Scotch bonnet rebirth and Garden Betty blog.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to prune my scotch bonnet pepper plant as it had quite a massive bald spot in the middle of its really long stem.  At first I thought, oh dear I have definitely killed it now.  But I was patient, and I waited to see what would happen to it.  And sure enough, there is new growth sprouting!!!  It is super exciting!  

 Full frontal.

Aerial view.

Since last week, all of my repotted seedlings have been doing nothing but growing!  Look at those bush beans in the left hand corner.  They are growing like mad!

I have discovered a new gardening blog that I absolutely love right now.  It is written by a woman living in Los Angeles, California.  It is about growing vegetables, raising chickens, cooking, and about all of her extreme sport adventures.  It is a really beautiful blog that has given me a lot of inspiration.  From her blog I found out that you can eat the young pea plant shoots like salad or in stir frys and that nasturtium pods can be used to make capers.  YUM YUM YUM.  Gotta try it all!  Whoever likes looking at beautiful pictures of nature alongside gardening and chickens should definitely check out Garden Betty's blog.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/2012/05/how-to-grow-green-onions-without-dirt/#more-4418

Hope you're all having a wonderful Sunday.

..love..

Scotch bonnet pruning.

Last night I watched a video on how to prune pepper plants, which gave me inspiration on pruning my scotch bonnet plant as it was very tall.  Hopefully it will encourage more growth towards the bottom of the stem.  The middle was looking a little bit bald.

Here are some pictures of all stages of my scotch bonnet plant grown from seed.  Some of these pictures are from 2013.

2013

2013

2013

2014

Before I pruned it.

2014

After i pruned it.

2014

The top bit I have put into a glass of water, maybe it will grow roots!

..love..

Starters and more.

Although I started this blog yesterday I have been taking photos of some of sown seeds before that.  

On the 9th of February I started by sowing chives, spring onions, coriander and putting lemon and papaya seeds in a jar with a moist tissue for germinating.  By the 16th of February the chives, spring onions, and coriander seeds had started sprouting!  The lemon seeds and papaya seeds had started going fuzzy and growing a small layer of mould on them so I wiped the seeds and changed the tissue.

On the 22nd of February I sowed some more seeds.  I sowed cherry tomatoes, kumato tomatoes (seed saved from a store bought kumato), yellow pear tomatoes (seed saved from tomato plant bought in 2013), and salad cucumbers.  These little pots I made from toilet rolls I put into a tupperware box next to some seeds I put in for germinating.  On the moist tissue bed I put bush beans, peas, and sweet pea flowers for germinating.  I put the tupperware box into a really sunny spot in my room and now have to wait to see what happens.  The tupperware box technique has been a success for many years so this will hopefully also be a WIN!

I took a photo of my non-edible plants as well.  (That's a lie, my scotch bonnet is hidden in there)  Look how sunny it is!!!!

To finish off this blog post here is a picture of some leaves from succulents which I collected.  I went to a plant shop and noticed all of these leaves lying on the soil in their plant pots, since I recently learned that one can propagate succulents from their leaves, I decided to take them with me and see if propagation works for me.  I am now letting the ends dry out for a couple of days before I lay them on a soil bed.

I have been reading up about succulent propagation on these two websites, if you're interested you should check them out, they are really wonderful.
http://needlesandleaves.net/blog/2013/5/31/propagating-leggy-succulents
and
http://www.succulentsandsunshine.com/ 

OK then, that's enough for today!

..love..