Category Archives: seeds

Make your own luck (and muck)

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The other day we used the tip that Alan mentioned a few posts ago about adding some home-made garden compost into peat-free seed compost to give it a bit of added goodness. We looked at our compost heap thinking we’d have to clear the many layers of rotting vegetables, cardboard and egg boxes to get to the bottom and then remembered last year we found a way to the bottom from the side of the heap (above). All we did was move an old floor tile and voila we were rewarded with some fresh “Black Gold” (below), wonderful stuff!

We only put a few handfuls of it with the remaining peat-free seed compost we had left as we didn’t want it too nutrient heavy and kill the seedlings but just enough to make a difference. Once we mixed it up we filled one of the seed tray, tray lid and bottom set we got from a large DIY supplier (their name rhymes with T&Q) for the bargain price of £4. You can’t even get a pint for that sort of money these days.

In the tray went some self-saved seeds of sweet pea we grew last year, some jalapenos, the black moon tomato we got from Thompson & Morgan and also from T&M, “great stuff” peppers that grow to the size of a human hand! We’ll keep you posted when the seeds germinate and we’d love to hear what you’re starting off at the moment. Remember it’s only February.

From Seed Tins to ex-Thompson Twins

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It’s February by a week, some earlier sown seedlings are growing, sowed seeds are starting to germinate and there are more seed packets to be opened.

In an earlier batch we started off in the heated propagator in the back room, we made sure we turned the heating off as soon as the seeds started to show through and then over a few days took the plastic lid off completely. The tray is lidless now by the back window and seems to be doing well. Most have germinated apart from the chillies that had “Sow by the end of 2023” on the front of the packet. We’re still giving them the benefit of the doubt though, they could be late starters or we could be a bit impatient.

And here’s a seed sowing musical accompliment from International Observer called Seedsavers Dub. It’s a nice bit of dub which if played to up and coming plants, will stimulate them (or so we reckon!)

Starting them early my friend

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It’s still only January but we’ve started some seeds already. Last year everything seemed to go wrong with the seed sowing as they germinated and then just stalled for a good few weeks and then died. We have no idea what it was, was it to do with the cheap compost we got at a supermarket? Was it those damn aphids who feasted on the basil plants on the kitchen windowsill later in the season? Was it some sort of delayed damping off?

 

Who knows but we weren’t best pleased as the batch contained some rare chilli and some choice tomato varieties. We ended up buying some chilli plants and a nice bushy tomato plant from B&Q in the end which all done well but it’s not the same.

We’ve now wiped the slate clean and put the memory of last year’s failings out of the way and started afresh with some proper seed and cutting compost in pots in a heated propagator we received as a present a few year ago (cheers Maz and Marc!)

Seeds sown this week: mint, dill, basil, chives, parsley, san marzano tomato, cerise tomato, chilli habanero, chilli Jalapino (the last 3 out of packs that say sow by 12.2023) and some seeds we dried off our chilli apache plant last year. We also sowed some catmint even though we were warned years ago that “you’ll have every cat in the neighbourhood in your back garden”.

In a few weeks every windowsill will be full with pots on saucers, jam jars and plastic freezer bags on top of plant pots as cheap alternative to greenhouses.

 

Anyone know any good tips for stopping those aphids? Someone the other week mentioned neem oil and we’ve just looked online and may try it. Anyone ever used it? Any tips to one deck pete at Gee mail dot com please.

Cosmos taking over

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Hi to Debby H for sending us pictures of the state of play in her garden when it comes to continuing cosmos flowers at the moment and it is really crazy stuff. All the garden borders have the plants in them and the volunteer/self seeded one in the north bed has the most amazing colour (above).

“I have borders on 3 sides of my lawn, and there are cosmos flowers in all of them, including the northern border where I didn’t even plant any!” said Debby. They really are brilliant and as we said a few posts ago we ask our readers to send us some cosmos pictures next year, wherever you are in the world. Cheers Debby, you’ve started off a growing cosmos trend hopefully!

Spuds and signs

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This weekend we sampled our first potato harvest after putting the Maris Piper seed spuds in the garden back in the March here. We made sure to forgot all about them this year as we usually are looking to see if the potatoes are forming not long after the plant flowers.

Even when we were being very careful with the garden fork we still punctured a few and brought up the odd green spud. Now that’s something you don’t want to ingest, the same being for the strange tomato-like fruit that sometimes form after the plant flowers. Don’t go anywhere near them!

On our travels today we found some great looking plant markers on a couple of tree seedlings around Devonshire Road SE23. They look great, very graphic. Love the baby oak one!

And it’s summer solstice next week you say?

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How changeable has this weather been this weekend? It was tipping it down and windy as hell on Saturday and this afternoon we had clouds in the morning and then a nice bit of sunshine in the afternoon. This mad weather is going to send the garden crazy.

The picture above is on the side bed of some pots on a home-made old coat hanger type thing found in the street a few years ago. We’ve been trying to grow runner beans and sweet peas up it with no success over the years so attached a couple of pots near the top to see what happens. We’ve got cut and come again lettuces in one and poppies in the other in an attempt to stop the slugs from getting at them. What do you reckon, will it work? We very much doubt it.

And we’re trying to disguise the 1980’s crazy paving slab surrrounded pond with some pots and in between the broken paving stones we’ve put in some soil and going to sow california poppies and the like. Anything to disguise those crazy paving we lifted from the top of the garden to make way for some grass. How’s the weather been like around your way this weekend? As bad as ours?

Spring is here (or just around the corner)

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Cheers for Debby H for getting in touch with us today. She sent us a pic of daffodils in full bloom in a council maintained bed near her home in North London (above) and they look great!

Debby has recently started off some tomato and cosmos seeds. The cosmos seeds were straight off the flower heads of the plants they grew last year. After being left in a box all winter they were sown a couple of days ago. As she said: “We just scattered the whole dead heads on earth/compost and covered them over. We didn’t bother to try to separate out the seeds first. Within two days the little things were germinating madly!”  (Photo above). That is crazy! The seeds must have had exactly the right conditions that they loved as two days is good going for germination.

Debby told us a great tip that she used with the cosmos seedlings (pic above): “I re-planted some of them in an egg box as they were growing too densely. The idea Is that, when they are ready to go outside, I will cut the egg box into individual sections, then plant each section separately. As the egg box is made of cardboard it should bio-degrade so I won’t need to remove the seedlings from the box partitions before planting them.” That is a top idea, we have been using some biodegradable pots from B&Q but this idea is better. What we usually do with our egg boxes is chuck them on the compost heap but we reckon we’ll be putting seeds in them!

Cheers Debby, thanks again and look forward for more pics soon!

What a difference a day makes (again)

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Saturday was a lovely day so we tipped around in the garden, done some weeding and tidied up. Some seed spuds were sown in the old window frame on bricks (halfway in the picture on the left hand side). The rest of the spuds we procured from B&Q were put in empty egg boxes next to the window in the back room to start off the chitting process.

Come Sunday though, it was grey all day and from mid-morning constant drizzle but one thing with rain, even if you’ve just scratched the top layer of soil in a bed it makes it look great like you’ve spent hours working on it. Viva the good weather!

Life is one big circle innit?

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And they’re off! It’s taken nearly three weeks for the Chillies to germinate in the propagator with the lid and the Lemon Drop (aka Lemon-flavoured Aji from Peru) are the first to show their faces. We’re now waiting for the Pretty in Purple and Albertus Rotoco to get going now. We started them early and know some chillies are hard to germinate due to some of the seed being dormant so even at this early stage we are chuffed.

And the Tomatoes which were started in an uncovered tray are slowly starting to grow. These above are the (first vertical row) San Marzano (second row) Florentino which we are sure we obtained from a Glengall Wharf Gardens SE15 seed swap from two or three years back and (third row) a Cherry Tomato called Cerise from those 6 in 1 vegetable pack from Ebay. Springtime we’re waiting for you to spring!

The great indoors

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Thanks to Debby H for sending us pictures of her collection of indoor plants. Because until recently, she didn’t have a garden; she has an abundance of them. As we here at Weeds are not very good with houseplants, we love to see other people’s. The flowering cactus (above) looks great.

Now the picture above is brilliant, the Orchid is blooming and there’s a healthy looking Pineapple. We didn’t even know you could grow them here, even indoors! More on growing Pineapples here.

Debby wrote “I grew the Strelitzias AKA Bird of Paradise plants (above) from seed about 5 years ago. We are hoping they may flower sometime.” Wow and when they flower…

“I also grew the Canna (below) from a tiny plant. Last year it flowered continuously with beautiful bright red flowers. The Canna lives outdoors in the summer. We put the Strelitzias out too, but they hated it and wilted every day there was any sun! Strange because they generally live outdoors in warmer climates.” Brilliant stuff Debby, thanks a lot for that and do send us some picture updates and also when the strelitzias flower as that’ll be great.