Friday, April 13, 2012

Spring planting 2012

Given the disaster that was the harvest of 2011, another stab at the gardening thing.

This year - cherry tomatos - last year none of the heritage plants produced so much as a single tomato. This year I´ve got yellow and red cherry tomatoes coming along. Much better germination rate!


New this year - a row of peppers along with some tomatoes. So far so good. Got them to sprout with the tray on top of the refrigerator.


And lettuces. I´m going to see if I can grow my own salad. I suspect these will bolt in about 5 minutes - but it was worth a try. Again, I´m pleased with the germination. These were left outside to fend for themselves in this crazy spring weather.


Have been trying to harden them off, watering occasionally with chamomile which is supposed to be a fungus suppressent and avoid the dreaded ¨damping-off¨.

Tomatoes now - somewhat the worse for wear after being dropped. I´ll have to make a run to the store this weekend for more potting soil.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Coco,
    with the lettuce you might be better off using a variety called salad bowl, we did buy the seeds in Spain, it's a lettuce that you just cut as many leaves as you wont at any given time and it grows again, hence the common name of pick and come again. We found it hardy and drought tolerant, it come in red and green and has far more taste than ordinary lettuce, it has a pretty ragged leaf so looks good on the plate.

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  2. Thanks Anne! At the moment I´m just thrilled that anything sprouted. It´s a miracle! Bought some basil seeds in Lidl yesterday and hoping to pot some of the stronger seedlings up this weekend.

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  3. Can you tell me more about your Chamomile mixture - intrigued and interested.

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  4. I only know what I read on the innernets (weak tea, basically)for example:

    http://organicgardening.about.com/od/diseases/qt/chamomiledampingoff.htm

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  5. I will give that a try, thanks. It is the first time I have heard of it.

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  6. Glad to help. Good luck - your garden is so gorgeous!

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