Innocent seeds update

Back in the Spring, I collected quite a few seeds from Innocent Smoothies and duly planted them (see here and here) and watered them. Unfortunately hardly any of them germinated (1 single carrot, no tomatoes). I followed the instruction on the first few packets, but the basil packs split open when I removed them from the packaging. I planted  the seeds anyway and this is what they look like now (after I pinched out a few of the growing tips for pizzas!). The seeds came in thinnish cardboard, but my feeling is that it was too thick for the seedlings to break through. I think I'm going to leave them in pots now, as all my bedding plants and the pot of basil I planted out have all been either eaten by pests, or washed away!

Sunday 15th July

Well, today is St Swithun's Day, so according to the legend, whatever the weather does today will continue for the next 40. If that's the case, things are finally looking up - we've not had a drop of rain today (the first in far too long!). As a result, I managed to get out in the garden again. Our back garden is completely sodden and incredibly muddy - and that's just the lawn!

The tomatoes are growing nicely, although without a bit of sun they're not going to ripen very well.

I cleared the foliage from the Kestral potatoes in bed 6 today, and dug up most of the spuds. The foliage was beginning to go yellow and I was worried about blight setting in. I need to go through the bed a bit more thoroughly tomorrow in case I left any behind. I did find a couple of rotten ones today, along with alot of red ants - they were soon scurrying around to protect their eggs, and the sparrows had a feast! We had quite a few roasted for lunch (potatoes, not ants!) and the rest are in the salad drawer of the fridge for another day. I've never tried roasting new potatoes before, but I was following a recipe in "River Cottage Veg Everyday" - they were yummy, definitely one to do again.

I also harvested/thinned the spring onions today - we had this lot sliced on pizzas -another success!