Igenlode Wordsmith

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 )

I had a strange experience this morning after listening to another chapter of "The Three Musketeers" in Russian (last night I was already too sleepy to even attempt it). YouTube subsequently showed me a video of a Polish priest conversing in the Vatican with an American via the medium of Latin, and I genuinely could not work out whether I was hearing Russian or not :-p( Read more... )

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I found an envelope of spring onion seeds which I evidently harvested last year from the spring onion that flowered, so have tried sowing those, since the two surviving stubs of the old ones are looking pretty sick. It didn't help that something came along and ate the tops off them -- and also ate the flowers off the calendulas, quite deliberately, half a head at a time, coming back every night to finish the job and then moving on to the next plant -- I would be more annoyed about that if they hadn't been flowering all winter so that I was rather bored with them!

The tulips are all blooming heartily, with the exception of the bulb at the end, in between where the two garlics were put in, which is only just showing a bud. Presumably due to competition from the neighbouring bulbs, even though the garlic cloves were much smaller....

Took the eiderdown off my bed and put it away for the year, a rather rash procedure prompted by a series of nightmares (usually a sign that my sleeping temperatures are too high). Also a non-trivial one that requires quite a lot of furniture-shifting in order for me to be able to pull the bed out far enough past the chest of drawers and the radiator so that I can access the storage underneath, so it's not a choice that is reversible at a whim. But I have been sleeping for some time with the eiderdown thrown back so that it only covers my feet, and that is obviously still too much.

I have taken one of the blankets off for good measure, as I found myself sweating while trying to remake the bed -- the sun has come round far enough to heat my room in the afternoons now, and the temperature in there after dark with the window open was still on its way up towards seventy :-O
But I haven't put the blanket away, so I can retrieve that easily if necessary.

( Sweet peas )

Marie Antoinette has managed to pull off its usual trick of giving even the most unsympathetic characters moments of humanity, which is one of the things that is so good about it; ( Read more... )

Planted my first seeds of the year: some rocket, to replace the overwintered plants, which are elderly and not really regrowing.

The original seed packet (though this is saved seed) says 'plant outdoors from March', but the poppies and chickweed are busy germinating all over the place of their own accord, so we shall see.

One of the beetroot plants has died -- dropped and decayed from the base, probably from the relentless damp -- but I didn't need that many anyhow.

The second-generation marigolds are frosted, although the calendula seems fine. The winter purslane looks a bit droopy, although it is also trying to flower(!)
The garlic is quite happy, and the pink Linaria is still busy blossoming.
Odometer reading: 607 miles -- 193 miles since the end of October. [Edit: ten weeks, i.e. the usual average of 18–19 miles a week!]

I left my front light on low beam for over 24 hours, and it was still on when I got back, albeit showing the low battery warning -- and despite that warning, I was still able to switch it off and then switch it back on again. So leaving the light switched on inside my bag when I'm not on the bicycle is probably a safe solution, albeit a slightly bizarre one!

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My final batch of windowsill spring onion stubs are all dying off after being planted out despite having initially sent up new shoots; it is presumably either too cold or too wet for them to establish outdoors. The two survivors from the original set are fine, albeit slightly nibbled by snails...
The winter purslane is living up to its name and continuing to produce new salad leaves that I can harvest, although I think the sorrel and rocket have slowed down a lot, if not stopped regrowth altogether. The mint has died down to dry sticks, which I need to remember to trim when I get the opportunity, or they will get in the way of picking the new shoots next year :-p
The garlic that I planted is thriving, and the second clove that I put in nearby, which initially had its shoot emerging almost horizontally in response to conditions in the vegetable rack, has now miraculously straightened itself out and is heading for the sky.
And I did eventually get round to rigging up a new washing-line, having had the inspiration of taking *three* turns around the railing before making the half-hitches instead of the standard two, thus making it much easier to keep it taut while completing the knot!

I finally cut down and harvested from this year's chilli plants ( Two hundred ripe chillies )