chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Superhots 2014

Chilli check in

March 10, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 1 Comment

The last few days has seen mild spring like weather. Weather that window sill babies have been basking in; least of all the chillies. I am growing the chillies from cold, I am not using grow lights or heated mats. This means that the chillies are perhaps a little smaller, and their growth rate is little below than those with grown with sophisticated equipment. So one has a bit of capsicum envy.

See I know full well that at this time of the year, chillies will be diminutive. A couple more weeks, and they will start to pick up and plume. That does feel a little like a distant memory, and it’s quite a leap to fully fledged, foliaged plants ready to be transplanted to the poly.

Whilst the sun is out, the chilies are loosely lidded with a prop cover. They are sat on reflective aluminium foil to help absorb some heat and light to keep the plants from getting too cold at night and then keel over. With the second Superhots are sunk, I would like to be optimistic. However I’ve been told that Jamaican jerk is very difficult!

classroom experimentation

Leek and leverage

March 9, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 15 Comments

Diddly yes, but decent enough for shepherds pie. These were the first ever batch. There is a second batch sat in the Wendy house.

Think these are meant to be hobbit sized!

Superhots 2014

Second superhot sinking

March 9, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 2 Comments

I saw a fellow growers lovely Jamaican jerk peppers and had a fit of green eyed monster 😉 well, I did plan to sow some anyway.

Have made a second sowing of orange habanero. Jamaican jerk has been sown, as well as hot scotch-red- and scotch bonnet yellow. I have placed one scotch bonnet yellow on the window sill to experiment. Housed in a food bag, this is a comparison test. Do far, scotch bonnet has failed in the heated prop as just dries out completely. With the foodbag, perhaps the moisture will be retained.

Superhots 2014

Dorset and Bengle Naga

March 2, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 3 Comments

The superhots are currently sat by a window, occasionally bathing in the sun. Whilst I have tobasco, chocolate habenero and serrano from http://www.seedparade.co.uk/ I have the Dorset and Bengle Nagas from http://www.seaspringseeds.co.uk/ There is even a dorset naga growing challenge which I am thinking about signing up to. http://www.seaspringseeds.co.uk/seed-shop?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=269&category_id=59

I have never grown superhots before, this years experiment is a first. Initially, the dorset naga germinated but got stuck in its seed case and had to be resown. Eventually, one baby did germinate and shed it’s seedcase. Imagine my surprise, when I found a second Dorset naga baby coming through. Along side the Dorset Naga is the bengle naga. This one actually germinated a lot quicker.

The bengle naga is already developing its first true leaves. The Dorset Naga is a little behind. I must point out, that these were sown and placed into a heated prop. Once they had germinated and the baby leaves were established, they were housed in a food bag whilst sat in a gravel tray. Since then, they are still in thegravel tray, and with the recent cooler weather they are covered with a slightly askew plastic cold prop lid. I dare not chance another cold snap. I am not using grow lights or heated mats, these are left to the own devices. The aim, is to to house these in the poly tunnel. However, this will take some time and the plants will need to be a much bigger and a little stronger. At this early stage, this is altogether frustrating; I have yet to resort to talking to them to encourage them to grow. I wouldn’t rule out that from happening, though. These are still very tiny, that is the biggest issue-no pun intended, and the summer is a very long way away.

magic square project

Magic square project

March 2, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit

I have in the last few days looked into crocheting for the magic square project. For me this, this is not an easy process. I have watched mama h crochet, and have been fascinated by it. Overwhelmed however, by how complex it looked.

Ali Campbell crochet course

The magic square project is getting bigger. I may have got a little carried away with the number of stitches cast on at the start. High praise from my mother, who told me that whilst I was getting better at the knitting; my panels were different sizes.

However talking about crochet, it need not be so scary . You will seethe link for Ali Campbell’s crochet courses. I enrolled this week and was rather happy to be able to get a foundation chain! Brain didn’t quite get the hang of double crochet after a hard school day; so that is to be practiced.

Ali has lovely teaching style, and doesn’t complicate things. There are video tutorials that also make things straight forward. Most importantly, perhaps, you can take your time. Plus, she is the lovely lady who created a masterpiece for my classroom; the brain below.

You can get in touch with her here Ali Campbell crochet website tell her horticultural hobbit sent you 😉

Preparation, Taking stock

Lay of the land

March 1, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 11 Comments

As you know, plot 2 is very low and liable to get flooded. Whilst for half of the plot this is remedied by having raised beds; the other half is proving to equally challenging. A few of the beds are quite uneven and these dips fill up and write off crops. Today, I took a by whim walk down. It’s been a few days. I noticed that there was big heap of woodchip and tree left for communal use and decided to make use of it. Whilst I can hear the harbingers tut and groan about using green woodchip; I am using it as organic material. In the same way you might use poop or grass cuttings. It will help even out the land and possibly help alter the otherwise heavy clay. If the worst comes to worse, It will covered over with any spare leaf mold that might be available.

tomatoes

Tiddler tomatoes 2014

February 26, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 4 Comments

This years tomato babies are only just starting to get their proper leaves. Some of them are a little bit taller than expected; didn’t quite pot them up as well as I could have. Also they are stretching towards the light a bit. I am debating putting them into the 4TB; mainly as it is still quite cold at night. Should I then cover them with a fleece and leave them to it?

Debating this morning as to whether I should modularise running beans and broadies. All too eager….

overwintering alliums, Taking stock, weather woes

Ebb and flow

February 23, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit

Over the last few days, there has been a brief window of respite from the deluge of rain that the British Isles has been experiencing. The volume of precipitation has reduced some what, and the sun-yes, the sun-has even made an an appearance or two. With that, the puddles have started to dissipate! woo-hoo!

The plot is still damp, yes, there has been alot of water. But the puddles that had been there have in fact gone. I can see clearly low the dips, and a few of the onions and shallots that were planted in the late autumn. A few of the flooded parts have sent up a few shoots, but not many. Shallots are only just sending up clumps of shoots. One of my site neighbours does believe that the onions, shallots and garlic will recover. Her logic being that the plot has been under a foot of water before, and the onions et cetra still came off. We shall see!

The garlic doesn’t seem to be doing too badly, a little wind burned, but still there. The red onions are most likely a write off. As are the broad beans that were sown. Both of these could be resown, but this drying up of ground does present me with the opportunity to perhaps sink potatoes there instead. Broadbeans could be sown else where further down on the plot, rather than on the project othello section. Have never had much success with spuds in open ground, so this could be the plausible window to do so. At least now, Ma doesn’t have to have any broadbeans. It is now easier to see where wig wams could also be positioned. Once the plot gets drier, I can assess all the seven open ground beds on project othello.

The doom and gloom is lifting, the whole plot seems lighter, and there were even some crocuses come through. As well what looked like daffodils and tulips.

Preparation, Taking stock

Thinking out aloud

February 23, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 2 Comments

In this gap, with the wind hurling its weight around and the potential to start sowing; I find myself speculating what I might grow. All plots are different, I know I would say that mine is stuck in its own little universe with its own microcosm. The site I am on, varies as to who has success with what. Plot 2 spends a lot of time under water when we have rain, and the open grown is heavy clay. This means that some things work and some just don’t.

With lots of raised beds on the lower half of the plot; this helps overcome
Some of the flooding issues. The top half-project othello-is largely open ground and the dips in the topography are flooded. Dips, which were where onions have been sunk.

Whilst there are early sowings of window sill babies, I have turned my attention to what happens next. A majority of the raised beds have sunk and need refilling. That is what the leaf mold will be used for. There are seed potatoes that need to be sunk. Might experiment with both open ground and raised beds. Beans would be the next thing. Both runner beans and climbing French beans to be grown up wig wams. Usually these are modularised in March. I would also like to retry celery and cauliflowers. I had some purple cauliflower seeds to try. I did try these before, a classroom experiment that didn’t come off as they got too leggy and keeled over. Have yet to do carrots properly. There is also fennel to consider; didn’t quite get the hang of it last year. Cucumbers were an interesting foray. With crystal lemon and marketmore being the only ones working. Might well be a polytunnel job. Another experiment might be the sweet crimson watermelon in the polytunnel.

Sweetcorn was curious. Did only end up with eight plants surviving. Not sure if I fancy trying that again. Was debating modularised cabbages in the vein as cauliflowers.

All these potential experiments. But will the Wendy, 4TB and poly cope?

aubergine Analogue study 2014, chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Superhots 2014

Potting up progress

February 22, 2014 horticultural 'Obbit 7 Comments

Have realised that the windowsill babies are getting on a bit. Some of the seedlings have started to grow past their baby leaves, albeit a little slowly. The aubergines have been growing quite quickly compared to the chillies. Thought I might as well pot everything on.

Seedlings are still a little small; but it is still very early. Perhaps won’t have more accelerated growth til later. I have for the moment removed the foodbag cloches. Just hope things don’t got pair shaped!

horticultural 'obbit

Chilli check in

Leek and leverage

Second superhot sinking

Dorset and Bengle Naga

Magic square project

Lay of the land

Tiddler tomatoes 2014

Ebb and flow

Thinking out aloud

Potting up progress

'obbitry of the horticultural kind

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'obbitry of the horticultural kind