Igenlode Wordsmith

( Towel-tomatoes )

The Roma tomatoes *finally* seem to have turned the corner and are starting to look more vigorous, and much to my surprise we have a chive seedling -- and possibly a second. And what may be a second and extremely delayed nasturtium; I had assumed that the seeds which had not germinated had simply rotted away by this point. (Zero signs of any of the non-germinated dwarf peas showing up as 'pea-shoots', and the two that were previously showing some sign of life in that pot are very small compared to the ones that were properly sprouted before going into the soil.)

I have sprinkled yet another batch of orange poppy little black dust seed across the soil, which must consist of a high proportion of dead poppy seed at this point! The single adult orange poppy plant is on the verge of opening its bud, and the yellow poppy has two flowers open and another one already over.

I finally pricked out the Demon Red chillies from their windowsill pot, putting six of them into a narrow tub in the mini-greenhouse with an eye to thinning them out later, and two into a temporary cardboard toilet-roll with an eye to giving them away in the near future; I should of course have hardened my heart and simply disposed of the spares! I did steel myself to throw away the very small ones.

The seedlings had better roots than the ones I potted up last year, although of course I'm doing so a week later.

And I do *finally* have a single nasturtium coming up, very belatedly.

I moved the Roma tomatoes out of the mini-greenhouse to make way for the chillies to live outside; the ones that were inside it do look a lot more vigorous than the ones that have been outside and unprotected all April, but it's quite possible that I put the 'best' seedlings under shelter in the first place and left the runts to take their chances! It looks as if I *may* have some germination from the fresh batch of basil that I put in there a couple of weeks ago, although the soil in that pot is looking very green and compacted. The only sign of life from the furry hedgehog wildlife garden is a single shoot of grass and a whole lot of white mould, but I shan't repine if that basil doesn't grow at all :-p

I have lost four otherwise vigorous towel-tomato seedlings, from both batches, to damping-off already, which is annoying, though I currently have plenty of spares (just as well).

I have potted up half the marigold seedlings, leaving the remainder still tumbled in their original tub; we shall see how they go. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of self-sown marigolds in other pots :-p

Pricked out the Gypsophila vaccaria from its brown-paper pot, where the compost was worryingly dry despite the fact that I'd watered it only about ten minutes before; the other paper pots should probably be disposed of too.

I think we have dill germination, though I still can't be sure if any of the other seedlings in there are winter purslane or not. The double-fronded seedling was definitely a California poppy (and a fairly unhealthy-looking one) so I have disposed of it.

Winnowed the last of the 2024 basil in its brown paper bag, and sowed it. My previous attempt using commercial seed has clearly failed; the timing was over-optimistic. (I should, of course, be winnowing the 2025 basil seed and using that for preference, rather than trying to 'use up' the old bag first...)

I have been thinning/harvesting the lettuce, and probably ought to be sowing some more in order to have a progression; I harvested my first real crop of rocket today, and the kale has been yielding well (although it is now being afflicted by some kind of sap-suckers on the young growth).

Re-sowed the orange poppy, dill, nasturtium and chives, all of which appear to have failed without trace. (There may possibly be a dill seedling appearing around the edge of the pot, which tends to reinforce the suggestion that the seeds need light in order to trigger germination -- I scattered a fresh batch on the surface this time.)

( Rocket )

( Strawberries )

Potted up the ten Roma tomato seedlings, with some difficulty since the towelling on which the seeds were originally held had not yet disintegrated in many places -- I wonder if this was what was holding them back? They didn't have a lot of root; however, at least they now have some drainage.

( Towel-tomatoes and chillies )

The dwarf peas have been moved out of the mini-greenhouse, where they appear to have thrived; it's hard to be certain, though, since I did after all put the best seedlings in there to start off with while leaving the more dubious peas outside! I tried to find a replacement for the photo-degrading mini-greenhouse( Read more... )

We finally have germination among the coriander, coming up reassuringly in pairs, and we *may* have actual germination among the spring onions to confirm that all the other things that had come up hitherto in that pot were not, in fact, spring onions! (These seedlings look more leek-like, which tends to confirm that there are no chive seedlings in the chive pot.)

( Dill and winter purslane )

There is one California poppy seedling in the pot where I sowed the white California poppy seed, but of course there is no way of knowing whether it germinated from the seed I put in there or was present in the compost anyway :-p

The miniature rose is now looking very dead, and the sweetbriar very alive. ( Marigolds and nasturtiums )

( Tulips )

I now have two chillies definitely germinated and several more showing their necks; I did put quite a bit of seed in just in case, since I had plenty this year. The 'good' towel-tomatoes are germinating also, which feels very quick -- but in fact it has been a good ten days, apparently.

The Roma seedlings are not looking at all happy, and the towel-tomatoes, while much better developed, are starting to roll their seed-leaves a bit at the edges. I suspect both really want re-potting from their undrained containers into fresh compost (or at least *different* compost...), but it has been too cold to put them out at night and on some of the days, and I don't have space for multiple larger pots on the windowsill. I was intending to repot them when the true leaves had developed, but I think it may need to be done sooner. Although the new seedlings do at least demonstrate that the Roma seedlings actually have grown quite a bit since they started!

We have lots of tiny pink Linaria seedlings. Also possibly chives -- it looks for all the world like some sort of little stars of bog-grass or young moss growing in the pot, but as there isn't normally any grass up here the odds are probably reasonable that it might be the chives that I did after all sow in there. There is a good chance that it is moss, though -- really doesn't look like newly-germinated seedlings to me :-(
A Swan River daisy has germinated. Sowed marigolds and (optimistically) basil, in a very small pot that can be squeezed into the mini-greenhouse alongside the peas.

I repotted the thyme by the brute-force method of ripping the disintegrating plastic pot off it into pieces, then pulling off a lot of the rootball so that I could fit some compost in around it -- this is in fact the 'old' thyme that I thought was dying several years ago and that was supposed to be replaced by the acquisition of a new seedling. The two plants are now approximately the same size! The stump of the 'old' kale that was supposed to be being replaced by its seedling offspring is still producing leaves and looking about as healthy as they are, too...

The sorrel probably wants repotting yet again, but I confined myself to pulling off the mass of roots that have come out of the bottom of the pot. I think that what happened was that it grew roots downwards (where there was very little new soils for it) rather than sideways as I had hoped -- unsurprising, really, but I don't really want to sacrifice one of my deep tomato-pots for its benefit. The winter purslane has rotted away entirely, and I don't think it managed to set any seeds :-(

Sowed flax and nasturtiums. The dwarf peas are starting to shoot.

It is currently so sunny that I have moved the chillies into the bathroom, which is now acting as a greenhouse rather than a larder :-D (Still under 60 degrees in here, though; the warmth is all in the sun, not in the spring air.)

( Elsa's Land )

It has been warm, and I have been sowing seeds and giving my tomatoes holidays outside. It has also been very cold at night, with a white frost, and I had to put the extra blanket back on top of my bed! To my relief the rocket and lettuce seedlings survived the cold all right, and everything else was still safe beneath the soil...

( Poppies )

Some of the strawberry plants are showing signs of life (though at least one appears to have had its new growth eaten off, and is trying again to put out a fresh set of leaves). Some of them look as if they may have died over the winter.

I soaked a dozen or so dwarf peas and they are now in a newspaper jar, but have shown no signs of sprouting just yet. I also sowed a tray with the last of the assorted purple flower seed, though so far as I remember it didn't come up terribly purple and didn't appear to contain any of the listed species other than cornflowers! Certainly most of the seed remaining in the packet looks like cornflower tufts, though they may simply be the biggest...

( Gypsophila elegans, Gypsophila vaccaria, Swan River daisy and pink Linaria )