Planting out 2012 seedlings

Hi guys! Well the sun is shining here today and I feel that I need to give my blog a serious update. I’m sure all you growers feel the same that this is a very busy growing time of the year! These pictures were taken a few weeks ago when I transferred my new seedlings into their new homes for the next month or two. I’ve had a bit of a mixed bag in the early stages of growing with a lot of varieties slow to get going with our season starting quite late, but it’s picking up now quite nicely.

These guys are Jamaican Reds which are a variety of Scotch Bonnet used widely in the Carribean in nearly every dish I’m told :) I’m very happy with the progress of these as they were first to germinate, first to sprout and of now first to plant out – you might think well of course they are the first to plant out since they were first up, but that is not alway the case with Chillies I’ve found. I’ve experienced plants that look to be doing great only to slow to a dead stop a be overtaken by another variety. The race is definately long when it comes to these guys as Baz Luhrmann says in that song, and their behaviour both is deliberate but random and that’s why I love growing them.

Aphids meet their nemesis

Hi folks! Been away from ninja blogging for a short while with lots of busy happenings, but back now and I’m glad as I’ve missed posting. Astra came home the other day with a ‘surprise’ she proclaimed whilst handing me a A4 piece of paper folded into a 3D triangle. I was intrigued but also thought it may be a cute present from her pre schoolers, until she said open it – my eyes lit up when I saw this little dude crawling about inside! A LADYBIRD! The timing couldn’t have been better as I’d noticed that a few Aphids had started to appear on my new Chillies. (They do seem to arrive out of nowhere and it’s one of the very few things I have a almost irrational hatred for, oooh hatred seemed a bit strong when I typed it, ah well, in their stupid wee green faces!)

Homemade Windowsill Trays

(First of all sorry to my email subscribers if you got a broken link or a link to this post twice – Whilst writing this I accidently hit publish instead of save draft, oops!)

This weekend I decided to cross off one of my much needed jobs of making something to put my seedlings that line my windowsills into. Its one of the downfalls that any indoor gardener will know that you are regularly transporting multiple seed trays to and from the windowsill as the day turns into evening. Some people may leave them on the sills or have their own system but I prefer to take them down into the room where it is hotter at night. The other issue is when you water them it can be quite messy and you don’t have the freedom to just spray water everywhere as you do in a greenhouse for example.

I’ve had an idea in my head for quite a while of a bit of apparatus that solves both problems. Now you can buy plastic ‘trays’ for this purpose but if you have been following my blog for a while you will know that that doesn’t appeal to my thrifty nature. I much prefer to make something from what I’ve got around me, after all I’ve got a garage with lots of wood off cuts and a tool collection that is getting very respectable.

New Growth – A tip of the cap to 2011

It’s really is Spring time, yay! The sun has been out here all week and it is light when we both get home from work now. I can’t wait until we are able to potter around in the garden in the evenings again. With all my prepartaion done all an Irish Chilli grower needs is the sun to shine (it does actually happen more than you may think) and bring my windowsills to life.

Potting Seeds & New Aspirations

With the cold weather looking like it’s finally past and the nights are getting longer, it’s time to grow some Chillies! February is the classic time to grow them here in Ireland and usually the earlier in the month the better. You may have seen previous that I started my growing season a good few weeks ago with my harder to grow varieties but it was too cold to pot the rest of the seeds into their trays at that time. At the moment though it’s pleasantly mild and stays light until 6.15pm approx, so I’m starting to get that brilliant Spring time feeling!