aliens

chopped open one of our homegrown pumpkins yesterday. It's skin hadn't hardened properly and it was starting to go soft - even so, I was unprepared to find seeds sprouting INSIDE!!


it's like something from Alien

there were three of them but I only managed to lift out one without breaking it - this is now in a small plant pot and hopefully will grow to make next year's pumpkins.

Getting ready for Spring

Last week started mild so did some tidying up of leaves and weeds - and can now see the snowdrop shoots peeping through.
Lots of seedlings growing - leeks, onions, moneymaker and big boy tomatoes, baby aubergines, antirrhinums, rodeo cabbage inside - lettuce and cauliflower out in greenhouse.

hard frosts again though at the end of the week.

Picked this week

picked the small red cabbage which I thought had survived the frosts well but it had a patch of rot running through it. Pickled the good bits but there was nothing like the amount I expected.

Weeding

Sunny day today so spent most of the afternoon out in the garden trying to clear up the weeds that really should have gone into the compost bin in Autumn. Can now see snowdrops as they come through.
Lettuce and cauliflower are starting to grow in the greenhouse, leeks and onions in indoor propagators.

Sign of Spring?

first glimpse of snowdrops

over wintering

I'd heard somewhere that it was possible to over winter chillies and peppers if kept warm enough, so decided to try with the small window-sill chillies. Unfortunately they've suffered a lot with greenfly but on one of the plants some very small fruit has grown and is now starting to ripen.

Spring?

Over the weekend, the sun came out and it almost felt like Spring was here. Even so I was puzzled that in the kitchen I could smell blossom - I actually dismissed it as washing liquid or similar, till I noticed this very small, ragged hyacinth in the corner of the windowsill. It may not look great but it scents the air and brings in hopes of Spring.

Picked this week

Picked this week? Well, no, nothing really. We lifted the last of the leeks in a mild spot of weather this week. As we expected, they had been frosted far too much. The white, underground tips were ok but not the stems - still, have salvaged what we can, roasted with pork.

Meanwhile, from the allotment and grown by the previous tenant, comes this bizarre carrot.
I'd like to be able to grow some as large as the ones we've lifted - just would prefer a more sensible shape!