Feeding my Addiction

Regular readers will know that I have a secret. I am addicted to seeds. I cant buy enough of them and find it impossible to resist a new flower, or interesting packet. I have recently found a new way of indulging myself, collecting seeds from plants I have grown. 

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I was drying plants to get the seeds. Now some of them are dry and it was ready to harvest them . First was the corriander

And then the Malope. These were interesting little seed pods, very pretty 

I have lots more drying to store away in the next few weeks

In the Veg Patch the Nasturtiums are starting to drop seeds everywhere. Now these, I pick up and throw away. They are industrious plants and grow in any nock or cranny and I don't want them to invade the patch. I have spent the summer picking out little seedlings growing from all the ones I missed last year. 

The squash bed had loads of nasturtium, now as the seeds are dropping and the foliage of the squash is dying it is leaving little patches of fruits and seeds. 

The last of the flowers are setting seed in the cut flower patch. The Winston Churchill sweet peas are still trying to flower even though most of the stems are now brown. 

The Bells of Ireland are the last plant still looking fresh and healthy. They have a really interesting little white bit that looks like a small orchid inside the bells. 

My last delivery of Nematodes arrived on Friday and the brassicas are still in need of protection, so it was once again time to take the covers off. The 1 Nasturtium plant I popped in there was taking over and there was also a bit of a smell of rotting cabbages coming from a couple that had gone to seed. 

This was one of the smelly cabbages. 

I pulled out 4 and the chickens has a wonderful time eating as much as possible. 

The bed looked a whole lot tidier and smelled much nicer once I had finished. I gave them a good dose of nematode. Hopefully next month I shall start to eat them. 

I did find one huge slug under the edge of the Nasturtiums. I haven't seen one as big as this all summer. He has obviously been having a nice snack somewhere

He was soon dispatched. 

I planted some spring cabbage a week or so ago and they are now growing . If you look closely at the leaves you will se something has been nibbling them. They therefore also got a good dose of nematodes and were then tucked up snuggly under a tunnel, to prevent big Bob and fat Dave, the resident Pidgeon's from having a snack. 

The Onion seeds are also growing, although nowhere near big enough to be planted out yet. 

It is wonderful to see stuff growing even at this time of year. In the cut flower patch I planted a few rows of seeds to give me some early spring plants. It will be interesting to see if they grow. I am actually going on a workshop day next month to learn a bit more about growing flowers which I am really looking forward too. 

Finally the Chillies. They are all now reddening nicely, and we have sampled all of them . The chilli trial Number 5 plants have produced hundreds of little red fruits. I was sure they were going to be mild as they are really small. Wrong. After popping a fairly large chunk in my mouth, I instantly regretted it. Good grief ( Not what I actually said) thats hot!! 

Next to be tried was the rude chilli (You know the one I mean). I was a little dissapointed with the shape of the ripe fruits on the first bush. They didn't look like the picture on the pack. They certainly have a good kick though. 

Because these are the only ripe ones, I hadn't been paying too much attention to the fruits on the two other rude chilli bushes. But the other day I had a good look at the fruits. Queue lots of sniggering. Finally I had some that looked exactly as advertised. When they are ripe they will look even better. 

I have so many ripe fruits on all my plants now, I have splashed out and bought myself a Dehydrator , it should arrived next week so I shall be able to dry and store loads of chilli for the winter. 

Whilst sitting on the greenhouse floor yesterday taking chilli pictures, I looked up and was struck with how pretty these sungold tomatoes looked against the lovely blue sky

Well thats it from the garden for this week. Things are certainly slowing down now, but hopefully I shall still have things to write about over the next month or so. 

Gibson has had a wonderful summer but has found the beach a bit busy for his liking. Thankfully this week the kids went back to school and suddenly we have our beach back. here he is enjoying his solitude again. 

and finally last blog I mentioned we were going to a classic car workshop open day. They had some amazing machines but I think this one was my favourite, I could just see myself driving along in this little beauty

Have a great week.