I now have a veritable forest of tomatoes and other heat loving things on my kitchen windowsill.
5 types of tomatoes, 1 type of chilli, 1 type of pepper, 1 kind of aubergine. Plus some pansies, busy lizzies, lobelia.
Next will be squashes, gerbera, pinks, and marigolds.
I'm aiming for a bed fiull of flowers and a greenhouse full of tomatoes.
Or something like that!
I've been enjoying seed variety names today. I put 2 types of tomato, 1 sweet pepper, 1 chilli, and 1 aubergine into the heated propagator today and was luxuriating in the marvellous sounding titles. I think Purple Calabash is my favourite, but Red Robin comes a close second as it just seems so descriptive of the lovely little bushy plants of cherry tomatoes that it will produce - perky and cheeky!
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We bought a little 7w heated propagator the other day to start off our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines at home. Last year we couldn't start off our seeds until quite late in the season and with the rubbish rainy summer they didn't really get far enough along, a lot never ripened at all. We got something off them, but the real stars were the tiny 80p plants we bought (Shirley, Golden Sunrise, and a Plum I think) .
So the plan this year is to get the plants from our seeds to a similar size before taking them to the allotment. We decided to try 2 of each of our heritage seeds from last year first, we had 4 seeds of each left and had slow and patchy germination last year: Vintage Wine, which is a kind of knobbly stripy one ; Banana Cream, which has long 'plum' type yellow fruits; Christmas Grape, which produces vines of small cherry toms; and Lemon Tree, which has surprisingly lemon looking fruit, right down to the point at the end!
And so far 2 of each of everything except the Banana Cream have come up. In just a week. The Banana Cream took longer than all the others to come up last year, so I expect that to pop up in a few days. Then we will stick them in a normal propagator, and then pots, and try and them get a bit bigger ready for transferring to the allotment.
Next on the list are: Red Robin tomatoes, little bushes of cherry ones; Purple Calabash, lovely knobbly dark red/black ones; Bolivian Rainbow chillies, and Money Maker aubergines.
Here is hoping for a good crop this year.
We have harvested our first aubergine!
I'm so proud! It is off the plant that we bought as a little seedling, so it isn't quite all our own work, but I have high hopes for the ones we have grown from seed as they are flowering now.
It went into a curry but I'm thinking of Baba Ganoush for the next one.
We now have all the walls and roof cladded. We just need to put walls and doors on the ends, but we need to build wooden frames for that and our drill ran out of power again.
But it is sheltered in there so we moved in the tomatoes that have been getting a bit crowded in the cold frame. Because of the bars on the ceiling we can run strings from the tops of canes or grow bags up to the ceiling to stabilise them, which is great.
So we have 15 tomatoes (5 varieties) and 4 aubergines (2 varieties) in there now. I hope they like their new home.
Lots of things seem to be well on their way right now. The plum tomatoes are ripening:
The chillies have loads on them, as do the other 3 tomatoes, and there are 4 aubergines developing on one plant. The cucumber had shot up too, so there are 8 or so of those developing on the plant.
The peas are almost ready and so, I think, are the broad beans. Little gem lettuce we have in a few places and they seem to be doing well.
The weather has sent some broccoli and caulis mad, they are flowering already, so I guess that is them out of the game although we will at least be able to eat their small early offerings.
Today I discovered that someone else on our site blogs about their allotment Kennyhill Cottage so I've added that to my link list. They have had their plot a little longer than us, probably about 18months.
I've been hugely remiss in posting up what we are up to, so here is a little update and I'll try and be more regular with it from now on.
Since the last post our greenhouse produce has come on leaps and bounds. We now have tomatoes on the 4 plants we bought as little 80p seedlings, aubergines forming, chilies growing away, and now the cucumber is starting to produce flowers. This is all from the plants we bought, the ones we planted from seed are all doing well, but aren't quite at that stage yet.
Out on the plot the peas and beans are flowering and starting to form pods, the shallots and red onions look like they are doing well and so does the garlic. Early potatoes (Arran Pilots) have flowered, and the main crop are just starting to I think. We did have a minor incident where a bit of metal fence fell on the potatoes but it just snapped a few branches off and crushed a few plants, which have survived to tell the tale. I'm going to take up one of the early potato plants this weekend to see if they are ready for eating.
The one big bed below the fruit cage (see bottom right here ) has now been divided into 3 beds (north south) so that we can get into it, it was just too big to deal with before. In there are now purple sprouting broccoli, sprouts, lettuce, squash and some courgette seeds. Some of the courgettes have come up but not all.
Fruit is doing well, we have had plenty of strawberries and today for the first time some raspberries. Problem now is that we are spolit and can't go back to eating shop bought strawberries - I had forgotten what home grown ones tasted like. The gooseberries are getting bigger and some look like they are starting to ripen.
And we are overcome with weeds! Mare's Tail, Dock, Thistles, Nettles, Couch Grass. I'm considering glysophate, I'd rather not, but I don't know if we will ever clear it any other way. At the moment we are pulling out and drying or drowing weeds that are likely to survive the heap in the hope of exhausting them, but I think they are exhausting us!
Next plan for the plot is extending the greenhouse (to the right on the plan, making it twice the length it is now). We have 2 more of those window panes, but I think we could do a bit of jigging around with what is there already and with the addition of some kind of heat sink back wall to fill in the bit we don't have windows for it should work. Like so: 
So that is what has been happening.
Wayhay! Things are still alive!
A little view of the plot before we went away - must take another one soon as it has changed already:
Compare and contrast from those few short weeks ago (from a different angle) here.
And here is the plan so you know what is what. The photo is taken with back to shed.
The bonus of going away to demolish your Mum's shed is also that she ends up throwing stuff away so we now have some biggish terracotta pots, abig piece of wood that will make a good potting bench, and the old shed window for another cold frame.
Easter egg-replacement gifts from Mum, aunt, and in-laws include a small watering can with a delicate rose for watering seeds and seedlings in the greenhouse, a pot of 6 raspberry canes and a tayberry cane,, garlic bulbs, some sunflower seeds, and a b&q voucher. I also got given a lovely old red tilley lamp by my granddad (which hasn't been used for 30+ years but seems in working order) and we bought citronella candles; a wasp jar; a smaller parafin lamp; some fruit netting; some watercress, cress, mustard and garden huckleberry seeds; and another little chilli plant and a 'burpless' cucumber plant. The garden centres in Lancashire/Yorkshire seem much more satisfying than our local ones - I don't know if that is just beacuse I kow where the good family-owned ones are down there.
So we have potted up the chilli and cucumber, planted the garlic, and sowed the hukleberry seeds and sunflower seeds.
And then went round so see what had been growing in our absence.
The radish has come up and the seedling as quite big. The beetroot is just peeping tiny leaves through the soil. the rocket is well on it's way and the perpetual spinach looks like it is sending up the start of some leaves. The spicy salad has several good leaves and I think will be ready for the first cut soon. The carrots have gained some true leaves.
One close inspection (nose to the ground) some broad beans are starting to germinate (must get the chickenwire out) as are some peas. The onions have sent up some green. The starwberries has formed some new leaves since planting, and I have harvested yet more rhubarb for the freezer. All the fruit bushes have new leaves.
In the greenhouse some more aubergine seeds have germinated, and three of the tomatoes have too - the 3 vintage wine seeds I think. Still only 1 chilli one. All the bought tomato/chilli/aubergine plants have grown. Gert's brassicas had not died.
And the previously sad looking broccoli had flourished! Loads of lovely long purple sprouts. So it was stilton and broccoli soup for dinner.
It has been a while since I got my act together and posted information here, but I have been keeping a diary, so here is what happened in March.
We have got a host of seeds going. Sweet peas and little round parmex carrots were first - both are now out in the plot after a spell in the cold frame (if you can call a window frame leant up against a shed that). Next the potatoes went into the top left bed - pink fir and arran pilot. The potatoes went in the first bed we laid out in the top left corner of the plot.
We built another bed below that - left middle. Then the beans and onion sets went in - we have broad beans, red onions and shollots. We put a brick path between these two as we uncovered another pile of brick.
Radish seeds, beetroot seeds and carrot seedlings went in the top middle bed. This one is a raised one with a brick wall at the front and also, we discovered as we started to dig in it, a wall in the middle under the soil. We took that one out with the help of a sledge hammer.
By this time a rhubarb plant that had been hiding in the grass under where we had put the windows as a cold frame had responded to its nice new warn envirnment and shot up. We now have a freezer full of rhubarb - good job I like it.
Our spicy salad seedlings came out and into the bath we have set into the ground in front of the shed, along with some more of the carrot seedlings and some dill and parsely seeds.
The only thing that seems to have survived from the previous plot holder is some purple sprouting broccoli (apart form the rhubarb and I don't think that counts - rhubarb just exists). It was looking a bit sad, falling over and with yellowing leaves, so we put supporting canes in, weeded round them and pinched out the growing tips to see if it would do anything.
Aubergine, tomato and chilli seeds went into the greenhouse, along with lobelia, aquilegia, marogold, chive and basil seeds.
They all started to germinate (apart from the tomoatoes), although there was only one chilli and one aubergine.
We went crazy in the garden centre and bought strawberries, 3 different tomato plants, a chilli plant, and an aubergine plant. I'm not convinced I'll get anywhere with the tom and chilli seeds so I have relegated them to the staus of an extra bonus on top of the bought plants.
Gert, the longest serving plot holder (40+ years), collared us and gave us some of his cabbage seedlings, he had done well with them and didn't want to discard the thinnings so is sharing the wealth with anyone who wants some. He is 80odd years old and has 4 plots all joined together and about 5 sizable greenhouses, I'm sure we will be able to pick his brains when needed. So we now have: late, early, and red cabbages, and some cauliflowers too.
Michael the allotment secretary had been growing on some gooseberry bushes for someone who no longer needed them, so he gave us one of those. We could have had all 6 but we didn't really have the room. He tried to give us red currants too, but again no space. Shame really. The fruit cage is quite full now.
After all that we left for a week to go and demolish my Mum's shed over Easter and build the new one she has bought. We didn't know what to expect on our return - hopefully not a wilted dead plot. We fashioned makeshift drip watering systems for greehouse stuff, and sat the tomatoes in trays of water. We had some shade fabric from a project we had done, so that went on the greenhouse windows in the hope that things wouldn't wilt in the promised hot weather.
Below is a plan of what we have so far, the big bed on the right was there, so was the compost heap and shed. Most other stuff we have done ourselves. If you clcik on it you get a big version where you can see the text:
