in it's new plant pot.

I have now moved the Ghost Chilli and the two Gardeners Delight Tomato plants onto the front windowsill so they get more sun during the days; hopefully this will cause some fruit to develop on these three plants.

Anyway, there we are; my update.

More soon

Starting to plant potatoes and repotting the Parsnips

Happy weekend everyone :)

At the end of last week the final part of my bumper-order arrived which was my potato planters and some seed potatoes. Yesterday, therefore, I got all excited and decided to get them planted out.

These are the three shiny clean planters just out of the box. And yes that IS sun you can see in the picture. I know, it's been so LONG since we saw it!

Not so clean now, the instructions that I had read up to this point in time told me to fill the bag about one third full and plant some seed potatoes at that depth. So this is what I am doing...

... however after filling two of the three planters to that depth (just about) I recalled my hard-learned-lesson and thought "ooooh - I should be warming this up before planting". So this is one of the large bags of compost next to the radiator and I also brought the other two bags in after taking this picture.

I also read the rest of the instructions and discovered that they recommend that you Chit the Potatoes prior to planting into warmed soil anyway so this brought a resounding stop to my "let's plant some potatoes" plans for this weekend. I have, however, set them a-chitting...

Three egg boxes from the stack I have saved now finally coming in slightly useful.

The Maris Piper seed Potatoes set with the sprouting end upwards in the egg box which is clearly marked for future reference.

Five Rocket Potatoes set out for chitting.

And finally the Charlotte Potatoes wedged in.

These three egg boxes are now sat on a chair in the dining room next to the window as that room is cool and has plenty of light; my effort to take over the entire house with growing stuff is going well :)

So now I just leave these for a while; some websites are suggesting six weeks which just will NOT happen - I'm going to leave it until all of them have some good green showing, and then get them in the planters and outside...

To make up for the disappointment of not being able to plant my Potatoes, and also to make space on the boards next to the radiator, I have decided to take the sprouted Parsnips and put them into deeper soil. This is the first one to be moved.

All the Parsnip seedlings re-potted. I am a bit disappointed with my yield from the Parsnips and Carrots; I have probably only got about 65% seed success. I will not bother with the effort of singly planting these root crops again; next time I do it I will plant as I did last year, into grooves in the soil and using lots of seed up (but I will remember to bird-proof the seedlings too).

So, finally for this super long blog post, I have a couple of updates then I'll let you get on with your day...

First of all the second Birdseye Chilli has sprouted. This picture was taken on Saturday and when I checked this morning it was already about twice as big as this.

The shop bought Coriander is now fully back to life and looking strong and healthy. If you look to the right edge of this picture you will see stubs where leaves have been picked; this is providing us with tasty additions to curries regularly already.

Outside, the Broccoli appears to be putting on a growth spurt and the leaves are starting to take on a less "juvenile" shape. Here's hoping we can be eating this soon too.

By contrast the Onions have not really done much at all; this picture nicely shows the success I have had with each seed as you can clearly make out the V shape I planted the seeds in.

Lastly for outside the Lettuce is still pathetic and small... come on little seedlings, get big so I can eat you!

Finishing with a success story; the seed grown Coriander, which was looking so unhappy in the rubbish planting material the seeds came with, are now really strong looking and potentially I will be ready to give a couple of these away to deserving people. Shout now if you want any?

So, there you have it... I will keep a photo diary of the potatoes and may bore you yet with a day by day chitting progress report when I get round to planting them.

I'm hopeful for another guest blog post shortly too.

Keep growing.

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.

Lots of progress

So it is the weekend again and it is time for the latest update photographs from around my house.

I have a LOT of photographs so I will crack on now without any further delay.

The mint plant really flourishing. This is left behind the curtains all the time so it has lots of light, and I am watering it about once or twice a week at most.

The Moneymaker Tomato self watering planter. This is the one which I massively over-watered originally however the water has drained through into the reservoir and the soil is now the correct moistness; I think this idea is one of my favourites that I have ever come across.

Gardeners Delight and another Moneymaker Tomato. The self watering planters are really proving themselves.

The two Ghost Chilli Seedlings. I think these need another week or so in the heated propagator however they are looking very strong and healthy.

The biggest of the Crossley Special chillis, showing good second growth. The other five plants are all coming on and I am starting to think it is time to re-pot these into their final homes (which will also free up the heated propagator to allow me to plant other things).

The cloud of Foxglove seedlings seen through the cover of the heated propagator.

At last the second Geranium seedling has popped through. The first one is definitely ready for re-potting.

If you close one eye, squint the other and stand on your head you may be able to see the TINY seedling in this photograph (taken with a zoom lens standing on a chair as I do not have a macro lens... yet) which I think is a Echiniops Ruthenicus seedling. There are two of these showing but the other one is even harder to see!

The tray of Parsnips growing in their toilet rolls. I have been ensuring that there is standing water in the tray at all times.

The only Parsnip seedling so far showing and, as with the Echinops Ruthenicus seedlings, very very tiny.

The tray of Carrot seedlings (and yes, there are a number of seedlings) also with standing water to act as a kind of self watering system.

A single carrot seedling striving to the sky and with it's first little leaves opening nicely.

This carrot seedling has still got it's seed casing around it and stopping the small leaves from opening. This is a problem and I will blog tomorrow about removing it.

The shop bought Chive plant outside and still alive. It is looking a little unhappy, but is still growing. I think this needs moving to a more sunny position.

The shop bought Coriander which has bedded itself in well in it's new home. This, unlike the Chives, looks like it is OK with not being in direct sunlight.

A tiny Lettuce seedling, shown next to some hay and a chunk of moss.

Onion spikes luxuriating in the sun, but not really growing much.

The Broccoli, still the most advanced of my early outdoor plantings, but not really growing much either.

Just to do a quick summary, these early plantings have already been overtaken by the seedlings (like the Carrots) which were planted two months later. I think they have not really been a great success. I am hopeful, though, that with the advent of spring (and yesterday was 1st March) they may suddenly explode into growth and I will get a good early harvest. To test this I will be planting the same seeds again outside in the next month to see if the next seeds overtake the winter planted seeds.

Three oranges growing on the Citrus Tree.

The Citrus Tree (though I'm not sure it is large enough to really warrant the label "tree").

The tray of seed grown coriander which is another success; all the seedlings have reestablished themselves and are growing again.

One of the seed grown Coriander seedlings (which had previously been one of the worst looking seedlings) now showing how much it has grown.

Right, that is my update; short I know :D

It is great to see so much success and I have another blog ready for you tomorrow, and may even get round to doing some of my re-potting today also (which of course I will also photograph and blog).

Keep growing.