Seeds - batch 2

But first, a report on batch 1: Tomato (Russian Red) - wonderful peasant stock! All germinated, all hardy-looking, all coming along nicely Tomato (Green Zebra) - the number that I actually wanted have germinated and have their first true leaves now which is good news Tomato (Gardeners Delight) - as always, the cherry tomatoes are the weaklings of the bunch. They did mostly germinate, but were a bit spindly - still got a couple of more sturdy-looking ones so hopefully they will continue to thrive. Cape Gooseberry - today the first couple of seedlings have poked their heads through, hurrah! Parsley - the problem child of this a particular batch. Still plenty of time to resow though. Chamomile German - fertile wee bunch, and oh so tiny Peppermint - like the Cape Gooseberry, the first couple have just poked their heads through Oregano - we have germination, I am shocked! Now to keep them alive. Marigold (Mexican Mint) - three or four germinated here, will probably need to sow some more as I wanted a big group of these this year. Now on to batch 2: Sown today for the Mexican garden were Chilli (Carribean Blend, hoping for some Scotch Bonnets in here) Chilli (Ancho - as per last year) Tomatillo (as per last year) Epazote (hopefully they will germinate this year). And for the ordinary garden were Pepper (Topepo Rosso) Basil Bergamot Hyssop I have a space and a plan for a proper herb garden this year, just need to get some bricks or something to outline the segments.

Seeds - batch 1

Garlic report - the organic shop didn't have garlic that looked any sturdier than mine, so all eight cloves I planted out were from last year's harvest. All eight have germinated and are coming along nicely.

Seed report - today I sowed the following into seed trays:
Tomato (Russian Red)
Tomato (Green Zebra)
Tomato (Gardeners Delight)
Cape Gooseberry
Parsley
Chamomile German
Peppermint
Oregano
Marigold (Mexican Mint)

This year I've resisted the temptation to plant the more unusual varieties (the Purple Calabash from last year cured me of that, at least for this year!) so I've gone back to some faithful varieties, a red, a green, and a cherry. I'm planning on planting out five of each.

Summer of 2010 update

Busy with harvest time at the moment.

Tomatoes - loving the cherry tomatoes, and the green zebras (as always). Not so much in love with the Purple Calabash (these don't make good 'eating' tomatoes, and seemed extra attractive to snails and the like so suffered a fair bit of damage) or the yellow plum (which turned out to be cherry-sized, and are good cooked or in sauces but not so tasty to eat fresh), so I probably won't bother with those ones again. I must confess that although I started the season dutifully removing the laterals my routine slipped at some point in December and the tomato patch quickly became an overgrown forest that collapsed in upon itself in places. This was obviously Not A Good Thing, and I had powdery mildew on the branches for the first time. On the plus side, we did grab a couple of triple-stake triangular frames and these gave those couple of plants much more support, so I'll definitely be picking up more and doing all my tomatoes like that next year.

Tomatillos - went in a bit late but are now doing beautifully. A very photogenic plant! Looking forward to them ripening, so we can see what they taste like.


Also in the Mexican garden went some chilli seedlings, but they haven't really grown that much. Now that I have a decent mini-greenhouse I'll be sure to get these started earlier next year. I also planted jamaica flowers - these are used to make a drink. I think these went in a little late as they are only just starting to show the first signs of buds, and again I'll try harder next year to sow these earlier.


Cape Gooseberry - similar lanterns to the tomatillos but much smaller. The first few of these are ripening up now, and we love them - so tasty! A definite to keep in the garden.


Courgettes - the year of the marrowing. This year's variety seemed particularly sneaky and quick!

Herbs - coriander went to seed quite quickly so I've managed to save a lot of seed for next year. Dill and chives were direct-sown in late December, took a long time to germinate and are only now starting to be recognisable. The parsley is doing well (not as over-the-top as last year, thank goodness). The existing plot of sage is continuing to be thick and lush, and one branch of my rosemary has been successfully bent over to grow its own roots so we can now get rid of the giant woody mass that is the old bush. This frees up the corner that I want to be my entire herb garden, not just my rosemary garden.

Carrots - fresh from the soil this morning was this funky fellow. He was a decent size, almost 200grams. Now he's carrot cake :)


I'll also share with you one of my neighbour's sunflowers, which we could see back in December waving at us across the fences.

A bigger, better garden

At the end of summer we cleared away a big camellia bush in the garden which has freed up a rectangular space (2.5m x 3.8m) - looks enormous compared to the rest of the garden. Hola, my Mexican garden!

It's now early spring, and sown indoors today were:
* five varieties of tomatoes (Yellow Plum, Green Zebra, Purple Calabash, a beefsteak and a cherry tomato)
* Parsley
* Cape Gooseberry
* Mexican marigold

If it stops raining long enough to let the soil dry out a bit I'll be able to get out and do the direct sowing that needs to be done. Right now it's looking a little too boggy.

Germination woes

I have given up on the last batch of seeds. Able to be transplanted into individual pots were 2 x basil (only two, sob!), a Mexican Midget tomato, a Henry's Bush dwarf tomato which frankly doesn't look likely to take off, and two Alma Paprika peppers, one of which is an extremely long shot.

Last night's new sowings were:
1 x Souters watermelon
1 x Collective Farm Women rockmelon
and 4 each of Henry's Bush tomato, basil, coriander, leek (hmmmm), oregano, parsley, marsh mallow and forget-me-not.

Fingers crossed! It's really pretty late to be sowing anything but my harvest is going to look pretty small at this rate if I don't.

HOUS - Herbs Of Unusual Size

Parsley - around three foot tall and just starting to go to seed. The Auckland winters evidently suit it.


Ever wanted to know what a four-and-a-half foot tall out-of-control rosemary bush in full flower looked like? Now you do.

Weekend update

Yesterday I gave the tomatoes some fertilizer, spotted the first tomato! (Russian Red, beating San Marzano by a day), spotted the first flower on the watermelon vine, sowed another half a dozen each of dark beetroot and albino beetroot, sowed another half a dozen spring onions, ate lots (comparatively - ie more than half a strawberry each) of strawberries, mulched with compost the burpee pepper (plenty of flowers there now) and the spot the eggplant will be going into once they're a bit bigger, transplanted the scallopini and the parsley into the ground, and moved the four pots of sage into the greenhouse.

This morning I transplanted into their interim pots seven basil seedlings, four parsley, three eggplant, two capsicum (jingle belles), and one white sage. I've popped them outside for a little bit to warm up.

More new seedlings

Last Sunday, 16th Nov, I sowed

6 x purple sprouting broccoli into an old eggcarton (4 germinated so far)
6 x borage into an old eggcarton (2 germinated so far)
2 x scallopini into individual pots

and into the seed tray:
8 x basil sweet genovese (5 germinated so far)
4 x eggplant long purple
4 x oregano
4 x parsley Italian flat leaf
4 x white sage (2 germinated so far)
4 x capsicum Jingle Belles (last year's capsicum is vigorously producing leaves now, so I may not need these new ones - however the more fun colours the better!)

Portrait of a seedling

Into the heart of a courgette

Today a watermelon broke through the soil and up into the light

Tomato seedlings (there's a couple of parsley seedlings at the back too which popped up yesterday, so that's at least one of everything now up in that tray

Weekly roundup

It's been a week since I did the first big sowing indoors and out.

Out in the garden some mesclun seedlings have popped up (at least I think they're mesclun, they could always turn out to be weeds or grass but it looks good at this stage). The rocket sown indoors in a seed tray is also up.

In the tomato tray, I have three Green Zebra, four Roma, four San Marzano and two Watermouth up. No sign of the Russian Reds as yet though.....

And in the same seed tray, there's now two coriander, but alas no parsley.

I used those compartmentalised propagation trays - one seed per compartment, that way when/if the seedlings are ready to move out of the tray (either out into the garden or into an intermediate-stage pot) I can just lift the contents of each compartment out on a teaspoon and into its new home without any disturbance.

And not a peep out of the two courgette and two watermelon sitting in their own pots. I think I'll add a bit more water and cover them up to see if that gets them going.

Parsley and Coriander

A couple of herbs were sown yesterday:

* Parsley - "Italian Plain Leaf" Petroselinum hortense from Kings Seeds

Germinates in soil temperatures of 15-25°, takes 14 to 21 days to germinate and will grow around 50cm high once transplanted outside spaced 30cm apart. It's an biennual so I'll have to think carefully about where to put it. I planted some of these on Sunday.

* Coriander - "Indian Summer" Coriandrum sativum from Kings Seeds

Germinates in soil temperatures of 15-25°, direct sow 5cm apart, takes 7 to 10 days to germinate and will grow around 30cm high. It's an annual, but will proliferate all by itself next year if you let it go to seed.

I did grow one of these indoors last year. We don't use that much coriander, but I'm keen to have one indoors and one outdoors just to see the difference. I also sowed these on Sunday – completely forgetting to sow either in their final pots or in eggcarton compartments (which can be transferred straight into the ground outside), so I guess I'll be transplanting and seeing how they go.