Yesterday I washed loads of pots and sterilised them in dishwasher ready for some serious seed sowing. Then I sowed some tumbling tomatoes in a modular tray. The try comes with a plastic roof which keeps the seeds warm and helps them germinate. I then filled some 3 inch pots with multipurpose compost and sowed one cucumber seed in each pot. They say to do two seeds in each and after they grow into seedlings pull out the weedier looking one but I find it really hard to do that. So I am just gonna try one in each. I did two types of cucumber - the first one is called Crystal Apple and they are lovely - my friend introduced me to them years ago and I keep growing them. They are weird looking as they are yellow and round. You have to harvest them when they are the size of duck eggs(yeah I didn't know how big that was but evidently they are a bit bigger than hen eggs) and before they turn orange coz they taste horrid then. The Crystal Apple cucumber is so nice that my friend who hates cucumbers loved it - almost like melon it tastes. I also sowed cucumber Pasandra (more like your regular cucumber)as they are never bitter my friend said. Last year I grew Cucumber masterpiece and was not impressed with the taste as bitter - someone said it's coz of the sex of the flowers but unfortunately I can't remember what they said to do to avoid them being bitter so i have just avoided that particular cucumber instead. I labelled the pots - unusual for me to be that organised but i did get a load of labels and pen for my birthday so decided to be good. Parsley seedlings still alive!!!! Hoorah - am managing to keep them moist not drowned. Through the post I got a five pound thompson and morgan seeds voucher - very pleased with that so I ordered some mixed lettuces and green dwarf beans as only seem to have purple ones and some chocolate coloured cornflowers. I seem to have a slight obsession with chocolate flowers. It started with some chocolate cosmos flowers i bought a few years back. They smell like chocolate and are a gorgeous dark dark crimson in sunlight and chocolate colour when it's cloudy. They are so beautiful but are not hardy. I never have the heart to dig them up while they are still flowering so the frost ends up killing them, so I end up buying new ones each year. I should put them in a pot really so that I can easily move them out of the cold.
It's when I read a post like this that I regret only having slabs outside my back door!
ReplyDeletePen x
you can always grow in pots and window boxes as long as you keep them well watered (something I'm not too good at!). Soniax
ReplyDeleteMy balcony faces north - unfortunately and I only get real sun at the end of the afternoon. We'll see how I get on with my hanging cherry tomatoes. My basil is still getting greener and bigger but that is on my south facing window ledge. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame it faces North. Runner beans(and probably other beans)can cope with shade ok - in fact too much sun no good for their flowers can make them shrivel up. good luck with tomatoes. i envy the basil haven't even sown mine yet-still there's time. found some seeds from ukraine made me homesick(not that i ever lived there but it's felt like home since i first visited.)
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