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You’ll remember my attempt to grow some chillis from seed?

Well……… ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa………… look at that picture?!

Actually I’m fibbing.  I only had one survivor from my initial 5 seeds, who as a result is now called Rambo.  There he is on the far right hand side.  And what a darling he is eh?  Thanks to David and Lucinda who looked after him whilst we were on holiday.

The other plants are also all chillis, however, I can’t claim I grew them myself.  These were grown by Lydia’s mum Maria.  I think they are fantastic.

From right to left the full set of chillis are:

1. Rambo

2. Czechoslovakian Black

3. Iranian Round

4. Pretty In Purple

5. Hungarian Wax

6. Lemon Drop

and on the edge of the picture…….

7. Kostadinova Striated

Any similarity between these and the names of the dragons in Harry Potter are purely coincidental.

P.S. I haven’t been back to my allotment since the opening…….. work and holidays have got in the way.  Looks like I’m working this weekend too……..  poo.

So far I’ve nurtured a cactus called Colin and killed 4 of my 5 chili seeds.  What could possibly go wrong with the allotment?

Pippa Greenwood from BBC Gardeners Question time was there and seemed like she was a good laugh.  Given as Yanks like to say I’m a total “greenhorn” – I think I might get started with one of Pippa’s packages where you grow what she is growing in her garden.  The good news is she updates her website with hints, tips and commentary regarding the problems she is solving as she grows the crop.  Just the sort of idiots guide I need.

One seed has since been killed by the cat – which jumped onto the window sill knocking one of the tiny seeds to it’s death on the floor far below.

Colin The Cactus

My green fingered experience began with a cactus, called Colin, whom I’ve nurtured since he was 1cm tall.

Herbs Avec Un Chien Piss Jus

My second and final horticultural fling was with a herb garden in an old sink and more commonly called “the place where the dogs ended up peeing”, which I have now been forced to abandon (People complained the Mojitos tasted bitter).

Thanks to the spaniels I needed to move beyond our back garden, hence my search for an allotment. The 42 established allotments in Hartley Wintney have a 5 year waiting list and new allotments planned to border the fields behind our house already have a waiting list of 250 people and even then they still won’t be opened until…….. er………..  the year 2016.

So I logged into Landshare and applied for other allotments and vegetable patches in the surrounding area.  But to no avail.  Months later I thought I’d see if anything had changed and bingo…… new allotments were being allocated in Hook.  I spoke to the marvellous Emma who told me, although we were just outside the catchment area, to apply anyway because any spare places would be allocated on a first come first served basis to us savage aliens who live over the frontier that is the Hook border.

Now I need to work out what to do with a space, which at 10m by 12m, is a lot bigger than the sink full of herbs I inadvertently provided for the dogs to pee on.  Oh – and before I forget – don’t think I know nothing about horticulture because I’ve already proved that unlike other herbs, Mint can thrive no matter what dogs rain down on it.