Category Archives: Indoor gardening

Those chillies from Bristol

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Big thanks to Kit G5KIT in Bristol for sending us an update on his chillies (see an earlier post here):

“Remember those Demon Red chilli seeds we planted here in Bristol? The tiny little seedlings eventually turned into lovely plants, and we gave most of them away.

The one we kept has produced plenty of the explosively hot little peppers, and we just finished what’s probably the last harvest of the year for it. A good haul of hotness, but now the plant itself is looking a bit sorry; it doesn’t seem to like the cold weather that’s setting in.”

“I’m going to prune it right back and see if it goes dormant, and with a bit of luck it’ll wake up next spring and start flowering again. The chillies have just gone straight into the freezer, and will get used a few at a time when some chilli oil is needed, or to liven up a curry.”

Brilliant stuff Kit, we love the way you gave plants away, giving other people the pleasure of growing them and then picking the chillies fresh off the plant.

That’s great you are going to cut it back and bit and let it rest over the winter. We’ll be doing the same with the two plants we have in the polytunnel but they still look alright at the moment and giving us chillies but perhaps in a week or two it may be a different matter as it is getting cold. Cheers for letting us know and keep sending us the updates!

It’s double bubble at the weekend

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Before the bad weather came to SE23 this afternoon we did a bit of tidying up in the polytunnel, giving the bench a good wipe down, making sure water weren’t building up in the plates/trays under the pots, lifting anything we could off the floor and general cleaning up as we’d hate to have any disease or what have you, especially on our first year of having one.

We looked online and it’s poor ventilation, lack of airflow and hygiene, that brings in the diseases so we’re a little paranoid to say the least. We heard via Facebook that Bez lost a load of seeds due to rats in his tunnel and he has only recently put the thing up as well. You’d be well disheartened if that happened.

We covered what we could with some spare bubble wrap and even put a makeshift cloche over some seedlings. We even put a couple of polythene bags over the ginger, lemon grass and basil plants on the bench. In the foreground is a tub where the garlic has been planted. We’ll lift them off every now and check to see how things are under the bubble.

It was 14°C in there today so we had the door open a little bit to get some air in but not so much so it brought the temperature down. It’s supposedly sunny tomorrow with a bit of wind so we’ll try and open a couple of vents but the door will certainly not be left open if there’s wind about! Told you we’re not paranoid (much).

As for the Star-of-Bethlehem seeds that we were kindly sent by Debby H, they are doing well on the kitchen windowsill. We’re chuffed that they germinated and can’t wait to see what they turn out like.

Hope those storms (Steve Austin and Bolero) subside soon, and they aren’t causing havoc to our gardening mates around the various part of the UK, so we can all enjoy that extra hour in bed and a Sunday tipping around the garden.

You get an extra hour in bed, evenings become darker earlier

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Just a little reminder that while we kip tonight the clocks will go back causing all sorts of havoc to sleeping, shortwave radio programming schedules and the like. So come 2am tomorrow morning in the UK, those hands of time will be turned back automatically (or manually when we wake up).

Looks like the good weather has gone for good

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The above picture was taken just the other weekend and since then we have had days of drizzle and 6pm type darkness at 9am and the clocks haven’t even gone back yet!

We heard a good thing this weekend from a gardening mate. They were saying don’t expect miracles from a polytunnel as the temperature inside during winter is only a couple of degrees warmer than the outside but those couple of degrees do make a difference when it comes to frost etc. We are making sure during the colder spells we only open the ventilation flaps at the side for small amounts of time and that no heat can escape thanks to some bubble wrap around the door frame (above).

The more delicate plants in there are going to covered too so we can create a greenhouse within a greenhouse type effect. We have already lifted some of the plants in pots off the floor on pieces of wood and even stuck some on some old tea trays. Anything to stop them touching the cold ground.

Last week we noticed that a seed tray in there with a lid on the top is now home to some germinated star-of-Bethlehem seeds that we were kindly sent by Debby H earlier this year. We have now moved them to the kitchen windowsill, and we will keep you posted on how they do. They are usually propagated by bulbs but we’ll give the seeds a try.

Also started off from seed, we have a couple of Korean Mint (Agastache rugosa) plants  and the leaves taste and smell of aniseed. They supposedly have some great purple flowers which the bees and butterflies are attracted to as well. We don’t want to lose these to the cold weather (even in the polytunnel) so it looks like the bubble wrap/net curtains will be draped over these too when the cold comes. Please weather, be kind to us!

Views from France and north London

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Thanks to Debby H from north London who has just come back from Fréjus in the south of France. Before she left she took a couple of photographs from there. The first (above) is the sky at dusk, looks wonderful Debby! Red sky at night and all that…) and a cork oak tree (below), as she said “There’s loads of them around Fréjus where we go. Apparently they were the original source of cork, at least for Europe.” We didn’t know that and Wikipedia reckons they are the source of the core of cricket balls too.

She went onto say “Since we returned, the zephyranthes bulbs have given us one last flower of the year” (below).

“We have brought indoors our ornithogalum plant as it’s now getting too cold for it to be outside at night. We only got one flower from it this year but last year we had loads.” (below).

“Each spring we prune our indoor geraniums, let the cut-off parts root in water and then plant them outside. We generally get a good display, and they are still going strong now. A photo is attached. This also shows our sedum in flower” (below).
Great stuff Debby and good to hear from you, do keep us updated on how things progress. Thanks again!

All we need is peas and chips

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A big thanks to whoever it was (it may have been Penny Golightly) who told us the best way (and the cheap as chips way) to grow those expensive culinary delights called pea shoots, is to get the seeds from those packs of dried peas that have the salt tablets in them. Discard the seed tablet and then sow away. Above are a few we sowed a couple of weeks ago, get those scissors out!

Also, we are confused as what is the best way of preserving chillies as we are having a glut of them (a nice glut to have by the way) here. As you recall we have tried the “hang them out to dry” method but we’ve been told about the freezing method, which we are trying. Any other good ideas for preserving chillies?

More polytunnel business

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We managed a few hours in the garden this afternoon and it was nice to be able to spend some time out there. We picked our beef tomatoes (above) from the polytunnel, and a couple of hours later a sauce was made (then later frozen) with a couple of chillies added to give it some heat.

In the tunnel we gave the workbench a bit of a wipe down, as we’re a bit paranoid that diseases and the like can spread quickly so we always check there isn’t a build-up of water on the plates below the plant pots, cut off anything that looks dead or damaged and also check any that we may have missed out while watering. The tunnel is starting to fill up now as we’re bringing in anything that could be damaged by the frosts (in a few weeks’ time?) and starting off some vegetables including parsnips, carrots and some onions and garlic in large tubs.

We also stuck some onion bulbs outside (above) after clearing an area in the side bed and made sure to put down protection from any birds and squirrels who fancy nicking them.

And we just seen on Facebook that Bez has just got himself a polytunnel, good stuff. That’s a nice sized one!

Polytunnel business

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The polytunnel is now up and we are in business! There’s nowt much in there now apart from some assorted chillies, a few different types of tomatoes and some freshly sown spinach but we’re sure that’ll change in a week or so.

It took us a good morning and a bit of “That isn’t the right piece, where’s 5B?”, the thing falling apart and it looking like a skeleton of a whale on the lawn, and parts moving when they weren’t supposed to but we got there in the end. After a good tighten up, the frame was put into place (above). Thanks to Alan C for lots of tips, especially this great one: “I put a layer of woodchip under mine but some use wood strips or gravel/stones. This gives a nice evenly flat base and slows the frame rusting – the woodchip quickly dries out and separates the poles from the soil.”

As soon as we put the cover on we dug a little trench and tucked the excess of the cover into the ground and put broken concrete slabs, bricks and whathaveyou to weigh it down and then backfilled with soil and more woodchip so it is hopefully stays put in the wind.

As we said there’s not much in there at the moment but we’ll update you. Cheers to Alan C again for his tips and advice. Big up all Polytunnel crew!

 

 

Please don’t take our sunlight away

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Thanks to Debby H for this great (inverted) image of the partial eclipse last night taken in north London at the maximum at 7.13 pm. What an excellent photograph!

And here’s two eclipse related tracks, the first from the The Eclipse Band with a very aptly titled Daylight Robbery. And another, from DNN called Eclipse Dub.

More marvellous business on the street

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On our travels this morning, we passed a plant we’ve seen a good few times. It finally clicked, it’s actually a Marvel of Peru, and a huge one at that, can you believe it? We didn’t know they can get so big!