The Gardening Thread

   That's a full size one with water too!  Without water is £35.....but who wants to hump heavy bottles of water around!!!  


   Still waiting.......  


   Mid-afternoon yesterday the tickly nose I had erupted into a full blown cold...exacerbated I think by my being tired after a week of early starts   So last night I went to bed at 9pm and slept all the way through until 8am this morning!!!  Feeling a bit less sniffly but still just want a quiet day inside today.  Just fancy getting on with a letter but my dear husband who was yesterday saying that we would stay in is now saying we should have a big tidy up of the three bookcases in the bedroom, take a load of books to Linda to sell in her shop and then get on with preparing the bedroom for painting!!!   That's what happens when hubby stays up until the early hours (nightshift body clock) and has time to think!!!   He can get lost.....I don't feel up to house DIY today  

My seeds have started sprouting!! So far I have some Rosemary, thyme, one solitary Jalapeno, lots of Bulgarian Carrots (which I also have a plant from that I started growing in December, which is having peppers already woo), some Trinidad Morugan Blend pepper, one Maldivian Scotch Bonnet, looooads of Kohl Rabi and a few other peppers. My man makes hot sauce haha hence all the chillis, I also have a few more chilli plants I've been growing since Decmber, and my Alma Paprika (the only non spicy one) finally has two flowers woohoo! The others still haven't had any but some of them are very nice and leafy which is more than I can say for my beloved Alma Paprika haha.

Also growing a beef tomato plant, and got loads of tomoatoes, melon, strawberry etc seeds, all sorts of food plants. No lettuce or other leafy greens yet as I am waiting to get a tank and will set up a lettuce raft hydroponic system and plant them straight into it probably. Also making a hydroponic system out of some wooden pallets I have which I am hoping to plant some of my new seedlings into when they get bigger (which gives me time to actually make the system too heh heh).

Anyway Carlotta and Mieze (whose bum is in the background of this pic) are not too pleased about sharing the desk space, although Carlotta has made it work.

Haha yeah, well it's seedling season now My plants are doing great now, got loads of Trinity Habanero seedlings sprouted - looooads, and the bulgarian carrots are doing well (yup, they are orange ones, no idea other than that though haha this is my first time growing them and never eaten any of these chilis before), also got two honeydew melon seedlings now, millions of kohl rabi haha, lots of cherry tomato seedlings and a few beef tomato seedlings, rosemary and thyme are getting quite big, and there is more types of scary sounding chillis there than I care to remember haha.

Someone has offered us chilli growing space in her garden round the corner from us (Which has made my man finally want a flat with a garden haha) which will be good as I have no idea how I'd house all these habanero plants otherwise haha. I hope they aren't huge plants, I have no idea to be honest. I have no idea how big the ones i've been growing since December are meant to get to, I should google them soon though as I think a few might be needing repotted.

I think I'm gonna make sort of steps on my balcony so the tall plants can sit on the bottom steps, and then have layers going up with the small ones on top, so that I can fit much more plants on there.

And I haven't even got started on the indoor planters for the hydroponic lettuces etc haha, gonna have so many plants this year, just hope I can keep them all alive and producing.

I've never grown cucumbers before, they sound interesting! Might give them a try too, although not sure I've the room.

I always wait to repot till the true leaves come in, and even then I wait a little with some if they don't look strong enough yet.

Haha well I planted loads per pot as I wasn't expecting much of the chilli seeds to work. I have nothing from some of them, but did get some in December when I put one seed of each of the chilis in the propagator. Some of the ones which didn't sprout in December are my most prolific sprouters now haha, strange. Will get a couple pics tomorrow of how everything is doing. The melon seedlings are massive and both just appeared randomly over night haha, can't believe how big they are, I had no idea something so big could randomly appear overnight :S they're gonna be huge by the time they get their true leaves haha.

I also bought a mini apple tree the other day. Not sure what we're gonna do with it in the long term - its meant to grow a bit higher than my man is tall haha, but for now I'll stick it in a big pot by the window and see what happens haha. It was only 3 quid so I couldn't not buy it

Okay, here's some photos of the seedlings and the plants I have growing indoors at the moment. The seedlings I have so far are:

Rosemary, Jalapeno, Thyme, Trinity Habanero, Cap 267, Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Blend, Melon Rugoso di Cosenza Giallo, Kohl Rabi, 100s & 1000s cherry tomatoes, Country tomatoes, Apache pepper, Maldivian Scotch Bonnet, 7 Pot, Madballz 7, Bulgarian Carrot, 7 Pod Douglah aaaand Aji Cristal. Also put seeds down for Cape Gooseberry, basil (but they were in pod things so didn't expect them to work), strawberry, Chocolate Habanero, and Alma Paprika, none of those have shown up yet but fingers crossed haha.

Then I also have an Aloe Aristata from one of my monster Aloe Aristata's many "babies" (ie the wee bits that sprout off from it). This one has been sitting away from the light for a while so has grown really weirdly haha, I have now stuck it near the window in the hope it will go back to normal haha. Then next to that is some cat grass for Mieze and the 3€ Apple tree which has started to sprout woohoo. Gonna put that in a big pot and make some room behind the desk so it can sit indoors by the window and just see what happens with it haha.

Then under the grow light I have some chilli plants I have been growing since December: Cap 267, Chocolate Habanero, Madballz 7, Alma Paprika, Bulgarian Carrot (the one with the actual chillis on it), and Aji Cristal. They aren't looking too great haha, whoops. I also have a wee beef tomato growing there and a couple Apache Peppers and a strawberry plant, all from January, and a Carolina Reaper plant which my man bought as a seedling last monthish and which is doing fantastically.

On the balcony I have some pea seeds put down, only one has sprouted last time I checked though. There is also a hibernating olive plant whose survival I'm not sure about, and some twigs which were lovely orange flowers last year which I am desperately hoping will miraculously reappear this year. Oh, and there is a small Christmas tree which is great, and a medium christmas tree which I wish I'd never bought and is constantly dropping needles, so has been banished to the balcony to prevent any of the animals getting sore pads. I am planning on sneakily planting it in the back garden of out building one night soon haha, I can use its pot for the apple tree probably, although I might get a bigger one for the apple tree and put one of the melon plants (also a very ambitious undertaking for someone in a flat) in that pot haha.

The melon seedlings are the two huge seedlings next to the jute bags by the way, and they just sprung up over night that size somehow :S well, slightly smaller, this is day two for them haha. I was hoping they'd continue to grow that fast.

Sorry for the huge post haha!

Exactly haha, I can't wait till I finally get a garden of my own