It’s that time of year again when I’m busy sowing seeds and getting irrationally excited when the little green shoots appear from beneath the compost. Outdoors I have sown salad leaves, carrots and parsnips, although only the lettuces are showing signs of growth yet. As usual, my first sowing of leaves is in the old fish box retrieved from a local beach many years ago.

Salad

No sign of the carrots yet

Indoors, the peppers and chillies that I started sowing much earlier in the year and then sequentially until about a month ago are coming on well (all except one variety which has not germinated at all and must be duff seeds, since they have been kept under the same conditions as all the rest). The ones doing the best so far are the purple jalapeños which were amongst the first planted.

This year we have an additional protected growing space. When Mr Snail moved into the flat he’d rented in Reading, it was full of stuff abandoned by previous tenants. After checking with the landlord, most of this went to a charity shop, but we retained one or two things, including a mini-greenhouse that had been on the tiny terrace. A few weeks back, Mr Snail put it together here in Wales and it’s providing a space for some sorrel frown last year as well as more germinating seeds: peas and various brassicas. Later in the summer, I think I shall put a couple of pepper plants in there to see how they get on.

I certainly wouldn’t have gone out and bought a plastic greenhouse like this, but it seemed a shame not to make use of it and I think it could be a valuable addition, since my wooden cold frame rotted away some years ago.

Inside the limery the carnivores are waking up and the citrus plants are growing great guns, and I’m dithering about exactly when to put them outside.

And finally, in the bathroom the flower on the Nepenthes continues to bloom…

Monkey cup flower

I do enjoy this time of year… all that promise of future harvest…