Saving just got easier

When I went into the newsagent, I strolled through the magazines, and of course also stopped at the gardening section. One magazine, which I've read before, caught my eye.

Magazine including 5 free seed packets!
Photo taken by author - all rights reserved.

Not only did I collect some seeds from their previous issue, but this one went even one step further - it offered a packet with seeds of five different varieties.
Now, if you go for this sort of saving, everybody can start growing a reasonable amount of vegetables by themselves. This way, saving got just a little bit easier, because it saves you buying at least some of the seeds. Of course, there will be other varieties required in order to grow everything you want to eat later in the course of the year, but it's a start.
Keep saving by buying magazines not only for you information, but also for getting some free seeds this year! Happy growing!

Foremost Charlotte

Just when you thought this winter is going to be on the way out, the cold has returned, but didn't put me off to start chitting some early potatoes, which will hopefully be ready to go in the ground in the middle of March. This time we picked "Foremost" first earlies and the well known and reliable "Charlotte" for second early potatoes.

Photo taken by the author - all rights reserved.

The place on this window sill is ideal. Unfortunately this photo was taken in the dark, but this place is really bright and relatively chilly for most of the day, so the process will take some time.

If the room is too warm, the germination can be much faster than you think, resulting in weak stems, which are ready by far too early, and can be completely lost, if planting is not possible at that point in time (if the nights are still frosty, for instance).

In difference to a number of people who are convinced that chitting is a waste of time, I do chit them every year, and have had only good results ever since. I think that the sturdier and more resistant stems the plants develop quickly once previously chitted, help them in our place overcoming the many diseases we struggle with, e.g. with fungi and slugs.

Brighter days with window sill hyacinths

The winter months are incredibly dull, and we are grateful for anything that gives us a little bit of colour or light in these sparse months when hardly anything grows at all. An interesting idea is to introduce a few bulbs into any relatively bright and reasonably well heated room in your house. Not only can they provide your rooms with some colour, but they also ooze a lovely perfume-like fragrance once the flowers open.

Photo taken by the author - all rights reserved.

You can buy complete sets including the bulbs, a flower pot and a small amount of compost (I had to add some from our own compost, the quantity was rather sparse). The most popular winter bulbs for indoor colour are paper whites and hyacinths. Depending on how advanced the bulbs are when you buy them, it takes two to four weeks until they start flowering.

If you are using one of these sets (e.g. available in DIYs like Homebase, B&Q, Woodies or Morris'), it really is fool proof. Just unpack the items, fill the enclosed flower pot with the compost and insert the bulbs according to the instruction whilst observing that they are not inserted too deeply in the compost, the crowns of the bulbs must still be well visible and should be above the compost level. Then simply place them onto a window sill and wait until the results show.

More home made sloe gin

Yes, you've guessed right! There is another batch of sloe gin in the making.

Photo taken by the author - all rights reserved.

This time, I exercised a greater deal of patience with the setting up process, and I CAN wait this time. The reason is that the last time, we bottled and tried a part of the batch relatively early after two months, just to find out that the result was somewhat harsh in taste. This just shows: there is no rushing with sloe gin if you want a satisfying result.

When we had friends over recently, they asked me why I didn't try it now, but I was able to resist for the above reason. We also didn't add any additional spices to the brew this time, which is why I'm looking forward to the (hopefully) marvelous, unspoiled, well matured and satisfying taste of another batch of home made sloe gin.

It's never too late

As I found out a couple of days ago, it is never too late to have a look into the winter garden in search of some hidden treasures. Nature is continuous - life cycles usually never stop but are in constant movement, and life forms sometimes just change from one to another.

When I cleared out some really manky looking old dry remains of last year's runner beans, which were still firmly attached to and intertwined with the see-through fence we've installed as a screen around the sitting area, there was not only waste to be found. I spotted five or six extremely dry old bean pods, which came apart upon touching, just to reveal what the were hiding inside: a good number of perfectly formed and well preserved bean seeds.

Photo taken by the author - all rights reserved (C).

They have now been spread out on a sheet of paper in the conservatory, and the occasional sunlight in the relatively warm room should eventually fully dry them. Once that has happened, I can put them into an envelope and wait for the right time of sowing. That will be another cycle of life closed - seeds from last year's very successful runner bean plants will sprout, grow and climb when the right time comes, in order to eventually form some new bean pods with news seeds...

Happy New Year

Now, that we've all more or less excessively celebrated the Christmas season and looking forward to the arrival of the New Year, everything is quite enough out in the garden, and once again it is getting dark early. A funny old year it has been, with some plants not growing at all (like our carrots and parsnips) or with some extraordinary good results (just like the extremely well grown garlic bulbs we've harvested this year).

All in all, one trend seems to stand out - the weather conditions seem to get stranger and stranger in the big picture context of the apparent climate change. Milder and dryer spring and autumnal conditions on one hand, and wetter and and more mixed conditions in summer provided for a real challenge. Whilst we were battling with the cold spell in winter, this time it was the extended time period of mild and humid conditions, which made spring flowering plants blossom once again in autumn or spring bulbs appearing before the worst of winter.

Picture via Garden designs + more.

This is one important point to work around in the coming year. Obviously we can't change the weather, but we might have to work around it by picking slightly different sowing and harvesting times, as well as to select other, more resistant or better adapted varieties in accordance with the conditions we experience. And even if we didn't have a severe winter this year, I keep continuing to avoid delicate plants, which could be killed if it ever gets really cold for a longer period in future again, which I wouldn't exclude at all.

To a very successful growing season, and even more self grown fruits and veggies in 2012. Cheers to all of our readers!

Fine vine from Ireland

Yeah, you are right - this headline is meant to be a joke, but then - not entirely... We did harvest some grapes this year, as we did last year. The harvest seems to increase every year, and just shows, that you can get some grapes matured even in our funny climate.

Okay, to be fair, you'd have to say in the next sentence then, that they are quite small, but as a good and honest home grower, I'm not too embarrassed to confess that we are a little bit proud of it.

The vine grows in a large, deep pot on a south facing wall in our back garden. We thought often and hard whether we could give it  a better place in the garden with - maybe - better results. But it seems to involve rather bigger changes, or should we say, bigger DIY building projects, for instance a triangular pergola over a part of the patio. So, it will have to wait. Now let's try, whether we can get at least a little bit of juice squeezed out of them...