Coriander and Mint progress, garden plan and ideas for the future

So, it looks like winter may be arriving, now we are into January. This morning we woke to a slight frosting of snow, no more than a couple of millimeters but still, this is going to be an interesting period where I find out how successfully the Cloches I have put over the winter growth will enable them to survive a cold snap.

Inside the house, where the central heating is helping out, I have seen a sudden burst of growth from my coriander I am growing from seed, and my supermarket bought mint plant has also started flourishing, causing an emergency re-potting and staking as it fell over in it's tiny shop pot.

The coriander looking quite healthy, just over 2 weeks since first sight of shoots. They are sitting on a 50p plate bought from the second hand shop next door - classy :)

The mint, still looking slightly lop-sided but better than it was. Again sitting on a 50p plate from next door and yes, on the bin in the background you can see our light dusting of snow.

I have nearly finished my plan of the garden, currently without any new growth in it; it is just to help me plan where things will go etc. As you can see, it is a much smaller space than I used to have; each square is one metre

My attempt to hang the thai boxing punch/kick bag failed, however, as the bricks our house is made from appear to have been fashioned from titanium! My hammer drill made about a 2mm dent, and then the chuck slipped. No chance. Oh well.

At least that will leave me more space for growing stuff ;)

Another awesome thing, I got some more cool pressies at Christmas which I will be making a start on this week I think. The cup is most useful as I am clumsy (apparently) and it won't break if I kick it across the garden :D

This little watering can comes with lavender - I cannot wait for this to be flowering - I love the smell of lavender!

A nice pair of small pots, with (as you can see) orgenao and basil to attempt to grow.

Yes, I AM the head gardener, and don't you forget it ;)

Finally, this year I am not only going to be growing food, but also picking out some flowering plants that I can grow which will encourage bees and butterflies to visit. My current thoughts are:

• Globe Artichoke (as I can also try eating these)
• Foxglove (because they are gorgeous)
• Thistles (because surely they are easy to grow!)
• Honeysuckle (well, one's got to try!)
• Geranium
• Forget-me-not

I am going to try and put a load of hanging baskets up (I can drill into the mortar, and avoid the diamond-hard bricks) and also plant in the lower light areas below the trees.

Anyway, I thought this was going to be a short update but it doesn't appear to have been!

Cheers

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.

Planting for winter growth

I have just got back from the trip to our perfect destination to get the hell out this country, and I've come with  a new found desire to plant.

Well, actually, this is not really a new found desire - I've been gagging to get back into the garden ever since I moved.

So really, it was just the fact that I had the opportunity, post 10 hours of travelling, to get out and plant some of the seeds I bought the other week, in pots in the back garden.

It was good to dig out my box of gardening stuff from where I'd hidden it during the move.

The special box of gardening stuff, including seed box (left)

Three bags of potting compost, and some cloches to protect the seedlings through winter.

The lettuce pot prior to cleaning out autumn's gifts...

Seven holes for seven lettuce seeds, prior to putting said seeds into said holes and watering.

Planted, covered and watered - hopefully some winter lettuce (or if not, just a pot full of soil hah)

I am also test-planting some red onions, in the hope they may come up early next year.

And some broccoli too, I have put a few seeds in here, an will thin it out once the seedlings show (if they do) in a few weeks.

My little garden, covered lightly to protect from birds, but not yet under-cloche.

Finally, a little treat for inside the house; a citrus tree. It has produced some fruits, but I doubt this will occur again until we get it out this country.

So, there you have it. I'm back in the saddle, and there will be more updates as I plant more things over the next few weeks, and also updates of the progress of these plantings...

Enjoy

What now...?

So, now I have moved and I am living the reality of not having a proper garden, and having pulled up all my plants and left most of my produce behind. I've settled into the house and now I am getting very itchy fingers to be planting and growing things again.

So, what now.

My plan, up until just now, was to get some sprout seeds and grow them for Christmas, but it turns out they take about 24 weeks to grow and I'm not sure (looking at all the yule tide advertising going on already) that we have 24 weeks til Christmas. Though, thinking about it, I could be wrong; they advertise Christmas in the summer now huh.

This has prompted a burst of research into just what I can plant right now and it turns out that lettuce can still be planted, though it'll need to go under a cloche when the weather gets much colder, and I can also put out my sets of onions, cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. I can also plant some potatoes in pots (though I may hold off on this as I think the lovely girlfriend may just have a word if I have to bring them inside over the winter in the nice new house.... hmmm....) but if you do that, you can apparently get some good new potatoes for Christmas time.

Anyway, this is going to be a very short update with no pictures, but I am giving you notice that there is going to be MUCH more activity on the blog over the next few days, and over the winter.

I'm going nowhere!

Eating the parsnips

As I have mentioned a couple of times, I have moved and this has meant that I had to close down my growing and bring as much as possible with me.

I was clever enough to pack and move all of my digging implements before I remembered that I had to go and dig up my parsnips so, on the cleaning day at the house I was out in the back garden unearthing them with my bare hands. I don't say this contributed to the amazing taste, but it was a very satisfying method and helped me feel really close to the food production process.

The pity was that I have had to harvest about a month or so early, so most of the parsnips were still quite small, but I had loads and I would say this is another massive success story and I would recommend growing parsnips to all of you - they taste so much better than the ones you buy in the shop, and are very easy to grow.

Anyway, to the photographs.

The harvest; cleaned and ready for roasting; it took J about half an hour to wash all the mud off these. Sadly I'd been too busy to get a picture of them pre-cleaning.

Just about to be roasted, just a little dash of olive oil and nothing else.

And roasted. One of the parsnips was big enough to have to slice in half, which I was pleased about :)

SOOOO tasty looking!

Parsnips piled up with the last of the home grown lettuce, and roast chicken and chips and cheese :) tasty!!!

The last parsnip, about to disappear down J's throat.

So there you have it, I will definitely be growing Parsnips again and look forward to the next time I can eat my own.

Making blackberries into jam

So, the move has happened. I am no longer living in the house with the big garden where I can harvest food that I have grown, nor gather fruits from the blackberry bushes that surrounded the place.

This is quite a sad time, but I hope to be able (as I have discussed before) grow food in the plentiful pots and growing containers that I have collected and, in this way, learn a lot more about different techniques for being self sufficient.

One of the last things that I did while at the house, however, was to use all the blackberries that I had harvested last year and this to make jam. For reasons unknown even to myself, the recipe that I used is actually for Blackcurrant Jam but it has worked very well and tastes incredible so I don't think any harm was done.

The link to the original source is http://beingcreative.me.uk/blackcurrant-jam.html

This was far less time consuming than the chutney, as I did not have to chop anything, and also didn't have to leave it to mature over night. It did, however, take several hours and involved stirring the pots quite often.

One other thing to quickly highlight; I'm pretty sure I used too much water when I made it, as I thought "surely that's too little" but, people, follow the ratios!! Quite a lot of my jam actually failed to set, so I'm going to have to work out what to do with super-runny jam now.

Anyway, to the photos and instructions.

All of the blackberries, still frozen and in the freezer drawer. There were about 3.5kg here I think.

First of all I separated the big frozen blocks of fruit, and then washed them over with cold water in the colander.

Sunlight on blackberries, waiting to be boiled down.

This is the amount of sugar that is needed to make this much jam...

... and this is what that sugar looks like when it is in the baking tray ready for heating up and adding to the mix.

Water and fruit simmering gently waiting for the fruit to soften. As the instructions say, the fruit should easily squash between your spoon and the side of the pan before you add the sugar as the sugar will stop the softening process.

Adding the sugar. It is amazing how much there was, and I actually ended up throwing in another 250g because I think I put too much water in for the softening process.

All the sugar added, all ready for turning the heat up and boiling them hard prior to bottling.

Starting to get a good roil going on during the boiling process (beat poetry there, did you see it?)

I'm sure THIS wasn't supposed to be in the jam - it bubbled to the top during boiling so i hoiked it out and discarded, obviously after taking a picture for you guys.

The final boil coming to an end.

I pulled the pans off the heat a couple of times, and did the little check that is suggested in the instructions, until it appeared that the jam was ready.

The finished batch of jam - there was a LOT more than I expected as it didn't really reduce down the same as the Green Tomato Chutney did.

JAM!!

So there you have it. About 1/3 of the jam was totally set, and the other 2/3 in differing stages of set to completely runny when I packed them for moving.

I will get round to counting the exact number of jars and may update you. Suffice to say, the taste test on bottling was a big thumbs up.

Thanks for reading, please do comment and I'll be back sooner (as I have interwebs at the homestead now) so will be able to update midweek again.

Cheers

The end of the chillis

What with moving house, I'm harvesting everything that I want from it's current location.

The other day it was the turn of the chilli plants so every fruit, in whatever stage of ripeness, was pulled off each plant.

While I was harvesting the outside plants I found that, in the previous week or so, something had got to a number of the chillis and eaten everything from inside them.

My poor hollowed out chilli. I have visions of a slug or something eating this, then bursting into flames, as these chillis do seem quite warm!

On the advice of a regular reader, I had been leaving the plants to "get stressed" as apparently this increases their heat.

The dried up remains of the bedroom window chilli plant.

I have been using the chillis regularly so the following picture doesn't reflect the total harvest (and as observed before, a good few actually got eaten just before my harvest) but anyway:

The chilli harvest.

There you are, a short update for now, but I'm preparing a longer one about the MASS of blackberry jam that I made yesterday.

Cheers