Will be keep an eye on these, there is no plans to sow any more. There are over twenty small pots now sat on the window sill; so that will mean a rather busy poly tunnel if all of the plants stay in there.
It would be amazing to get support other gardeners as we approach the new growing season here in the Northern Hemisphere. My own experiences have been documented both here on the blog and in the book.
‘Playing with Plant Pots: Tales from the allotment’ charts all of my discoveries, the positives and the pitfalls of growing my own fruit and vegetables on the allotment.
You can find the book in both paper back and in ebook forms. The links to the UK amazon and kindle sites are on the right hand side of the blog.
A reminder though, of where you might find the book:
Another thing that is really important to me, is supporting independent book stores Sadly, there isn’t one here in Birmingham, England! Or at least not one I can find anyway. I am determined to find one. That said, I am working with Serendipity Books and More in the US. At the moment, they are the only store in the USA that physically stocks and sells copies of the book plus some of the Petal’s Potted Preserve Merchandise.
So if you are in the US, would like to support not one by two small independent business and are trying to develop green fingers, why not check out the store without walls as developed by Serendipity Books and More.
Upon the window sill the chillies were getting a bit leggy. To stop them keeling over I have potted them up into small pots. I have done this using normal multipurpose compost. It is still a little cold and these are somewhat pampered chillies.
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You can find the you tube links to the videos here and here
The seedlings that we have at the moment are:
Devil’s rib
Jalapeño
Hungarian Hot Wax
Orange scotch bonnet and habanero
I have potted thee seedlings right up their pair of seed leaves. Hopefully this will act to anchor them in position. There are still some seeds that are waiting to crack in the heated propagater and three more babies have been retrieved to be potted up at a later point.
The difference a heated propagator makes. It didn’t take long post transfer to have seedlings. Okay, so the jalapeños had started to crack already; but having the extra heat has certainly improved matters. Both rounds of chillies are sat in the heated propagator so all can be observed and germinators fished out.
Over the last two days, with one jalapeño being welcomed into the world it was followed by three other pellets. They are very weak and baby like; very fragile looking. I have taken them out of the heated propagator now and positioned them on a window sill where it is relatively warm and there is an acceptable amount of light. I will keep monitoring them as it is still rather cold and these could easily shrivel up and die because of that.
Not only have the jalapeños germinated, one single solitary devil’s rib has also cracked through its seed case to come alive. This is a new one for me, and I have high hopes for it. Then again, I have high hopes for all the chillies! These are the first come through, and I will be watching carefully to see what others start to germinate. And trust me, I might be watching them patiently; but I do get a bursts of commentary from Mum the minute anything green exists the seed case and unfurls itself from the white pocket.
At this stage I am not that skilled with creating videos and uploading them. I have however been trying to create them for a while. I am hoping, that in the coming growing season I will be making some more and adding them to both the blog and the channel. I tend to upload them to youtube anyway, so that I can use them on the blog.
At the moment, the channel only has a few bits and pieces. The endeavour is make things varied and as useful as the blog might be. Sometimes, you can read as much you want; but seeing something and hearing something is a little more useful. Trust me, as a teacher; that makes sense to me.
The window sills are cold; which is not unusual at this time of year. However this does make them a little less conducive for chilli germination. In the past, this method hasn’t really been an issue. It has in fact been more successful than germinating seeds using a heated propogator. However, I have relented; least of all because I am impatient.
I have also taken the opportunity to sow the second batch of seeds. These are prairie fire, sparkler and the much anticipated purple haze. Last year, I bought a plant of purple haze and was rather happy with it. The fruit are a lovely shade of purple which ripen to a bright red. There are quite a number of pellets in the heated prop; simply because there is no guarantee that they will all germinate. Fingers crossed though.
And another thing.
I was handed these by my sister. As if I didn’t have enough chillies to play with. A very kind thought nonetheless, and I somewhat intrigued. There is still room in the heated prop to try them. So in theory I could try them as an experiment. Inside the matchstick book, are indeed little matches: attached to which are seeds. No idea what they are exactly, I don’t know what a Wahaca is. Other than them being Mexican, I don’t have an awful lot more to go on.
This particular article has been doing the rounds for the last few days on social Media. Whilst it is written by one of the more *interesting* of British Newspapers, it does raise some interesting points. Especially as the gardeners of Britain count down for the arrival of Spring and are able to once more get their green fingers dirty.
In the first instance, I will caveat things by saying don’t be fooled by the sample size mentioned at the end of the article. 112 participants does not make for a generalisable sample. I am also curious about the nature of being ‘stressed out’ as it is termed. There is no comment as to how that has been operationalised and doesn’t mention any form of mental health concerns that may exist in that sample. The research is prefaced by examples and anecdotal evidence involving different situations. I am however wary of the scientific process behind this article and how the article may be interpreted. The perils, I guess, of being a teacher of Psychology with horticultural tendencies. I am likely to consider the research methods used to question the scientific rigour that is being presented.
That said, I do believe that gardening has a positive effect on Mental health and well being. Both on personal level and also on wider level when groups in society feel the positive impact of being involved in green spaces. There was until recently a charity in Scotland-Gardening leave- who used horticultural therapy to support veteran of conflict and did it very successfully from what I have read. Sadly, funding became an issue, and the charity had to close down operations. Then there is Thrive who also use horticulture as therapeutic medium.
Spring summer 2015
It is a shame that gardening and horticultural therapy (also called therapeutic horticulture, yes, I know, the terms are used interchangeably) occurs, but doesn’t get the wider publicity that is deserves in order to get momentum and become wider spread. There have been initiatives, such as the one run by MIND , a few years ago and these were successful. So much so, that the results of influenced public policy. I feel really very strongly about it, having worked in a number of posts where school gardening clubs have helped support learners. Some of which, were vulnerable or have had mental health concerns. It also saddened me that Gardening Leave had to close it’s doors, and my immediate hope what that the veterans that they supported would have appropriate support systems put in place. With the value and implementation of gardening and horticultural therapy being so limited, I consciously wrote about the positive effects in #plantpottales. It is not necessary to have a huge great big allotment to see the benefits, containers in a garden or a kitchen window sill would just as positive and just as useful.
I will continue to talk about the positive effects of gardening on mental health. All being well, someone might actually hear me and listen.
With the weather being relatively mild, I have taken the opportunity to sink a third batch of Garlic. What you see above is the rather abundant crop from last year, and the foliage that the autumn planted garlic had sent up before Christmas.
The varieties that have been dibbed in are as follows:
Lautrec Wight
Early Purple wight
Solent Wight
Tuscany Wight
I had taken the decision to sink some more as it felt like I didn’t have as many cloves sunk as in previous years. This batch like the first batch sown in Autumn has been placed into raised beds. There is an additional batch that is open ground further up the plot to offer something of a a contrast. All of the garlic sown will get used, it is not as though there will spare unwanted garlic in the kitchen. I am sure that of the varieties sunk, some are old favourites and others are very new to the plot. Some of the varieties are quite mild, creamy cloves that you might need a few of on a dish. Others are thick cloves, very pungent and not necessarily needed in a great quantity. I do like the purple and pinked skinned ones though, these seem to have some character.
In my observations, garlic does take time to get going. This was often a cause for concern for me in the past, as I would worry that the cloves had been sunk and didn’t appear to be doing anything at surface. What I hadn’t considered that below the surface the cloves were sending out roots and establishing a system to anchor themselves in and gain nutrients. Over the autumn months, slowly but surely the green foliage started to rise and poke through the soil. These are my observations with autumn planted garlic, I have only previously sown spring garlic once before. Even then, the open ground in which it was sunk was entirely boggy and not particularly conducive at that time to the garlic. I have waited to try again, and kept in line with previous experiences by planting into raised beds.
For me, having raised beds has been very useful. Cloves are still planted deep enough, with a hole made by a dibber and the tip only just being visible. Drainage is improved and there is reduction in the likelihood of water pooling around the clove, collecting and causing the seed to rot. That said, cloves of garlic do appear to be fairly resilient, and the garlic sunk into open ground is only a matter of weeks behind that sat in the raised beds. The foliage is present and correct, just a little shorter. If it is difficult to have raised beds, I see no reason why garlic can’t be sown in containers. In fact, the first time that I grew onions and shallots; they were sown into and grown in containers.
Over the last few years I have occasionally taken some videos on the plot. Most of them were used on the blog, the odd post contains a short clip that I have filmed. Recently I have been trying to create a few more bits and pieces to add to the blog.
The you tube Channel Link is there if you click on it.
You can find a small selection of clips, I haven’t uploaded that may. Mainly because I am still learning how to do it! But also because I am learning and trying to decide what is the most useful and appropriate material to use. I make no apologies for my accent! The Birmingham Britain accent does get something of a bad press in the media, whilst mine is not as bad as the stereotyped version; idiolect and vernacular are somewhat unavoidable.
Have look at what is there, I would like to add to this; and hopefully I will. Just a case of finding things that are useful and interesting.
horticultural 'obbit 