Plant Rescue!

My radishes seem to be dead – massive aphid attack – so I needed something to put in the three smallish pots on the very sunny windowsill above the stairwell. Today, almost accidentally, I found something.

Chives

For the bargain price of 10p – 10p! – I got 4 chive seedlings. And for an extra 10p I got 4 mint seedlings. They were reduced from £1.50 because they were starting to look a bit ill, and they were past their ‘sell-by’ date. Well, I’m pretty confident I can get at least three-quarters of them to full size. The only question will be what to do with them then – I’m not sure I need that much mint.

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Onions! And Other Things I’m Growing

It seems to be the latest craze – but I’m not doing it to be ‘hip’ – growing your own veg. When I were a lad, where the garden now would be a water-feature or whatever, was just a load of bean canes and rows of potato plants.

Onions on left are more recent. Flowers and bike not mine.

And now it seesm to have come around again, when everyone is growing potato plants in a pot on their patio. I don’t have a patio (just a yard) and I don’t eat potatoes all that much (I’m a pasta/rice kinda guy), but I seem to have found myself growing the following:

• Tomato (4 plants, + many seeds that don’t seem to be sprouting in a fancy bucket)
• Onions (6 troughs of Stuttgater onion sets that are doing really well)
• Jalapeno (1 bucket of seeds that aren’t doing anything)
• Oregano (Survived outside all winter, only to be aphid food this spring. Grrr!)
• Chives (Just about survived winter, spring aphids got it. It might live)
• Parsley (aphids nearly got it. Doing well otherwise)
• Radishes (on windowsill inside,are growing like nutters)

I have high hopes for the onions, as I eat loads of them. The sets were really cheap – 10p for a bag, and I have now spent about £8 making a home for them.

I wouldn’t be growing this stuff if I didn’t think it was going to survive. Am I turning into an optimist?