Desktop Garden

The Final Tomatoes

2012-10-19T17:38:00.000+01:00

Our harvest is now coming to an end and with perfect timing as we prepare to move out of our city centre apartment to a place with a small *outdoor* garden across the Mersey.

These Tiger tomatoes are very ripe with a pale stripe and taste delicious.

We are also finishing off the aubergines and peppers. Hopefully the rosemary plant will continue to flourish in our new place.

Small Aubergines Stubbornly Refuse to Ripen

2012-09-17T17:05:00.001+01:00

We have about 25 of these small stripey Aubergines (or eggplants, some really do look like eggs).

They haven't altered much for a few weeks, some have changed colour a bit but they're still very hard.

I believe they should be ready late Summer and the skins are shiny so maybe we should try some.

Ripe Red Bell Peppers

2012-08-31T15:56:00.000+01:00

You can see why they're called 'Bell' Peppers - all in a line ready to be chimed (or pealed :)

We're very pleased with our crop, not bad considering they've been grown indoors during a cool, grey Summer. We actually feel sorry for our plants. We do look after them well but we're sure they'd be happier if they were free-range - need to get a place with space for a proper outdoor veg patch.

Tiny Tomatoes Almost Ready to Eat

2012-08-22T17:16:00.002+01:00

Almost... but not quite. The Head Gardener likes her tomatoes to be very red and ripe before picking.

While we were away for a few days all our plants enjoyed camping out in the real sun and rain on a kind neighbour's balcony. It seemed to do them good, all the peppers have reddened a lot too but now they're all back indoors.

A Taste of Padron Peppers

2012-08-05T21:24:00.000+01:00

We decided it was time to pick a few of our Padron Peppers. They're about the size of my thumb and still quite young and green but appear to have stopped growing in size.

I'm sure that the longer you leave them the hotter they'll get and although most of them are relatively mild about 1 in 50 is reckoned to be fiery hot. I think we had one really hot one and the others had a bit of a kick but not too much.

We cut them in half, sprinkled with oil and sea salt and grilled for a few minutes - very nice.

We grew these from seed and they've not been too much trouble so I think we'll be growing more in the future.

First Stripey Aubergine Appears

2012-07-27T19:52:00.000+01:00

Some while after the lovely Aubergine (Eggplant) flowers appeared the stripey fruits are slowly emerging.

I hadn't noticed before just how sharp those small needles are on the enveloping leaves. Obviously there to protect the young fruit from predatory birds etc.

These plants do attract greenfly but otherwise seem to be quite trouble free (so far).

Plentiful Padron Peppers

2012-07-21T19:11:00.000+01:00

Very pleased with the number of little Padron Peppers growing here.

You may recall these are the type where about 1 in 50 is really hot. I doubt we'll get as many as 50 from our one plant but still makes me nervous thinking about it. It'll be quite a while before they're ready to eat.

Little Green Tomatoes

2012-07-10T21:29:00.001+01:00

Soon to be bigger red tomatoes hopefully but they're not seeing much sun these days.

Our stripey tomato has flowered too, looking forward to seeing those fruits.

More Peppers

2012-07-07T15:31:00.001+01:00

We now have more peppers than we can count.

Various sizes and all very green, these are a couple of the largest.

We patiently await a gradual change to red.

Chilli Peppers in a Sky Planter

2012-07-02T20:47:00.000+01:00

We recently purchased this 'Sky Planter' from the lovely people at Liverpool-based Cow & Co.

We planted a small Apache Chilli Pepper plant that we bought from Ness Gardens.

Apart from having to climb up onto the desktop to tend to the plant we are delighted with it. It has a little green floaty thing which indicates when it needs water and the plant is doing well whilst still attempting to grow upwards.

It should look even better against the blue sky once the red chillis appear. (Locals will realize that this photo was taken a few days ago when we last had a brief period of bright weather).

First Aubergine Flower

2012-06-27T15:26:00.000+01:00

The joy of waking up in the morning to see another new flower has popped.

I'm not sure I've ever seen an Aubergine flower before and whoever designed them should win an award because they're amazing. Have a look at the detail photo below.

We have six plants all with several buds. These are the small round Aubergines so the plants and the desktop should be able to bear the weight.

Tomatoes and Peppers are still going strong too.

First Tomato Flowers

2012-06-24T15:39:00.000+01:00

One (and only one) of the tomato plants is flowering now. The other four are looking quite healthy but no sign of any buds.

We also have one stripey variety which has grown much taller and looks like it's about to flower soon.

They're hairy beasts these tomatoes aren't they? Have a look at the close up detail below...

Fuchsia Flowers Finally Flourish

2012-06-09T17:18:00.000+01:00

Still not fully open but these Fuchsia buds have been teasing us for several days now. Very gradually, tantalisingly getting bigger before finally bursting open yesterday.

We think they're beautiful - lovely colours and velvety texture and it's great to break up the veg and herbs with a few show-off flowers.

Figurine by Carrie Chau, 'Blind Fly' based on the painting 'mid-summer dreaming (2004)

Carrie Chau website: http://www.wunyingcollection.com

The First Pepper Flower

2012-05-31T15:36:00.000+01:00

Several buds have appeared on our Pepper plants over the last few days and this is the first one to bloom.

Is that a tiny baby pepper we can see forming inside?

A Pea in a Pod

2012-05-22T17:32:00.001+01:00

Yes, one pea in one pod appears to be the sum total of our produce from this Garden Pea plant.

Mind you, it is a lovely pod following on from the lovely flower we wrote about earlier.

Can't wait to devour it - half a pea each. How to tell when a pod is ready? Want to taste it at its best.

Padron Pepper and Fungus Gnats

2012-05-17T15:07:00.000+01:00

The Padron Pepper we are growing from seed is doing ok. We have planted it into a bigger pot and with a covering of sand it's looking quite tropical and is currently being visited by some tourists - ('Tourists' by Duane Hanson 1970 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/jan/16/art.artsfeatures )

To be honest though, the sand is not for aesthetic purposes, it is to try and combat a massive infestation of Fungus Gnats affecting most of our plants. We were spending hours every day trying to get rid of all the pesky flies. If we had an outdoor space it wouldn't be so bad, we could encourage other wildlife and let nature deal with it organically. Of course that's not an option here but a good layer of sharp horticultural sand which was a tricky and messy job appears to have made a vast improvement.

Aubergine Plants Good - Shame About the Radishes

2012-05-07T21:33:00.002+01:00

Sad to report that our Radish seedlings failed. You may recall they were the 20 day Nelson Radish, they did germinate well and grow into small plants but then stopped and gradually withered away. Maybe we're being a bit too ambitious attempting to grow root vegetables indoors.

But the Aubergines (pictured here) are looking good, they have nice soft, almost furry, leaves. Its a small round variety which, hopefully, will not take up too much space.

Pak Choi Becoming Plump

2012-05-02T18:51:00.000+01:00

Not quite ready to eat but certainly getting there, lovely green leaves, white stems and a nice plump bottom (oo-er!).

Don't know why the three Pak Choi are such different sizes, they were all grown from seed at the same time and had the same treatment, all part of the wonders of nature.

Lamb's Lettuce Ready to Eat

2012-04-28T10:25:00.000+01:00

We really need to eat these Lamb's Lettuce (Corn Salad, Winter Salad) before the leaves become tough and bitter-tasting.

But we are debating whether to pick the whole plants and use the trough for something different or just take the outside leaves and leave the plants to keep giving us more - 'Cut-and-come-again'.

It seems a shame to take out the whole plant when they have so many new leaves coming through. It would also make Superlambanana redundant, at least until we grow some more.

A Surprise Pea Flower

2012-04-26T14:25:00.000+01:00

A very pleasant surprise this morning as a flower opened on the Garden Pea plant.

We weren't expecting any yet, it's only a small plant, we haven't even put in any support for it yet, we can see a second bud too.

Having all these plants on a desk makes it very easy to get up close and see the beauty of these delicate flowers - easier to take good pictures too as it's so still :)

Our First Homegrown Spinach Salad

2012-04-24T20:36:00.000+01:00

We have eaten our first significant batch of Spinach and the plants look like they'll provide us with a lot more.

With a few leaves of our Basil and some Tomatoes (shop-bought), seasoning and Olive Oil - delicious, fresh and crisp.

And tomorrow we'll be having more of those tasty Pea Shoots.

Desktop Garden 2nd Month Review

2012-04-23T21:47:00.000+01:00

Now more than two months since we started our Desktop Garden and you can see it's completely full and very green.

As mentioned in previous posts we put some of the plants on the windowsill so it does spread out a bit but it just about still fits onto the desk.

The Pak Choi are now looking quite plump, the five Tomato plants and four Peppers continue to grow.

We can now grow and eat Cress and Pea Shoots regularly and pick sprigs of Rosemary, Basil and Mint as required.

We've had a few flowers too and looking forward to the Fuchsia coming into bloom later.

The little Thyme seedlings are very slow growing and the Lamb's Lettuce is taking its time to reach the stage where we feel we can start taking some leaves off to eat.

On the whole it's been quite a rewarding month, we just wish we had more room as we have so many unopened packets of seeds.

Little Yellow Flowers in a Tea Caddy

2012-04-20T09:26:00.000+01:00

These tea caddies are too good to throw away and the small 7.5cm plant pots fit in perfectly.

The first little yellow flower has opened on the Sanvitalia (creeping zinnia) and there's a few more buds ready to open soon.

Pepper Plants Prosper

2012-04-17T14:47:00.000+01:00

We haven't featured the Pepper plants for quite a while and have pretty much just left them to get on with it, only making sure they got their turn on the sunny windowsill.

They're now looking quite big and healthy, maybe the little Doraemon character has been using various gadgets to help them along?

We snacked on a few Spinach leaves today - very nice!

Spinach Looking More Like the Real Thing

2012-04-13T20:50:00.000+01:00

We last posted a picture of our young Spinach nearly a month ago on St Patrick's Day. Then each seedling just had the 2 thin grass-like leaves (called Cotyledon fyi) which you often find in bags of Spinach and feel a bit cheated.

Now the proper round leaves are out and growing noticeably bigger each day. They're tasty too, we've eaten a few as they tend to damage easily.