Kitchen Garden Forum

Welcome back PP!

Hope you had a great time & might be tempted to try something you found on your adventures to try at home? I was a bit surprised to see my rhubarb was also up but only about 3" or so. it is a sign for us growers though that a new season is a coming! Unfortunately I can't force any as I split them last year - never mind, I will be patient ('ish)!

Tatties now in their egg boxes out of direct light, cool and chitting away quietly.

I've had to re-sow my onion seeds - the first sowing couldn't throw the seed off the top end & then they seem to have dried off from under the seed down the shaft. These seeds were given to me & had a blue coating on them - is this the cause of why they did this - lots of instruction on the packets about washing your hands etc. New sowing is just normal black seed.

Tatties are currently being incubated by the cat - might not get much chitting done until she finds a new game to annoy me!

Our Allotment Shop delivery hasn't yet got an arrival date.

Not had that with onions but if things like courgettes get the seed cases stuck I mist spray them then can usually remove them.

Thanks Westi, it was lovely to see all the beautiful flowers and exotic plants and watch the sun birds on a shrub with tubular golden flowers in the garden. There was a pair of magpie robins nesting in the kitchen air vent next door and tiny zebra doves with a nest balanced on top of the open bedroom window. Nearly every house on the street has a mango tree with masses of ripening fruits. Unfortunately not quite ready while I was there. That is something I would love to grow.

I've brought back some small sugar snap peas, two kinds of pumpkins and some sunflower seeds for eating as shoots. I've been quite restrained this time as I've tried exotic stuff in the past which either struggle to grow or taste horrible.

Not much chance of doing any gardening today everything is white over again with hail and snow.

Sounds lovely PP!

What are your pumpkins like? I'm growing the white Polar Bear one this year but looking longingly at my Chicago Warted seeds I got from the states, but we just aren't getting the heat during the summer to make them worth the land the last couple of years. We had a mango tree at every house we had in Aussie. Fruit bats & flying foxes got most of them, but they were prolific to the point I can't bear them now as the 'waste not, want not' ethos meant me & all the neighbours kids were herded in the bath & it seemed like being force fed them. It wasn't the taste but the build up of the perfume in a confined space with kids I didn't even like much!

Regret I don't quite follow the last couple of sentences. Why were you put in the bath to be force fed and, if it isn't too delicate, what smell was building up?

Spread some manure on 2 of the raised beds, covered with chicken wire to keep the cats out, almost proper gardening, also moved the compost heap and turned it over, won't be ready this year.

Potted on my seed onions and sowed some De Cayenne, Hungarian Hot Wax and Sweet Peppers in the heated propagator, proper gardening.

I'm glad you're making some progress Tiger. I'm still waiting for the weather to warm up a bit . I just can't get motivated while it's so horrible. When I make a start I'll be fine but I think I'm still in hibernation mode. I'm still looking for a local stockist of Picasso potatoes to get them started. Wilko had a good selection last year of loose ones that you could pick out the best ones and pay per bag so I'm going to try one of their larger shops tomorrow and hopefully get what I want.

I'm trying Picasso this year too. Can't help you with where to get them though, as they were part of my order at the allotment shop.

First sowings today: chilli pepper Fuego, sweet pepper California Wonder and lots of mixed sweet peas, the former on the boiler to germinate and the latter on a spare room window sill.

Sleet and snow outside .....

First two chillies have popped up in the propagator, one Cayenne and one Hungarian Hot Wax

The sweet peas, now well up, have gone into the unheated greenhouse but during the night they are covered by double bubble plastic. The sweet and chilli peppers are all growing well on the inside window sill (with silver foil behind them to increase the light) but I'd better keep a cautious eye on them with the cold nights forecast.
Have also now sown leeks Musselburgh and Lyon Prizetaker, shallots Ambition, night-scented stock and spring onions in a pot.
At least inside it's spring ........