Translation tool

He he he... I've added Google's translation tool (on the right) to my blog and I tested out the Swedish version. :D What a larf! It sounds like me when I'd just moved here... reeeaaally bad! But at least you get the gist if your English isn't too sharp.

Onions

I haven't managed to succeed with any onions yet, despite having attempted a variety of different sorts. I tried spring onions in 2009 which delivered nothing more than really thin grass.

I then tried red onions in 2010 which I bought as onion sets from a garden centre and most of them bolted and gave me ping pong ball sized onions, only slightly bigger than the set onions themselves...

I also tried cultivating leeks from seed in 2010 but without success and instead bought a tray of seedlings from the garden centre (most of these are still in the ground slightly bigger than spring onions).

So, this year I am determined to succeed.

Apache red salad onions, which should look like this:

Apache salad onion

Top: White Lisbon spring onions (below)     Bottom: Herbstriesen 2 leeks (far below)

White Lisbon spring onion

Herbstriesen 2 leek

Fingers crossed...

Chilli update

Having been sick (just a cold) since the New Year, I haven't really had the energy to update my blog, but quite a lot has happened. The boar have been back, which I find amazing - their snouts must be so incredibly strong to be able to plough through snow, ice and frozen earth...

But this entry is about the 2011 chilli season, which is now well underway. In addition to the four I planted in November which are doing really well, I also sowed the following on 14 January:

Aurora, Caribbean Red, Purple Tiger

Spanish Pepper (just appearing), Trinidad Scorpion, Ring of Fire

Thai Chilli, Aji Colorado, Purple Serrano (no show)

And these which I sowed (in kitchen roll because they're fussy) on 10th January:

Bih Jolokia, Hot Paper Lantern

Plus a Fatali that is struggling to surface. So far, the no shows are Purple Serrano, 7 Pod and Fish Pepper. I also had to help quite a few of the ones that did show as the seed pod was reluctant to budge off the growing seedlings.

Garden plans for 2011 & what's growing now

I've just got back from a week's skiing up in the Swedish mountains with a stinking cold, so I'm using the bed-bound time to trawl through seed catalogues. Such a hardship :)

I'm actually going to try and grow some flowers from seed this year. Now that I've been at it a couple of years, I should succeed with some at least. Seeds ordered: Poppy Lilac Pompom, Burning Bush, Dimorphotheca White, Cornflower Blue.

On the veg/fruit front the chilli season has already begun. The four plants I sowed on the 23 November are looking happy:

Two Serrano (Capsicum Annum) plants & two Congo Black (Capsicum Chinense) plants. Aged 7 weeks.

And I sowed another 8 seeds yesterday (4 Hot Paper Lanterns and 4 Bih Jolokias). This time I sowed them onto kitchen paper in freezer bags because the Bhut Jolokias (similar growing instructions) I sowed in November never appeared.

I've also got a box of button mushrooms growing in one of the bathrooms. Very exciting.