Grow - April Round Up

April has now been and gone, and the garden has been a little quiet compared to the last couple of months. There have been a couple of unseen additions though, and things have been taking shape. 

Potatoes

One of the biggest changes is that I have planted a few potatoes. One of my neighbours who has an allotment had a spare few potatoes that he wasn't going to get a chance to plant out or use, gave away some of them, and I planted three rows. They were three different early varieties, and one was a second early I think, so I was a little on the late side in getting them in the ground, but already in the past couple of weeks I have had a few pop their heads up to say hello. Despite next door's cat using the veggie bed as a litter tray... It's a good job I like Mr Pickle (the cat). 

Peppers on the windowsill

The addition of potatoes was not the only thing to get done during April. My experimental propagator has worked its magic and has produced nine quite substantial seedlings from my pepper seeds I rescued from a supermarket bell pepper. I planted them out into three pots and they are now residing on the windowsill in the knitting den. It is the warmest room in the house and gets the most light. They are watered almost every day and are being turned just as often to allow them to grow upright instead of leaning towards the window. I was warned by my stepfather that peppers are notoriously hard to keep alive and reminded me that the battle isn't over just yet! ;) 

First Spring Onions

Most of the other veggies I have planted have been growing well, the first set of spring onions are looking tall and strong as ever. I got a variety pack of seeds with a few red as well as white, and I'm excited to see that the red bottoms of a couple of them are starting to peek through! I'm starting to consider planting a couple of these onions outside to see if that will help them grow a little more. I can't help thinking that them being in a small punnet is slightly limiting, but I don't really have much else at the moment. I am considering trying one or two when they are at this stage too, seeing as the small seedlings which I thinned out earlier last month had some flavour to them. The second lot of spring onions are still relatively small, at about three inches high, so there isn't much to report on that front. 

First Leeks

The leeks however are looking good. I have about five seedlings in the first pot, and the biggest of those are reaching around six inches, which is quite exciting. I think they will be what is next to plant out next month. They do look the spitting image of the spring onions, although less fat when they are at a similar height. I have planted out a second pot of leeks now, and am hoping that they will carry on into the winter. But we will see. The spinach doesn't have as much of a happy tale though. 

Spinach and Basil

The spinach, seen here with the second basil plant, is the second lot of spinach I planted. The second lot overtook the first lot quite substantially, and I decided that having two spinach plants was a little too much for just me to eat all of, even with copious amounts of humous. The time the first plant had spend in the kitchen I think had stunted it, and it wasn't showing many signs of recovery sadly. So I picked the baby leaves off of it to sprinkle on tonight's tea and I then used the pot to plant the second lot of leeks. The remaining pot of spinach is starting to look good and I am looking forward to eating it. 

First Basil

The basil, the last thing left to talk about is going strong. Both the first and the second sowing in fact. They are both now quite substantial and smell amazing. I am now going to start using them in my cooking if I can stop just burying my face in it to give it a smell. I am really pleased that the marmite jar seeds have taken so well to being in there too. I am a little reluctant to move one of the pots into the kitchen where there will be a lot less light and heat than by the back door, but maybe it might be necessary when there becomes no more room! 

The last happy surprise from my garden has to be the mystery bush in the middle of the veggie bed. It was green and spiky when I moved in, and is indeed still green and spiky now. It had a tendency to lean over the small path in the garden and for a while now I've just been walking onto the grass to get around it. Today I tied the top part back to the fence so it stood up a lot more and was covering less of the path. Once I can get hold of a pair of secateurs then I will give it a little bit of a prune to encourage it off the path. But to my surprise a lovely pale pink flower was hiding in the bush. There were a few other buds too so I am looking forward to seeing them all come out in time. 

Grow - March Round Up

Fist Basil Set

As the month rolls into April there is another set of jobs to get done in the garden, and with the sun coming out and it feeling incredibly like spring has sprung I could not wait to get back out there. With the recent Covid-19 outbreak and the lockdown measures in place, a lot of people have been turning to their gardens as a source of comfort and something to do. I am no exception there, I feel that having something to care for and something to think about really does take my mind off what has been happening in this world around us.

It is important to note here that going out to buy gardening things is not classed as an essential trip, people should not be encouraged to go and make those extra journeys, putting themselves and others at risk. That said a few of the things I have done this past month I've done using what I had to hand, and no trips have been made to get supplies. I also know that some supermarkets are selling things like plants and bags of compost, so you can kill two birds with one stone if you really want to get your hands dirty and pick those up on your weekly essentials shop.

Last time I shared the garden with you all I had just planted the first sets of basil, spring onions and spinach. Those three sets are growing well, and three weeks after the first lot, I've planted a second sowing of all three. The Spinach moved from the sunny spot by the back door, to the windowsill in the kitchen where it has been quite happy, and hopefully soon will be ready to provide leaves.

Kitchen Windowsill Spinach

Thinned Out Spring Onions

The spring onions have shot up, and finally been thinned out. I only really thought later on that I remembered reading something about them needing their own space. They had grown like anything incredibly quickly and then stalled. So I got around to thinning them out to about an inch apart. I was a little torn as to what to do with the little seedlings, do I try and replant them in their own space? I was also curious as to what they were like at this early stage, so I tried one. It was actually quite onion-y so I decided to wash this little handful and had them chopped up on top of my salmon that night for tea. I was actually really quite pleased that I had managed to eat something that I had grown for the first time ever!

The basil was a slow grower, it took forever for it to pop out of the top of its pot, and I will admit it did almost lose heart in it, but a little more patience saw it through. The little plant is growing well, and when it is big enough it will probably move into the kitchen to be with its spinach friend on the windowsill. 

In my offshift three weeks after I had first planted the seeds, I set about planting another set of each. This did also happen to be early April and I tackled my garden jobs list as well. I planted another two sets of spring onions. The first set was going into the garden, and is the first thing that I have actually planted outside, and I am pretty excited. I did however plant another set indoors just in case. I marked the area where I had planted them with some twine and a few sticks I found in the garden, for an easy reference for when I come to water them and to just check on them.

I also started off my carrots, these I decided to plant in a pot on the patio. This will hopefully mean that they won't come across some of the other problems they could in the ground. I'm a little worried about my carrots though, I know that April is a little early for them and not having any access to things like fleece to keep them covered is something to think about. I suppose with them being in a pot, if things get really bad outside I can just bring them inside.

I did have to wait another week for my leek seeds to arrive, which I was too late in getting at the garden centre, so had to order online. With the lockdown at the moment a lot of online businesses are working harder then ever so are taking longer to ship orders. I ordered my leeks from Suttons Seeds online and they took just over a week to get to me, which was good. They got planted in a little pot and are now sat by the back door with the other veggies, and hopefully will start to grow. They are being started "on the windowsill" for now and I think I will plan to plant them out in June time.


The second sets of spinach and basil pulled the short straw really, and I didn't have many spare pots for them, so I improvised. The spinach got planted in the bottom half of a milk bottle, and the basil in a marmite jar. I'm being a little mindful about how much I water these two, as the makeshift pots they are in do not have any drainage holes in the bottom, so have a larger chance of becoming waterlogged. But despite that, both the pots have started to germinate and I've got little bits of green poking out of the tops of both of them.

One thing that wasn't on my garden plan, was a little experiment I decided to try out. I was cutting up a red bell pepper when I was making my tea one night, and on a whim decided to save the seeds. I wanted to see if I could grow them. Reading up on how to grow pepper seeds, it mentioned the need to keep them in a propagator at a temperature of around 21 degrees (I'm paraphrasing here, don't take my advice! :P ). With us being in a lockdown, I cannot go out an purchase a snazzy propagator, and the seeds needed planting out pretty soonish. So I got my thinking head on and made a propagator out of an old milk bottle (2 pint), a scrap of cotton fabric and a sandwich bag.

I cut the milk bottle in half and cut most of the handle off, leaving a little bit of it. I then put some water in the bottom half of the bottle, up to the little line. Then cut a slot in the lid of the bottle. I threaded one end of my fabric scrap through the lid a little way. This fabric scrap is going to act like a moisture wick. I then screwed the lid back on the milk bottle and put the top half upside down in the bottom half, with the little bit of handle sticking out over the top to stop it from sliding all the way down to the bottom. The fabric should sit in the water at the bottom and come up through the lid into the top half.

I filled the top half with compost and sowed my pepper seeds. I watered it then, and put the sandwich bag over the top, tied it in place with a piece of yarn I had lying around and placed it on my spare room windowsill.

There was a lot of condensation on the inside of that bag as the weeks went on, but without having to touch it at all. two and a half weeks later I'm looking at a couple of green leaves sticking out the top looking happy. So now that gamble has taken off I need to read up on what to do next! I'm thinking I will keep these plants in a pot other than planting them outside, as they seem to need a fair amount of greenhouse time and hardening off before they can really brave the british weather. We will see what the next few weeks will bring I suppose.

If you really are curious as to how my seed propagator went together, then have a look at the pictures I've posted here, and maybe they'll explain a little bit better than I have with words.

The last unexpected garden happening, happened the most recently, when I decided that the three aloe plants that I had upstairs on the bedroom window had failed. They were three of five babies I had taken out of the mother plants pot. Whilst the other two had thrived these had turned brown, and I didn't know what I had done to them. They didn't seem to respond at all to me giving them more or less light or even varying amounts of water. I thought they had properly died, so I went outside to take them out of their pots and put them in the compost heap, but taking them out of their pots I realised that two of them had developed quite a large route system, and it seemed a shame to not try and give them a second chance. So that's what I did.

I planted the three of them out in the flower/veggie bed in the garden. They went in a section of the bed that I didn't really know what I was going to do with. We will see what comes of them now, as they aren't so reliant on me to feed them right!

That is all I have to say for this monthly round up of the garden. I really hope you are enjoying the blog, as well as the weekly updates from me are happening on both a Wednesday and a Sunday now. My plan is to release these Grow posts just as and when I get around to writing them so I don't have to try and squeeze them in and around all the other making.

So, happy making, happy gardening, and keep safe. I will see you all again really soon!
L xx

Grow - Down Another Rabbit Hole

Veg Patch Before

In my new house I have a tiny bit of garden that I am now responsible for, in which has a bit of grass, a pathway and an overgrown bed, probably used for something like flowers before. Either way it is a little neglected and I feel like I myself can give it a bit of love that it needs. I first thought that I might find some low maintenance, pretty type shrub to put into the bed and that would be that. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try my hand at growing some vegetables and I ended up falling down a massive rabbit hole of veg gardening, and found several books to get my nose into.

When I made this decision it was getting on into the second half of February and it was just in time to start getting things in the garden ready for a new life. I was down visiting my Mam when I found these books and read nearly two books on growing vegetables, as well as finding bits a pieces in another reference book that my Mam had. By the time I was making my way back home, I had bought myself some seeds, a book, borrowed one of my Mam's books on long term loan, and decided what I was going to plant and had most of a plan of action thought out in my head.

The day I got home I got out into the garden and spent a good three hours digging and making good the old flower bed ready to become a veg bed and hold some new life. I also managed a cheeky trip out to the local garden centre, just to see what gives and to pick up a bag of compost and one more pack of seeds.

After The Digging

My afternoon of digging, did make me ache all over, and I was back to work the next day, and was a little stiff and achy then too. But I felt so much better for being outside and the exercise it gave me. It is so nice to be in the fresh air when you have spent a lot of the winter cooped up inside. The idea of growing new things also filled me up inside. I have a few fond memories of when I was a child trying to grow things in my parents garden, with varying degrees of success. I remember enjoying the digging so much, I think it was a welcome tonic to sitting at a desk for days in a row when I was at school - I've never been one for a desk job!

After the mammoth weeding session, I dug in some fertiliser into the bed to get it all set for when I plant some things out. I found when digging that some bits of the bed were a little better then the rest. The section nearest the house was rather stoney, but the rest seemed less so. When I was digging I pulled out most of the larger stones, but this stoney part seemed pretty full of gravel almost. I marked the section off with a piece of bamboo that I found in the garden, to seperate it from the rest of the bed. It gives me the chance to properly plan what I am going to put in that section.

Fast forward a few weeks and it is now the middle of March, I've luckily been able to keep on top of the weeding, although there has been minimal weeds. There has been a couple of storms as well, but that seems to have helped to soak the bed. But the local cats seem to think I've made them a new giant litter tray. - I dug out three poops in about as many days. I gave it another quick dig to try and level out the soil, and I'm starting to get all excited again. I also planted some of my first seeds.

My plan for the garden was to plant spring onions, leeks, carrots, basil and spinach. I think saying all of those things are for the garden is a tiny bit misleading, as I don't think the basil is going to go outside. When I did my reading up to start with, those were the veggies I thought would be best suited to what I wanted to achieve and what I had. In my grand plan, I have started the basil, spinach and the first lot of spring onions inside. The basil I expect will stay inside in pots, but once the weather has decided what is going on, then the spring onions and the spinach will start to be planted out. Eek! I feel like things are finally happening!

New Seeds Just Planted

The carrots and leeks are in need of more thought. I have yet to decide on a variety of leeks I will use. I know the variety that I want, but I can't seem to find it in the shops I have looked around, so I might have to see what gives online. The carrots I do have the seeds for, but am yet to decide if I try them in a pot to start with. I am also very tempted to try some potatoes. I know they are fairly hardy and are good for planting in a plot that is relatively new, but I am weary of biting off more than I can chew.

So this is the new rabbit hole I've been dragged down this year, and hopefully I can get something out of it, even if that is a sense of  feeling closer to the world around me. I will try my best to keep you all updated. Green fingers crossed that these all work out.


** This post was written before there was a country wide lockdown, I hope that everyone is doing what the government has mandated, and is staying safe inside, only going out for the essentials. I am classed as a key worker, so am still going to work when I'm on shift, but doing what I can to stay indoors when I'm not. **