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Showing posts with label chilli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chilli. Show all posts

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Flowering at last

My my, it's been a long wait but finally the chillies have begun to flower. I can't believe how long they have taken. We planted them indoors in March so that's over 5 months to get to this stage. I guess our UK climate is not ideal for these fellas.

So a few more weeks and we'll be able to make our own all'Arrabbiata and if timings are good we may even be lucky enough to use some homegrown tomatoes.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Going to Pot

Horrah! My second favourite time of year is finally here! Seed sowing time. We planted our first seeds of the year this weekend and it couldn't of come sooner. I just love sitting at the table with seeds all around me and deciding who goes where – it's such a defining moment of the year and bursting full of potential.

So week one it was Beetroot – these little fellas went straight into the ground – we germinated them last year on the windowsill but we're hoping they're hardy enough to just get going on their own. One thing we slipped up with a little last year was not staggering our planting enough so we planted one row this week and then we'll leave it for 3 weeks and plant another.

Into the propagators we planted tomatoes, basil and chillies. We had a bit of a nightmare with the basil last season so that's indoors for the duration of it's life this year – we just had too many munchings and nibblings, the poor things took a real beating.

Anyway – I digress. In the past we've spent a lot of our hard earned cash on compost – seedling compost – that's expensive stuff. So we purchased a sieve and tried our hand at creating our own seed compost. Pretty simple really – quite tiring but hey – no pain, no gain.
It's weird you end up with all these little balls of earth that look like rabbit poo. Brilliantly successful though – our seedlings now have lovely fine soil to sprout through – no trouble at all for them. Well worth the £9.99 investment.

It just amazes me that from one incy wincy teeny tiny little seed you get so much. It's pretty unbelievable. I mean just look how tiny they are. Truly amazing. You can't help but be impressed.
So presently everyone is sitting safe and warm on the kitchen windowsill. I just love getting up in the morning to see if any little cheeky fellas have broken through the topsoil. Nothing yet – it's only been 3 days but jeez I'm impatient! Such a wondrous occasion and no better way to start your day.