Monday 14 September 2009

The ongoing saga of the windowsill farm...

I've recently been inspired to start growing my own food. And by food I mean anything that will grow in a planter on the kitchen window sill. This is proving trickier than I anticipated as I'm now onto my 4th batch of herbs. They just keep dying! I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, I'm not over watering, under watering, they get plenty of sunlight, they're not in a draft...I'm beginning to think there's some conspiracy afoot.

I just came back from a fruitful trip to Dobbies and now have a very smart plastic planter installed, complete with my 2 strawberry plants that I just got free from a lovely lady on freecycle (plus some amazing windfall apples that were quickly made into a crumble and devoured by all my friends). I took a gamble and bought myself another rosemary plant, with the intention of making rosemary-infused olive oil as part of my grandparent's Christmas present. I repotted up EVERYTHING after a strange outbreak of black flies from the cheapo Asda compost, all my plants are now happily sprouting away in Miracle-Gro-infused compost so if anything dares to die I will not be impressed.

Photos of the new set-up to follow, but in the meantime, here's photos of the sad looking creatures pre-Dobbies trip:

The peppermint is the only remaining herb from the first ever attempt at growing herbs. It looks pretty healthy here but let me assure you, it was plagued with flies. The latest photos will show, it's shot up since being repotted!

Photobucket

The aloe, a totally useless plant that you can't eat, was given to me by my grandmother so I don't really feel like I can pass it onto someone else in return for something edible. Ah well, it's pretty resiliant so I can't complain. I've started potting up its babies into vintage teacups with a vague idea that I might sell them (not sure how, they won't post well).

Photobucket

The saddest of the lot, the basil and coriander. The third in the list of Herbs I Have Killed, not long after this photo was taken they were consigned to the compost bin. But not before I discovered they were the root of the fly infestation. Hopefully no more flies now they're gone!

Photobucket

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've always had trouble with basil attracting aphids when I've grown it on a windowsill, despite being fine outside/ in the greenhouse; I've no idea what's going on!

If you have any more trouble with your herbs, next time try growing them from seed. I always fine the plants are lot healthier & far hardier!

I hope everything else is good with you chuck, I notice your not on LJ anymore?

Madeleine.

Unknown said...

It's so bizarre, I have no idea where they came from, they weren't there before and they've disappeared now!

Everything is good with me thanks, I deleted my LJ because I wasn't using it to blog and thriftstore has become a bit of a fascist regime so I couldn't really be bothered with it anymore. How's things with you? Hope the family are all well?