Now I have lots of space to put the seeds but am constantly worried about the tender plants outside when we  have a frost. So far they have survived and next year I will not be so impulsive. Here they are up by the house, covered with fleece. As I walk by I can here them grumbling “Why do we have to sit here instead of in our warm greenhouse”.

Tender plants covered with fleece

Inside the greenhouse all looks well. On the ground you can see my electric fan heater which keeps the greenhouse frost free. I have had it for over 15 years and it has served me well.

Seeds and seedlings

Here are the Tomato and Chilli Pepper seedlings.

Tomatoes and Chilli Peppers

The Digger’s Brassicas – Kale, Cabbage and Sprouting Broccoli. I like to eat them but tend to leave the growing to him.

Brassicas

The rest of the seeds include Squash, Courgettes, Herbs, Lettuce, and various Flowers.

Assorted seeds

I also have some cuttings mostly Pelargoniums and these Penstemons. I bought a few new Penstemons last year and wanted to make sure I had replacements if I lost any over the winter. As it happens the original plants survived so now I have even more!

Penstemon cuttings

How I wish I had two greenhouses :-)

Chilli Peppers – Our Summers are fairly short and there is no period when you can guarantee that one week of sun will be followed by a second. Despite having a greenhouse I am still having trouble getting Chilli plants into full production as they seem to reach maturity just as temperatures drop. I never have a huge crop. In some years I have sown seeds in mid March and sometimes  mid February.  Some varieties take ages to germinate and others take even longer. This year I am trying mid January in a heated propagator. I have planted double what I actually need. Please let germination be quick. Please let us have a real Summer.

Chilli 'Bulgarian Carrot'

Salad Leaves – “Sow every two or three weeks for a continuous crop”. Hmm – as if that ever works for me. Even when I remember to sow the seeds erratic germination and pesky slugs throw that continuity right out the window. This year I am sowing in pots and planting out instead of sowing directly in the ground. I am also going to sow directly into large pots raised off the ground and positioned near the house so that at least some of the lettuce/endive/chicory/assorted leaves will be under my beady eye. Every 3 weeks I am arranging for  Google Calendar to send me a reminder  to pick up that seed packet and get moving. Here’s hoping that 2011 will be “The Year of the Salad Leaf”.

Lettuce

Root Crops – I like beetroot but not a mountain of it and this year I will try to get to grips with the concept of “Sow a  little…and often”. I must remember to thin the rows if very crowded. This also applies to Turnips and Radishes.

Beetroot 'Chioggia'

Annual Herbs – Last year was a disaster as the Dill, Basil, Summer Savory and Sweet Marjoram germinated and then either bolted into flower (Dill, Savory, Marjoram) or grew a little and then sulked when the weather turned cool (Basil).  This year I will sow more than once. They will be in pots near the house and I will do my best to create a Mediterranean environment.

Bush Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Perhaps if I play them one of my Greek music CDs they will think they are on a Greek island.

A Greek CD to set the mood

Here is a seed head surrounded by tiny seeds. It is amazing how many seeds are contained in a single seedhead.

Poppy seeds

They belong to one of my favourite flowers – the Poppy.

Papaver commutatum

Poppies come in many colours but this red and black one is called the  ‘Ladybird Poppy’ as it resembles one of our most attractive and beneficial insects.

The Ladybird

For more Blooming Friday posts visit Katarina at Roses and Stuff.

Have a good weekend.

Do we really need any more?

Seed catalogues and Seed packets

Probably not – but we will be getting some anyway. The temptation is too strong to resist.

So you have to imagine these…….

Wild flower seeds (Short Mix)

growing here. Pictures on seed packets can lead to disappointment but I am staying optimistic.

Small allotment bank

Back in the garden my greenhouse is filling up with various seedlings which are crowding out the tender plants. Most are vegetables but there are some herbs and flowers too. I am running out of room. Many seedlings need potting up – and then there will be even less room. Soon I will have to move some pots outside. I wish my greenhouse could expand on demand like a suitcase – or Dr Who’s Tardis.

Greenhouse full of seedlings

I am going to have to gamble on the weather staying frost free. Fingers crossed!

I’m sure it’s this rotten weather that’s made me less energetic in the garden and allotment. I don’t mind looking but I have to force myself to do anything. Mindful of this slothfulness I made some attempt to do some allotment jobs yesterday. First I eased myself in gently by shelling the dried ‘Martock’ Broad beans so that I could save some seed. They gave a surprisingly good crop for a variety with small pods (5 seeds each).

Saved seed of Broad beans 'Martock'

The Digger and I then went down to the big allotment to dig up the onions. Our garlic was decimated by white onion rot but the onions fared better. I would say that about a tenth of the crop was affected but some appear only slightly damaged so we must use them up quickly. The good ones have been laid out to dry off in the garage. The early Japanese onions we planted last October were lifted in late July and have already been used.

Onions 'Hercules' and 'Red Baron'

The winter squash and pumpkins have grown well amongst the sweetcorn. Thank heavens we are only getting 1-2 fruit per plant because they are rather larger than I was expecting – and still growing. They have been lifted up and rested on flat stones or tiles to keep them from getting damaged. Pumpkin ‘Rouge Vif D’Etampes’ should turn from yellow to reddish orange eventually. ‘Marina Di Chioggia’ is supposed to turn a bluey green and have a bumpy skin. Both of them look like ringers at the moment so we will see if they do a super hero transformation later on!

Pumpkin 'Rouge Vif D'Etampes' and Winter squash 'Marina Di Chioggia' amongst the Sweetcorn

I planted:

• Turnip Bianca Lodigiana
• Beetroot Chioggia
• Carrot Adelaide F1
• Spinach Monnopa
• Perpetual Spinach (Spinach Beet)

Everything in the allotments is doing well. There are cabbages ready to harvest (planted last year). I picked some Mirabeau radishes, evicting a large slug from the row as I did so – Yuk.

I grow shallots but must confess that I tend to use them as spring onions while they are young. I’ve never had much use for them – being more of a “take a large onion” sort of cook. I find them fiddly to deal with and having pickled them once I wasn’t inspired to do it again. As spring onions though they’re great.

I’ve also got lots of flat leaved parsley – so I’m scrabbling through the recipe books for recipes that start with “Take a bucketful of parsley and……” I’ve frozen it before but it seemed to lose all texture and taste. I think I might try a parsley pesto and put it in jars. That should get rid of a small bucketful at least.

I’ve sown, directly into the ground :

• Carouby de Mausanne (mange tout)
• Stenu (HDRA heirloom variety)

The downside of climbing peas is having to erect a support structure which includes netting as peas won’t climb up canes like French Beans or Runners. I could use branches/twigs of course but they would have to be 6 feet long which is a little over the top for me to manage. I make do with this – it’s the canes and white netting frame in the background, behind the French beans. It’s double sided – I grow peas up both sides, one variety on each.

Stenu’s flowers are pink and dark purple so should look especially attractive while Carouby de Mausanne’s are pale purple. Thinking about vegetable flowers I’ll finish with a picture of first early potato Rocket which is just coming into flower in the main allotment. Easily overlooked yet attractive in its own right.

Annual Herbs: Dill, Sweet Basil, Bush Basil, Summer Savory, Coriander (Cilantro) and Lemon Coriander

For the allotment:

• Runner Bean “White Lady” (rather late to sow these but I expect they will catch up)
• Lettuce “Bronze Arrowhead” (very reliable and stands well)
• Lettuce “Feuille De Chene” (HDRA Heritage variety. The name translates as “oak leaf”. Supposed to stand well and be unattractive to slugs – we shall see)
• Dwarf French Bean “Negritos” (HDRA Heritage variety. To be grown in a large pot as dwarf French beans always get eaten if I plant them in out the ground. Aren’t bean seeds interesting colours?)

For the garden:

• Ipomoea (Morning Glory) “President Tyler”, “Scarlet O’Hara” and some mixed saved seed from last year.
• Mina Lobata (a very attractive climber, see picture below from last year. Now renamed Ipomoea lobata but I’ve just learned the old name and I’m sticking with that)

The seed sowing took place in the garage. On the side of the garage is the blue tit nest box. Every time I stepped out of the garage I got between the tree the blue tit uses as a look out before flying into the box, and the box itself.

Blue tits look so edgy and nervous at the best of times. I didn’t want to frighten it into abandoning the nest so I kept freezing in mid-step so as not to put it off. I ended up as twitchy as the blue tit.

Bright idea! Perhaps I could get a picture of it entering the nest box. It’s zipping in and out like a yo-yo. Surely it can’t be that hard. All I have to do is stand still with a camera and wait. Yeah right.

I took a number of photos and the blue tit wasn’t in any of them, not even a blur. All I’ve got is the bird box – where did the birdy go?….is it faster than the speed of light. Drat!

All I got was aching arms from holding the camera.