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

Potting out the Chillis

Yesterday I finally managed to get round to potting out the chillis.

My chillis are SUBSTANTIALLY smaller than Jon's at work and I was starting to develop an inferiority complex. A theory has developed that I have stunted them by keeping them in small pots for too long...

So, follows the photo-story of me potting them into much larger pots to hopefully encourage the growth spurt that they so desperately need.

First I gathered together large pots for the purpose. I have seven chilli plants remaining.

Then I put some plastic packing material in the bottom of each pot, to improve drainage and stop waterlogging.

The pot was then filled with compost and a hole dug centrally that was big enough to accept the root-system.

Each plant was carefully placed into the hole, ensuring that the roots were not disturbed, and the stem was below the surface of the soil up to the first baby leaves (a trick described in lessons learned from potting out my tomatoes).

The plant, placed as described above.

A very happy looking chilli plant, with the soil tamped down gently to secure the stem, and watered liberally to encourage bedding in.

I now have two chilli plants back in the window where the plant nursery is, one on my bedroom window, one in one of the greenhouses and three in pots actually outside; this means that the current change in weather (I'm now watching out for rain) is directly a result of my putting hot weather plants outside without protection!

Once this blog is done I will be going to stake out the plants which are outside, to ensure if the storm that is brewing does break, the plants are not blown over and killed.

I managed just now to complete a full weeding circuit of the main vegetable beds; the first time I have been over the Carrots and the Parnsips. This has taken me about an hour all told (20 mins yesterday and 40 today) and I am pretty confident there are no weeds left in any patch. This gives you an idea of how long it is taking me to keep up with all these plants. I may just do a study of the time I'm spending over a whole week and write a blog about that.

The only bed left to weed now is the Cabbages, and they are doing very well so this is going to be my task for tomorrow evening after work.

Finally, I have once again been mentioned on twitter on one of those online newspapers and I would like to say "thank you" to the people who put it together; it's great to be being read by people and if any of you come to this from one of those link sites then Welcome and please make yourself at home.

I'm actually on The Idaho Agriculture paper twice, with yesterdays blog post.

Edit - I have staked out the chilli plants:

Edit 2 - told you it'd rain: