chick pea & pomegranate plants from seed

This is what a 3 week old chick pea plant looks like, pretty! And below are sprouted pomegranate seeds, also after about 3 weeks on moist kitchen roll in a plastic food bag, in the dark. The seeds just put straight into compost haven't appeared.. but I've potted these germinated ones.

thrifty seed ideas

I had seen people elsewhere on the web saying that you could use toilet roll cardboard inners to make cheap biodegradable pots, also that they are good for transferring young plants to outside without having to disturb their roots. I am trying some salad leaves as it is too early to grow these outside yet. Rocket and mustard Oriental Pizzo. Rocket grows very fast - this is only a few days after sowing.

I read in Alys Fowler's inspiring book "the Thrifty Gardener" that many grocery items or seeds from fruits/veg you buy can be planted. She suggested chick peas and pomegranates amongst others, to make nice house plants (chances of an actual crop will be low but they should look nice), so I am trying both. The chick pea is beginning to grow as you can see. I just sprouted some dried chick peas from a packet for a few days (soaking then rinsing) and planted a few in a pot of compost.

Finally, some seeds planted in egg shells (eggs halved and cleaned then put back in the egg box). I have planted a few different flower seeds. Again, I think you can plant on in the shells (will need to crack open the bottom to let the roots get out, the egg shell should slowly break down and put calcium to the soil.)

more seeds

More seeds germinating on a filter paper, left to right: 2 aquilegia vulgaris (columbine), a long johnny jump up viola, mesembranthemum.

sprouting chickpeas

Sprouted some chickpeas (just dried ones from a packet) to eat and also to try growing some as I read they can make a nice house plant. To sprout them I soaked them overnight more than covered in water. Then drain and rinse, then keep rinsing a few times a day if you can remember, for 2-3 days. Leave somewhere dark, I did this in a colander and tried to make sure they were quite dry in between rinses so that they wouldn't go mouldy. On the packet it does say don't eat raw: I think you can when soaked and sprouted this way but with caution/in small quantities as it doesn't agree with everyone.

For planting chickpeas it is still worth soaking, as I kept a few moist separately that weren't for eating which weren't soaked and they didn't do as much sprouting or swelling up.

moving house (& garden)

I mentioned before that I should be moving house soon. So knowing that I had tried to save money by digging up and saving last year's spring and summer bulbs, and replanting them for this year. That seems to be working out for me, I'm not sure what the success rate is as I didn't count them, but I have at least 15 tulip and other bulbs with healthy green shoots now!

Also, I really wanted to buy a passion flower climber and a ceanothus for the new garden (California lilac, it should have gorgeous blue flowers once mature), and yesterday I gave in even though we haven't got a moving date yet. They were pretty cheap as small plants, a bigger ceanthus online cost several times the price so it's a risk worth taking. (Not sure if this is the variety I think is the prettiest but if it dies I may invest in a nicer one later). I am going to try keeping them in pots until I can plant them in the new garden. The ceanothus looks pretty happy. I have "mulched" it with some dead grass, and plan on using a frost fleece if it gets very cold (I know it is probably quite frost hardy as it's evergreen, just want to take extra care of it until it gets bigger). The picture is of it next to my strawberry plants which have survived the winter. 4 pots rather than original 2 - since they had sent out runners which I planted.

The passion flower was the only one in the shop and looked a bit spindly. When I got it home all the leaves had fallen off! I've left one in the pot to remind me and the plant what the leaves looked like! It still just had some tendrils as a little bit of green. I put it in a bigger pot and it is sitting in my sunny window while I try to coax it back to life. It won't have a fence or trellis for proper support until we move.

viola and aquilegia seeds germinating

So, now I think 7 out of 10 viola seeds had germinated yesterday, with tiny sets of 2 pale green leaves each. 4 of them were getting very long so I have planted these in a pot of compost and put them on the windowsill where they are getting greener and opening their leaves.






Also, 1 of 4 aquilegia seeds had finally germinated after 10 days! (see below. Another looked about to burst its seed shell). This way might still be quicker than the ones in compost, or at least I can't see those yet. They have been in there about a week longer.

Have now added some mesembryanthemum (livingstone daisy) seeds to the bag, this time only on kitchen roll rather than filter paper. I got some of them to grow last year in compost, but once out in the garden the young plants struggled and flopped over. I will try to keep them indoors until they're bigger this year. I wanted to try planting in cat litter (diachotomaceous earth type) because I've read that you can, but it seems a bit excessive for me to buy a big bag just for them! Even though cheaper than buying cactus media. I ended up buying a full size plant last year after the seedlings died, which now looks like the frost have killed it but I have cut back the dead bits and will wait and see.

spring in the garden

Outside, 1 crocus has flowered (they never normally seem to flower from bulbs, for me) and some pretty primula. The primroses seem less happy though.

Some spring green: leaves/shoots from a Russell lupin coming back for the 3rd year (right), and an aster (bottom left). Lupins seem to do well at growing without much help, and can fix nitrogen in the air making the soil more fertile for other plants. The only downside so far has been that mine have been pink and I'd prefer other colours, were meant to be mixed. Maybe this years will be other colours too! I have saved some of the seeds, so when we move house I might try planting those as well as see if I can move the ones growing now. The pic below is from last May of my lupin flowering.

Day 5 - baggy germination

viola seeds germinating after 5 days in the baggy

On Day 5, 3 or 4 out of 10 of the viola seeds had little white root "radicles". The baggy was kept upright so that these all seek the same downward direction. None of the aquilegia have shown signs of growth, they are expected to be slower though. I spritzed the filter papers with water then folded them back up and put them back in the dark in the plastic food bag, just at room temperature.

fresh food for our hamster

carrot

pea pod

baby sweetcorn

carrot

broccoli

This is our hamster enjoying eating various fresh veg (all raw). Is good to give them fresh fruit or vegetables some of the time as a treat, in addition to their normal dry food - check what's OK to give first though. Others he enjoys are lettuce, cucumber, sometimes berries (strawberries, blueberries - but seems to like these less). You shouldn't feed citrus, onion or tomatoes.