The window sill is getting crowded

Spring is always crazy. The first seedlings have moved from the propagation boxes to the window sill.
Some have already had to move further. On to the decking outside, but where they are still protected from frost.

How is your spring planting/sowing going? Isn't it a marvellous time of the year?!
Crazy busy but wonderful.

Propagation box

It's still winter, but now is the time to start the first seeds. I am keen to have some biggish seedlings when it is finally time to start planting. Chillis, capsicums and eggplants seem to need longer to grow to a decent size. What to do?

Make your own propagation box!

Take some styrofoam boxes.

Add heat mats (in this case they are actually reptile mats).

Put your trays on that. (The seedling punnets will go in there.)

Cover with an old window.

Get yourself a thermometer with a probe, so that you can measure the temperature of the tray.

Start sowing! :)

As you may be able to see in the picture, the temperature inside the box climbed to 24C within a few minutes.

Brrrr.....

Frosty mornings. Walking through the frosty grass you can hear it go 'crunch crunch crunch'.

A bucket full of rain water had a lovely ice lid.

Frost and chillies

These two plants survived last winter. This was a very pleasant surprise as we experienced quite a few severe frosts a few days in a row then. Now we had the first frosty morning (their second winter) and they are still looking good. There are still a few chillies ripening up on the plants and the Orange Rocoto (Manzano Amarillo) is flowering profusely.

The plant on the left is a Bishop's Crown and you can see why when you look at its fruit. They are bright red when fully ripe. They are not very hot and only give you a little kick. They are particularly nice stuffed with good feta.

The fruit of the Orange Rocoto is small and oval-shaped, orange in colour when ripe, thick walled, has black seeds and a fruity taste. I ate some that didn't have any heat at all but you can also get the odd one that will blow off your head.

Orange Rocoto

Flower of the Orange Rocoto

Frosty morning walk

We experienced our first frosty morning of the season.

Let's start our walk at the balcony. Luckily I had lined the sides with polycarb yesterday. The sheets are attached to the lattice with pieces of wire. I had also arranged the pots in such a way that the hardier plants are more to the left - the more exposed side - and the more fragile ones closer to the right which is near the totally enclosed area.

Let's check on the Cape Gooseberry / Golden Berry. I have grown this plant from seed and it is now approx. 5-6 years old. It's a very attractive plant which yields amazing berries. Even though they normally do not like frost, this plant is in a pretty good position. It does get frost, but the sun reaches it only very slowly. So it defrosts very gently and therefore does not get damaged.

Let's walk over to the patch where I planted leeks and spinach yesterday. Seems to be fine. The soil is fairly frosty here. Have a closer look at the frosty soil.











The calendula looks healthy. Its flower petals are edible and look great scattered over salads.