Seedlings

I have delivered lots of seedlings to Hwsgo. They may die, but they probably won't. Apart from the Basil, which is midway through a typical basil sulk that it may or may not recover from. We really need an amalgum of our two homes: mine has radiators, double-glazing and big windowsills, but Hwsgo's has lots of light. Heat, light, water, food: doesn't take much to make a plant grow, but it's surprisingly difficult to get all these things in the same place.

Plants delivered are (so Hwsgo doesn't forget what he has): rocket (currently under debate), parsley (the stuff that looks like grass), coriander (2 types in 1 pot), basil, and sunflowers and sweetpeas for colour. I'm taking the chilli and lobelia back home for a bit more heat treatment, and I have tomatoes and tarragon still under observation there at the moment. Now I have empty windowsills, I'm tempted to grow on something more. A pot of strong mint would be good, some more coriander (can never have emough of that), and some more herbs seems about right. I already have carrot and radish seeds waiting to be put into veg buckets at home - will see how I do with them too. It's just a shame that my garden is too dark to grow much in it (neighbour: big trees). One day I'll move somewhere lighter.

Gardening News

A snottogram from the council last week; I have 4 weeks to tidy my plot or lose it. Now I agree with keeping the plots cultivated, growing vegetables etc, but it's still winter. It's cold out, there's no planting to be done and even the slugs are fast asleep. Luckily Hwngo came over and did some sterling rotavating work last weekend, so my (our?) conscience is clear. Maybe the letter's just the council's version of an annual "wake up, you need to start digging your potato beds" call. Whatever.

Speaking of potatoes, I'm chitting. Well, they are, and with very little help from me; chitting really just consists of standing a bagful of spuds on their ends in the light and warm until nice strong shoots shoot(please pardon pun, is late) out of their ends. And then, when they're big and strong, the potatoes go into the ground and come out a few months later as kit-form dinner. I have a bag each of Charlotte (yummy last year), Red Duke of York and Epicure; the Red Duke of York are already close to being ready to plant (see photo). And if someone steals my potato crop again, I shall be very very cross and consider spiking the bed with Scoville-rated surprises.

But next I need to build my first raised beds and sort out a bed plan and planting schedule. Because my house is dark (trees), I can't bring my seeds on early, but I'll still need to start planting them from the end of this month. In this year's packs are:
* Continental salad blend (sow march-sept)
* Chicory Orchidea Rossa (sow feb-aug)
* Chicory Variegata Di Castelfranco (plant feb-aug)
* Shallot Zebrune (plant feb-apr)
* Tomatillo Purple de Milpa (plant feb-apr)
* Carrot Purple Haze (plant apr-july)
* Tomato Black Cherry (plant feb-apr)
* Climbing bean Blauhilde (plant apr-july)
* Dwarf bean Purple Teepee (plant apr-july)
* Broccoli Rudolph (plant apr-june)
* Pak Choy (plant apr-july)
* Climbing french bean (plant apr-july)
* Chicory Agena (plant July-Aug)
* French sorrel Rumex Scutatus (plant mar-apr, 2 packs)
* Cos lettuce Marshall (plant mar-july)
* Sweet pea Fragrant Skies (plant Jan-May; because it's nice to have some flowers in the veg patch)

And yes, many of those vegetables are black...

More black vegetables

I like to learn one thing every day. Today, it's that I can't edit my blogs once I post them. Meanwhile, I've found some more black vegetables to track down and grow:
Anthrocyaninecarrots. Cavalo Nero cabbage. Black, Black Cherry and Black from Tula tomatoes. Purple Delight and Royal Black peppers. Futsu and Yokohama squashes. Black Spanish radish. January King cabbage. Nero di Toscana kale.

I should also think about some black fruits and herbs (e.g. Dark Opal basil) to keep the vegetables company. There may be more on the International Black Plant Society pages.

Black Vegetables

Next year, I plan to grow some black vegetables in the veg patch and allotment. I'm usually much more fussy about taste than looks, but this is quite a fun sideproject for me. I've grown yellow and red cropsets before, but I suspect black may be a little more difficult to achieve, so this won't be in the main veg set. Now, I spend much time in February browsing through the Thomson & Morgan seed stands in my local garden centre, and these are some of the candidates I've found so far. Of course, a true black is very rare, so often these stray into purple, but dark will definitely be the order of the days.

• Aubergines: mostly black anyway. I've not had much success with these in the past (too fussy about light), so a nice safe one like T+M's Black Enorma F1 or Moneymaker will do.
  
• Climbing beans: okay, I'll cheact a bit and go purple on this: T+M's Blauhilde looks good.
  
• Dwarf french beans: Purple Teepee? Apparently purple beans have a extra 'zing' over other less dark types; it will be worth investigating this.
  
• Carrots: Purple Haze F1 Hybrid
  
• Cauliflower: Graffiti F1 Hybrid
  
• Chilli peppers: Black Pearl
  
• Lettuce: Revolution
  
• Sweet pepper: Sweet Chocolate
  
• Tomatoes: Black Cherry or Black Russian
  

Lighter purple crops that may suit this colour scheme include scorzonera, Falstaff sprouts, scarlet or black tuscany kale, beetroots, kalibos or red jewel cabbage, red baron or lilia onions, giant red mustard, rudolph or redhead calabrese, red strawberry popcorn, purple f1 hybrid pak choi, treviso chard, mantanghong radish, healthmaster carrots and purple broccolis. It's also tempting to toss in some Bright Lights or Rhubarb chard to provide some bright contrast colours.