Spicy sauces on the horizon

It's starting to look like there will be a definite glut of tomatoes, chillies, garlic and coriander this year.

So I've been looking at different storage options. Freezing or drying are always good options for chillies, and garlic stores well. But what about the tomatoes? Sure you can freeze some, and most people make pasta sauces, but we don't really eat that much Italian food, or tomato-based pasta sauces.

What we do however eat mountains of is spicy food. Not necessarily country-specific, although we eat a lot of Asian cuisine. Basically anything with chillies in it is popular in our house. 

Today I started looking for spicy sauce recipes with these ingredients and came across this wonderful website & blog:

Jalapeño cilantro salsa from
Laylita's Recipes

...can't wait for this lot to grow so I can get saucing...

Chillies - Ají Colorado, Trinidad Scorpion, Ají Límon, Padron

Tomatoes - Yellow Pear, Flavorino, Super Sweet, Tigrella, Black Cherry, Green Zebra

Garlic - Cledor

Coriander - bought in bulk from Olssons

And although there isn't a single flower on any of the toms yet, things are looking promising on the chilli front...

Ají Límon

Padron

Jalastar

 :)

Red onions - starting off indoors

I can't remember where I read it, but something/someone inspired me to start off red onion sets indoors for an early harvest. And it seems to have worked.

3 February - planted half of the sets in seed compost/ half in
seed compost mixed with quality potting compost.

17 March - growing nicely, time to find them a new
home - the currently idle greenhouse perhaps...

12 May - time for the chillies and tomatoes to move into the greenhouse,
half of the onions have been relocated (again, poor things) into the kitchen garden.

16 May - all in their final resting place and settling in nicely.

Waking up the kitchen garden

Here are some progress photos of how it's slowly coming back to life.

10th January 

 16th April

 27th April

28th April

 29th April

 12th May

Starting to feel a spring in my wellies...

Wow, it finally feels like the gardening season is here! At last! :D

The past few months have not only been excruciatingly cold and gardening-unfriendly, but I have also been completely snowed under with work. And it doesn't look like it's going to ease up any time soon either.

Nevertheless, I did manage to steal a few hours over the weekend to make the most of the weather and get the kitchen garden, greenhouse, mojito bed and flowerbeds up to speed. Here are a couple of today's happy snaps...

All looking so very promising. Please please please weather gods & nemaslug,
let me have a productive kitchen garden this year....!

My first ever fritillaria, so ridiculously pretty & delicate.

A few pretty pickies from the garden

The garden is getting everso very pretty now and even I find myself wandering around it with a smile on my face... :D

I'm not a huge fan of yellows and oranges, and I've been trying to slowly harmonize the colour scheme in the garden since we moved here almost four years ago. Looking at these pictures, it looks like I'm actually getting somewhere.

Beautiful Borage.

I didn't notice last year how the blue Borage flowers start off pink...

The newly-added white pebbles (thanks to my mother-in-law) made a huge aesthetic difference.

The fast-spreading Fairy rosebush is finally flowering. My first ever roses! :)

Lots of pinks and blues. Finally some order to the chaos.

There are still flowers on the Aquilegia and the Bleeding Heart! <3

I finally managed to get some very finickety Cape Marigolds to flower this year.

My Queen Elizabeth rose is surviving (actually this is my first ever rose, but the Fairy
beat her into flower), but has been attacked by all manner of nastiness. I'm really having to
pamper her every morning, squishing little munchers. I haven't the heart to rid her of all her
rusty leaves just yet, but I know I have to. I'm waiting for her to flower first...

Dark cerise Million Bells Calibrachoa Petunias in the tall urn under the birches. In contrast
to last year's regular Petunias, these ones are self-cleaning, saving me A LOT of time...

The wilderness corner by the expanse of rhododendron. I think that it
may actually have been a flowerbed at some point judging by the plants.

The tidy herbs and fruits bed still looking good despite the hare attacks.

Happy Midsummer everyone!

Unseasonably hot weather

A week of summer in May does wonders for growth in the kitchen garden.

An entire week of sunny days with temperatures around 28oC (83oF). It's been absolutely magical.

But I wonder what all these optimistic plants, who now think they live in the Mediterranean, will do when the temperature drops back down to a more seasonal 9oC (48oF) tomorrow...

:o/

Who's digging holes in my raised beds?

I've been so pleased with my kitchen garden this year. Not only is it looking productive, neat & tidy and relatively weed-free (apart from the ones I'm allowing to grow, such as borage and poppies), but I'm also hoping it's going to be really pretty this year!

Pretty fruits & herbs bed

However. Someone has been messing with me. A few days ago, having skipped joyfully down to admire my artwork, I was devastated to find lots of little mouse-sized potholes all over the peas & flowers bed! :'( They'd even dug up several nasturtiums, I think they'd been having a munch on the roots.

Mouse-sized holes

A repaired and watered nasturtium not looking to bright

My newly planted broccoli plants were completely annihilated.

Before

After

I didn't take any photos of the pothole damage because I just got started repairing it all straight away.

Peas & flowers bed now after repairs

I think I managed to salvage most of it, but it's spoilt the joyful anticipation I feel every time I trot down to the kitchen garden. >(

I have spotted several field mice hopping and skipping about down there among me veg, but we also have a LOT of birds, living in the woods as we do. In particular a noisy, but beautiful, male pheasant that struts around the garden almost every day, as well as lots and lots of pigeons.

So who is it?!

Holidays & gardening

...aren't particularly compatible.

I hate leaving my flowerbeds, kitchen garden and greenhouse at this time of year. Not only do I miss out on the wonder of seeing the garden change by the day, but everything's so tiny and fragile, the slightest drought/drench/heatwave/chill can really mess with my plans.

Luckily though everything survived, thanks to a few milder days and a very helpful friend.

The south-facing flowerbed was completely transformed into a vibrant jungle of tulips & perennials.

Lots of colour! Note the lime & calmondin trees out for a much-
needed dose of sunshine after almost two weeks of shady living.

Growth in the kitchen garden wasn't quite as overwhelming, probably due to the warm, dry weather. But it was all in need of a jolly good drink!

My lettuce babies have survived the slugs, but are looking a little parched!

The peas are looking nice and solid.

The yellow onions are doing really well... as are the weeds! Can you spot any
carrots in there??! Carrot fly has been a major problem, so this year I've planted
onions AND marigolds around them.

Potatoes! :D But still no sign of life in the asparagus bed.
I thought they would show first...?

There was a problem with the watering system in the greenhouse, but thanks to our friend Johan's determination (and stupidity - he stuck the v. v. grimy hose in his mouth to get the flow going again... bläääää!) it's all looking fabulous.

Beautiful blue (?) parrot tulips living in harmony with Jalastar capsicum annums.

It's time to plant the toms into the ground, but there's too much
going on, so they'll have to wait just a little longer.

First harvest! :D

Chicken salad (with shop-bought toms, of course).