Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jennyjj01]

Oh Yes it is !
Frnc and I are on a challenge to get something to the plate.

Oh, okay - can I play?

[Picture of great big Tomatoesl], on Flickr

Curtis the Courgette says "Pick on someone your own size"

At 9 days old, he's my latest baby.

[British Red]

Awww just think, he will produce 20 courgettes every four hours soon

[Arzosah]

Don't drown Curtis!

[jennyjj01]

Don't drown Curtis!

I have fitted a baby monitor.
He's the first awake in a tray of courgettes, okra and aubergines, all in a speedmop tray. These babies can stay indoors till that nasty Jack Frost goes away. I swear he's nearly doubled in size in the hour since that picture. By tomorrow, I expect him to be upright with both leaves open.

[GillyBee]

Curtis will be needing his own bedroom within a week Jenny!

[Frnc]

I've ordered a few more seeds. Going to drop the spinich and Swiss chard as I'm reducing oxalates due to kidney stones being detected in a scan. Still planning on spuds and tomatoes though. Ordered black kale and some yellow mangetout peas. Also rethinking some, as I read that you can harvest seeds and plant them, off plants that are not F1. Got most stuff I need now, just waiting for weather to warm up and last few seeds. Need to order tomato seeds or seedlings. I replaced the spinich and Swiss chard with black kale which is low oxelate, non-F1, and can be sown outdoors in March.

[jennyjj01]

Curtis will be needing his own bedroom within a week Jenny!

I wish I had a time lapse video camera on this. In the space of 11 hours, Curtis has unfurled his leaves and has gone from 1/4 inch across to about 3/4 inches across and 3/4 inch tall. Also over that time, his sister Connie has popped a leaf above ground. There was ZERO visibility of Connie yesterday!

It's joyous little things like this that make it worth getting out of bed.
I'm going to look at the cost of a security camera that can double as a time lapse camera.

[jennyjj01]

Curtis will be needing his own bedroom within a week Jenny!

His sister Connie has popped a leaf above ground. There was ZERO visibility of Connie yesterday!

And in the blink of an eye..... Meet Cora.
OMG. These babies are incredible. Imagine how excited I'll be when they get babies of their own.
I knew germinating seeds could be fast, but these are insanely fast to break through. Why can't all my seeds be so full of life?
There's two more courgette seeds in that tray.

[Arzosah]

I love it but I do fear for the day when they're lost in the crowd of courgette plants

[jennyjj01]

Curtis will be needing his own bedroom within a week Jenny!

Much as Frugal Me embraced loo roll and cardboard seed pods, they failed me, or I failed them. They were simply too difficult to water properly without going too dry or too wet. Plus, frankly they hardly decorated the kitchen window.

At least that was my conclusion as I perused the ALDI specialbuys and spotted these...
£4.99 each: Not a steal, but worth investing in a couple. What's prospering at the moment will be nurtured as is. But next round of sowing goes in these.

In other news: 3 okra babies popped through in the last couple of hours. "Oscar", "Opra" and "Oliver"