The Green-Fingered Goddess Gets a First Harvest

Look at that! We actually have some beans ready for harvest! I have to admit, it happened sooner than I was expecting, but I’m very pleased about it, because tonight we shall sample the first fruits of our labour. There are only about half a dozen or so ready, but this afternoon they will be gently plucked and then I shall steam them to have with our tea. I’ve never before eaten anything that I’ve grown myself, so I’m inordinately proud of myself. I’m also hopeful that the fact that Xan helped plant them and has watched them growing will persuade him to eat them all up. He’s usually pretty good about vegetables, but it’s a while since we had beans…

And look at this very pretty yellow flower. We woke this morning to find the largest of our courgette flower buds had burst into bloom – and a very pretty one at that! I never knew courgette flowers were yellow (OK, so I could easily have found out, but it was a lovely surprise). I was also surprised at just how big the flower is – you can see my fingers in the picture holding it still, so you can see how big it is.

And you can see we have a lot more courgette buds getting ready to open. I’m hopeful that we’ll soon start to see actual courgettes on there, and by the looks of things, we’ll get quite a few, so I think some will be given to Leni to use, as I doubt we could use them all!

And we have more blossoms on the beans too, as well as more beans that will most likely be ready for picking in about a week, so we can continue to enjoy our bounty in the coming weeks!

More Planting…

Our little collection of home-grown goodness is growing! Our tomatoes, which we planted on 16th March, are growing well, and the herbs are sprouting up beautifully. The strawberry seeds we planted at the same time, however, haven’t taken, so today we planted two new large pots of strawberries. While we were at it, we also planted some courgette seeds, so we’ll see how they come along.

Our biggest success, though, is the beans! We planted them on 26th March and they have shot up! The other night, the tallest shoot was about 1.5 inches, but by this morning when we checked, it had grown to almost 6 inches tall – we couldn’t believe it!

I think that, next weekend, we’ll move the tomatoes and beans into the large window planter I got last year when I joined the One Pot Pledge. By then I hope we’ll see some sweet pepper and strawberry shoots ni their pots too – fingers crossed!

Green-Fingered Goddessness…

It’s been ten days since we decided to try being a little green-fingered and grow some of our own food (or at least attempt to gain something edible – LOL!). My track record with plants to date hasn’t been great, so I’m making a concerted effort to do things right…

On 16th March, Xan and I planted a little pot each of tomatoes and strawberries. The tomatoes are doing really well, but the strawberries seem to be taking their time deciding what they want to do. I think I can see the beginnings of one tiny shoot in their pot, so I’m hopeful they’re deciding to sprout and will soon take after the tomatoes…

That same day, we planted coriander, basil, chives and parsley in an herb planter (I got the whole kit as a Xmas gift). The coriander has taken hold really well already; the basil and chives are just peeking through the soil, and the parsley looks like it’s just starting to poke through too.

Today, I was in town with Xander and took him into the local pound shop to “choose a prize”. He did as he usually does and chose a book, but then spotted some veg-pots, picked up one each of sweet peppers and green beans, and said, “I want to plant them, Mummy. Want to grow them and eat them up!” So, because they were only a quid each, we bought them and planted them up this afternoon.

As a result of all this, we have the beginnings of a lovely little kitchen garden on our kitchen windowsill! Lets see if I can keep them all alive and gain a nice crop of various veggies!