On the windowsill

The sprouting report continues with some not very up-to-date pictures:

The solo chive is ... OK, I guess?  Actually, the sweary one noticed a new shoot this morning, so we've got chives plural now.  I think it's all from the same seed, though.  

The basil really is fine.  It's not growing like wildfires, but it is chugging along contentedly.  Some of the sprouts seem to be producing their first true leaves.  It's slow going, though. 

The coriander is as leggy as all get out.  I suppose that is a risk of growing it in a not-sunny season in an east-facing windowsill and generally being non-tropical.  Hopefully the stems will be able to support the growth.  Many of the coriander plants have true leaves now; I am waiting for the second burst of leaves before I start pinching them back to discourage this legginess.  

The coriander plants flop all over the pot.  It makes it hard to turn the pot (to prevent the plant(s) from leaning in one direction) because they grow braided together.  I haven't worked out the best solution to the problem (except maybe to give up on growing coriander from seed).  

Finally, the windowsill-full of plants continues to be, shall we say "of interest" to a certain carnivorous member of the household.  She hasn't been caught eating them, which is good.  On the other hand, she does give them more attention than they merit, which is bad.  She can't possibly enjoy the flavour of chives, basil and coriander.  Cat food wouldn't smell the way it does if cats liked herbs (and this cat absolutely slavishly loves her cat food).  Her interest is a mystery.  

Sprouting report

Unfortunately, I still haven't got around to taking pictures of the sprouts.  The small pot I think has basil is positively bursting with sprouts.  The small pot with chives is actually the small pot with chive.  It's a good chive, but a couple more are required to make it a viable herb source.  The big pot of parsley, into which I put a few other-herb seeds for fun, is showing some (presumably) basil and some probably coriander.  There's no coriander anywhere else.  

I am very interested by the success of the coriander in the already-occupied pot.  I know I put some seeds in their own pots.  I wonder if coriander likes friends.  Or if the big pot gives it a better view of the tiny, weak, winter sun. Whatever the reason, the sprouts in the parsley pot represent a greater number of coriander sprouts than I have seen in all of my previous attempts to grow coriander from seed, combined.  

I have been looking at seed catalogues and thinking (droolingly) about the summer.  It seems like it might already be time to start broccoli, if we're going to do it.  

Up, up, up!

The seeds from last weekend have started to sprout!  I suspect it's the basil that's popping up so eagerly, despite the snowstorms and our not-very-warm windowsill.  One small seedling pot is alive with little green duckbills and another seedling pot is showing some of those little bent white swan's necks that come before the leaves make their way out.  The second pot might be the chives, but I thought they took longer than that to sprout the first time.  

No sign of other things yet, but I'm not going to cover the pots because I am so encouraged by the dudes who haven't been coddled coming up that I think maybe we should be selecting un-coddled only.  

I have to say that one of the huge advantages of having started seeds last year (and let's be honest, in terms of impact in the garden, there wasn't much impact so it's a good thing I can see an advantage somewhere else) is that I now have a better understanding of which seeds behave in which way.  Knowing that coriander doesn't sprout much is useful.   The first garden we tried to grow included a planterful of coriander and when it failed, I thought the planter and the position and all was flawed.  Now I know that it's the coriander and I can put that planter back up and fill it with marigolds and it'll be fine.  Hooray!  

In other news, the pace of the leaf-yellowing in the new parsley seems to be reducing.  It's still happening, though. 

Winter gardening

I have been reading the marvellous blog Fast Grow the Weeds lately.   I was looking at it in the regular way of blogs starting in November, and then she posted something about how a snowy day made her happy and want to drink tea and bake bread.  That spoke straight to my soul.  So when I say I have been reading the blog lately, I don't mean that I've been checking it for updates.  I mean that I've gone back into the archives and read every single post she wrote.  For days, it's been keeping me occupied and, frankly, fantasizing.   

I dreamt that we got a greenhouse.  I have gone back to looking at the real-estate webpages seeking out possible gardening plots in the country.  These are both pure fantasy activities.  I don't drive, so a plot of land, even within an hour-long drive of my house in the city, is not of any practical use for gardening.  I would very much like to put a greenhouse and a bit of garden on our (flat) roof, but I don't have that kind of money sitting around at the moment, and even if I did, I am not sure that the foundations of our (120-130 year-old) house could support it.  

I'll allow myself to read the blog of someone who is actually making gardening a huge and significant portion of her life.  However, I'll remind myself that I am lazy and people who farm or garden for more than a pecadillo are the least lazy of all folks.  I will try to remember how much I ache after turning over half of my tiny flowerbeds.  I will dream on, but remember in my waking hours that I am the inconsistent gardener, and no more.  

Parsley update

The old parsley is fine and plentiful.  It's not quite plentiful enough to provide us with parsley for, say tabouli (which we're having for dinner tonight) but it'll do for a garnish pretty much every night.

The new parsley is in its new pots but still distressingly producing yellow leaves.  Or rather, its old leaves go yellow distressingly.

I don't know what it is.  I wonder if the folks at the market sold me a bum plant (gasp).  

No sign of seedlings in the other pots, of course.  I should cover over the pots to make 'em greenhouse-y.  

Winter Indoor Gardening (with apologies to my father)

I did, finally, get around to re-potting the boughten parsley.  I suspect that it's an old, old plant.  It's got positively carrot-like roots beneath.  There were a few plants squished in together and growing into each other, which I ruthlessly cut apart.  There was nothing for it.  They couldn't be expected to keep going as they were.  The leaves on the sprigs were going brown at a quite alarming rate, which I took to mean that there just wasn't enough room for the roots.  

Anyway, I spread the new parsley around and as I did so, I looked at my culinary herb seeds and decided that there would be absolutely no harm in giving them a go.  So, I popped a few seeds in a few pots (including some in the parsley pots) and hopefully in a couple of months we'll have a healthy indoor garden.  

We got rid of everything but the parsley we had before now because it had acquired little friends.  I suspect the mint was really to blame.  There were insidious little webs all over the bottoms of the leaves.  Let's hope the new batch do better.   The seeds were: basil (which did amazingly well in tiny pots), coriander (which barely germinated at all when the seeds were new, so I don't know what I think will happen this time), chives (also not keen to come up), and mint (which I think took a long time, but then did come up before I neglected them and they all died).  

My plan is to put some of the annuals outside when the summer comes.  The mint is most definitely destined for the outside.  I have a dream of putting mint in the difficult little triangle to the left of our front door.  I think a nice-smelling, aggressive as all get out plant will be just right for that sad patch.  I'll even spread out some compost for it.  But not much!  I don't want its roots to break through the house foundations.  

For shame

I'm using the blog as a motivator (I hope):  I got a parsley plant on Saturday with which I intend to supplement the old one.  The old one is such a success that I'm starting to feel bad about harvesting its stalks ... only a few junior ones remain.  Anyway, I need to put the new one in a proper-sized pot (or two) and that apparently will only happen if I give myself a good kick in the pants.  

*kick*