Six on Saturday:New Year

I have not been blogging so much in the last couple of months – I don’t really have a sob story on why – mostly time mismanagement but this year I am going to try to make more of an effort to keep on top of all the topics I would like to write about. This is not a new year’s resolution as then I will be more likely to succeed starting with Six on Saturday.

I have missed Six on Saturday both literally and emotionally (not sure I would say I ever thought I would write about emotion during a gardening blog) but here we are below are six pictures of what is going on with my garden and gardening attempts.

First up is the beginning of chiliwars – an attempt to see who can grow and harvest chilies the earliest this year. I have planted both hot and mild chili seeds – Roccoto, Sulawesi and Morocco in order of heat – from Adam Alexander seed swap. These are some that he collected from around the world although Roccoto is available anywhere. The good thing about Roccoto is that does not cross with other chili species so you can collect the seeds without the need to isolate. Shishito and Lipstick peppers
from Baker Creek were also sown – these and the other chilies will end up growing outside eventually; the tall ones probably in the allotment.

Other plants that I sowed early are some cosmos; ‘Voilet de Provence’ artichoke; some collected sweet pea and some poppies that I collected from the allotment last year.

Do people know how the sweet pea will turn out if I collected the seeds from ‘Old Spice’ last yar. My mum was telling me that they don’t stay true to parent but I am wondering if that is also for heirloom /open pollinated species. Do you collect seeds and how have they turned out?

Second, all the bulbs are appearing in my garden even though there is no spring sprung as yet. Some of them even have buds up already – I doubt they will stay closed for another two months. At this rate I will not have any flowers for spring; but I guess it is a good excuse to buy more bulbs.

 

I have laid wire down to stop the squirrels from digging up the bulbs – it didn’t stop them finding the crocus so I am not sure how many I will have in spring. It stopped them from digging up the deeper larger bulbs – but now they are nibbling the tops off all the shoots that are growing up so early due to all the mild weather.

 

Indoor flowers – around this time, I guess, is the ‘colder, wetter’ months for the orchids so they start putting out shoots. Usually around February they will bloom – but this year it is nice they have all synced up and we will have a bathroom full of blooms.

Just waiting for my second Amaryllis to bloom – The first was ‘Olaf’ a gorgeous and very festive red flower. I bought a large bulb and it paid off by growing three stems with three or four blooms each. The next one is called ‘Red Pearl’ and is going to be a similar colour perhaps darker though. 

 

The lime tree is still holding on the one on the left is from today and the one on the right is from last year (start of November) The weather has been predicted as getting to as low as zero however, the thermometer that have in the back garden states that it has not dropped below 2.3 so far. The lime doesn’t seem to mind – the leaves are a little yellow but it has not lost any. Perhaps there is hope for it yet; although my friend told me yesterday that we are to expect another beast from the east next month. We will wait and see. 

That’s it from my garden – if you would like to see other exciting gardens from around the world, head over to The Propagator for a plethora of Six on Saturday pictures.