chilli’s

July 28, 2016July 28, 2016

Treat Chilli’s as perennials for an amazing harvest

I’ve successfully grown Chilli’s for many years. They’re a useful and easy crop to grow, not minding a bit of rough treatment; in fact they seem to thrive on neglectful watering! Once ripe I pop the Chilli’s in the freezer and use them as needed throughout the year. To be honest we always grow far too many for our own consumption, so many get passed on to a friend who’s a complete chilli fiend.

Chilli’s are the first packet of seeds I reach for come the start of the seed sowing season in February, they seem to need a longer growing season. I keep them in the greenhouse or conservatory and by July their first fruit begins to appear and start to ripen.

I have always treated Chilli’s as annual plants, but last year I read that Chilli plants thrive in their second year if treated as a perennial. So I thought I’d give it a go; overwintering them in my frost free conservatory. Their leaves all dropped off and the plants took on a convincingly dead appearance. The sparse watering and frost free position during winter seemed to work, come spring leaves started to shoot and flowers quickly set, resulting in a fabulous chilli crop so far this year. It will be interesting to see how they perform in their third year.

Chilli ‘Ring of Fire’ in its second year

In comparison the Chilli’s I sowed this year are fruiting, but yet to turn red. The quantity of fruit is also significantly less. It should be noted that they did have a tough start in life as I forgot to pot them on and it was only when I popped them in a larger pot a month ago that the plants developed and tripled in size! I suspect this would make my little experiment scientifically invalid, however most decisions in my life are dictated by my faithful ‘gut instinct’ so I would highly recommend changing your chilli growing technique from annual to perennial!

Chilli ‘Ring of Fire’ in its first year

Todays Chilli harvest

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November 9, 2015

The Kitchen garden in October

To me the autumnal leaves have been better this year than any other I can remember. On our half term trip visiting friends in Wiltshire, I often thought this must be a taste of what the renowned Canadian Fall foliage is like at this time. The garden seems to be successfully fighting off the calls of winter, we’ve got many plants in flower, several on their second flush for the year. My sowings of winter salad, green manure, garlic, peas, broad beans and hardy annual seeds have all emerged and doing well. I think I’ll have to buy some fleece to pop over them if we have the exceptionally cold winter we seem to be promised by commentators,and the large quantities of holy and other berries in the hedgerows (generally a good guide to a severe winter). As always below is my monthly round up in pictures.

The top vegetable beds, still producing spinach and salad

The garlic sown a couple of weeks ago is thriving in this warm weather, I’m hopeful for large bulbs next year

Broad bean shoots

Pea shoots

Green manure seedlings

Seed tape (background) v hand sown (foreground) winter salad, hand sown is winning so far although I think I was a little heavy handed with the seed!

Verbascum looking pretty

Penstemon ‘Just Jayne’, a hard working garden essential, the colour in the blooms is not quite as vibrant as a month ago but still looking good

The dahlia bed

An October dahlia, ‘Halloween’

Alstroemeria

Centaurea montana

Knautia macedonica ‘melton pastels’

Fuji Cherry Tree, not only does it have beautiful spring blossom but stunning autumn leaves, a great tree for a small garden

Our garden indicator of a cold winter, holy berries. I can guarantee there’ll be none left when I’m out cutting for Christmas foliage!

Chilli – Ring of fire, we’ve had a great crop this year and they’re still going strong

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015

The kitchen garden in August

Gardeners spend much of their time working towards their goal, a productive season where you can sit back and reap the rewards of your work. August is often the pinnacle of that season, huge gluts of produce, too much to be used at once, so shared between the kitchen, freezer and friends. It’s also the month when I throw my arms and trowel in the air and say ‘Sod the weeds’. Whilst indulging in my garden bounty, my mind is drifting off, pondering this year’s successes and disappointments, plotting and planning for next year. This year my courgettes, have not cropped as heavily as I’d expect, it’s been okay, but I’ve not heard the tell tale glut statement ’not courgettes again mum!’ I think the current watering system, which sprinkle from above has not been sufficient. Next year I am going to point the water system directly at the base of the plants, soaking their roots and hopefully this will ensure a larger crop. My bean crops (french, runner and borlotti) have been magnificent and the tomatoes and basil have thrived in the green house. I’m starting to plan which hardy annuals I’m going to sow this autumn in the cutting garden, with the hope of an earlier flower crop next year. I’ve already planted out my Sweet Williams, sown earlier in the summer and will be getting round to planting garlic, broad beans and bulbs in the next month or so.

Below are the pictures telling the story of August in the kitchen garden.

There’s been a constant steam of raspberriesGrape like bunches of plums have weighed down the treesThe apple trees are also ladden, we’re looking forward to a good harvestLast year we had just one pear, this year the tree is fullI’ve planted out my sweet williams in the cutting border reday for early blooms next yearThe dahlia bedDahlia Paul EmoryThe runner beans have thrived in the gloomly wet weather we’ve had the last few weeksThe top five vegetable bedsThe bottom three vegetable bedsChilli’s in the conservatory, once picked we keep a couple fresh and freeze the rest for use over the next year