Seedling

Seedling
Originally uploaded by schwana

The first of the chillies (five out the ten) have now started to sprout, as has one of the broad beans. Its still a bit too damp to work in the back garden - since the sun doesn't get there till the summer, the first mow doesn't happen till later in the spring when it's dried out enough.

Broad Beans

Started the broad beans off today. I've started them off indoors rather than sowing them directly outdoors, and just three for now. I only want to put two out and should two fail, I've got plenty of time to try again. The main reason for starting them off indoors is that I've not got round to preparing the area they are going in, which needs breaking up and weeding, as well as removing a lavender that is already there. The bottom tray of the can-of-worms is now ready to empty too, so I'll be able to dig in some nice vermi-compost, which will hopefully help enrich the soil. That will take care of the top left corner, and will leave me the rest of the spring/summer to put a vegetable patch in the top right corner. With luck, of the weather holds I can get the garden work done on Wednesday, and start off the hanging basket tomato seeds.

Sheldon Brown 1944-2008

It's not often that I get saddened by the deaths of people I've never met, but I am very sorry for the loss of Sheldon Brown. I came across his website while looking for solutions to various problems with my bike, and the vast amount of cycling experience on his website not only solved problems but made me aware of ones starting to develop.

I enjoyed, too, reading his journal (started before the word blog appeared). In his latter years he was affected by MS, and his journal showed that in spite of it seriously affecting his love for cycling, he still coped. Having been very ill over the last year, and housebound for much of it, reading how he dealt with his illness, and maintained a good outlook on life, made me play to my own strengths and not feel down about life. Finally after a long struggle I returned to work today; sadly he passed away yesterday, taking with him a vast cycling knowledge, a great personality, and leaving the family he clearly cared about. I will miss reading his journal.

Chilli Time

After leaving it too late last year to sow the few chillies I had, this year I'm following the instructions to sow from February onwards.

Since the Anaheim did nothing last year, and barely stayed alive, I'm concentrating on just the cayenne (the one plant which survived produced two dozen chillies, which when dried out lasted several months) and the jalepeno (didn't produce anything, but didn't die either). Although I used the coconut style planters last year, this year I'll use the little peat pots - I'd prefer not to use the peat, but better to use it than waste it. Soon I should have enough vermicompost to make up a nice potting compound.

So, put one seed into each, which given last year's success rate should give around 6 plants. I'll know within a couple of weeks hopefully. Still time to start some off then if they all fail... The other bits I need to sow don't need starting till March, so lots of time before I need to do that.