Chillikat's Blog

Spring

chillikat — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:46:24 +0000

I love this time of year. Finally everything is beginning to sprout and grow and you’re not just waiting for growth to start. Not all the chilli seeds have germinated. I think it may be due to keeping them from last year; maybe they don’t keep very well.
I’ve lost the french beans I planted early – a cat decided to use the Belfast sink as a toilet and disturbed the seedlings. I spent last weekedn making cages which would let the plants grow but put off the cat. They worked but it then used the asparagus pot instead and completely destroyed a lovely asparagus stem that was growing. I’m thinking of making cat stew….

Asparagus

chillikat — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:55:38 +0000

The British asparagus season starts at the end of April. I’ve been worried about the asparagus as it takes so long for a crop – 3 years! And I’ve no idea what I’m really doing. Last year the instructions were to leave the shoots to grow tall into fern like plants then cut back in winter. I just hoped I was doing it right.

Thankfully it seems now that I might have done things right as I can see a shoot of asparagus emerging from the soil! Unfortunately the year 2 instructions say little or no cutting should take place. I don’t think I’m going to be able to resist trying a stem or two.

Planting outside

chillikat — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:51:08 +0000

I did lots of planting outside over the weekend, the French Bean plants went into one of the Belfast sinks, with some radish seeds: French Breakfast in between.
In the other Belfast sink I planted red and green cabbage (golden acre). It’s a bit early but I’ve been sprouting some red cabbage seeds and wondered if they’d grow if I planted them.
In other pots I’ve got leeks, the last of the seeds from the packet, I’m not sure it’s really worthwhile groing leeks in such a small space; they seem to take ages and baby leeks have been the result. There’s also beetroot; detroit and an elongated type. Carrots are Nantes and a rainbow mix; I really like unusual colours for veg, otherwise why not just buy them from the shop! it may have been a bit late to plant onion seeds but I have, again I’m going for the colour theme; they’re Purplette. I’ve also planted white and red spring onions.
Some of the Mangetout that I planted outside has already been munched by slugs, I’ve planted a few more seeds to try to ensure I’ll get something. I also put copper bands around both the pots with the mangetout and the belfast sink of the beans. Hopefully it’ll keep them off.

Potting up

chillikat — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:27:05 +0000

The weather was pretty grim over the Easter weekend but it didn’t stop me potting up many of the chilli and papper seedlings that had grown too big for the propagator. I think there must be about 30 small pots with baby chilli plants around the house.

Hopefully by the 1st May bank holiday weekend the weather will have warmed up enough for these plants to move into a growhouse outside to make way for the next lot of potting up that needs to be done.

Potatoes

chillikat — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:37:48 +0000

I joined in the traditional Good Friday potato planting on Friday. I now have post of Shetland Black, Pink Fir Apple and Vivaldi. Two further Shetland Black wait for me to find them a pot.

Garden centre

chillikat — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:49:45 +0000

Sometimes it’s hard not to buy yet more seeds at the garden centre, or anywhere really. I ended up with Chilli Pepper Pyramid and Thai Super Chilli yesterday, which I planted up. Also planted some tomato seeds from the Red Cross (unknown variety) and more Pepper Banana Sweet as it was the only one of the seeds I planted in January which hadn’t germinated.

I also bought some lettuce seeds this morning which are good for small spaces. And now I’ve just filled in an offer from the paper for salad and basil collections! It could be a bit crowded in the back yard this year!

More planting

chillikat — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:06:24 +0000

Some of the seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have sprouted already:

Mangetout – Ezethas Krombek Blau which is a purple variety and Norli
Dwarf French bean purple queen
Tomato – red cherry and Incas
Lettuce

I also planted some basil, both red and green, parsley, coriander and mixed salad this weekend, all currently sat on the kitchen windowsill.

Seedlings

chillikat — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:46:55 +0000

The seeds that have sprouted are Mini Bell Pepper, Pinocchio’s Nose, Pepper Black Pearl, Jalepeno and Corno Di. They’re all pretty tiny so far, but after four weeks I was beginning to fear I’d planted too early.

Sprouting

chillikat — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:36:51 +0000

Some of the chilli seeds have finally started to sprout

Carnivorous plants

chillikat — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:46:11 +0000

As well as planting the chilli seeds last week I also planted some insect eating plants in the hope that they might reduce the number of greenfly and aphids which infested the chillis last year.

I planted Venus Fly Traps, Scary Ghost Plant and another, the name currently escapes me. None have yet sprouted.