Category: On the windowsill

I wasn’t going to sow any On the windowsill seeds until about now but I did sow some back on Saturday 7th.

Of those only the  Tomato Red Robin has germinated, on 16th March, and started growing.  It’s in a 3 in /7.5 cm round pot and will  be transplanted into a 2 litre/6 in pot when it’s grown somewhat bigger.

I’m not that surprised that nothing else has germinated so yesterday I resowed Tomato Aztek, Calendula Fruit Twist, Sunflower Big Smile, Gazania Talent Yellow  and Cosmos Limara Lemon.

I’ll be sowing some dwarf Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) Kimosy Formula Mixed  and Mountain Daisy (Arenaria montana) Avalanche into 4.25 in / 10.75 cm pots, and being dwarf plants, around 6 in / 15 cm,  they shouldn’t need to be transplanted.

The English Daisy I mentioned in the post On the windowsill – early March 2026 flowered for a couple of weeks but isn’t at the moment.

Have a good week, and take care!

Further to last month’s on the windowsill post none of the Daisy seeds have appeared so it looks like I’ll be resowing them in a week or so.

During last week I dug up a small English Daisy (Bellis perennis) plant at the allotments which I bought home and repotted into a 3.5 in  / 9 cm black plastic pot.

It had, and still has, this one flower and there are also two more buds showing.

I also didn’t sow any Gazania rigens Talent Yellow or Candytuft Fairy Mix (Iberis umbellata) as I said I would as I completely forgot!  I’ll sow some of each during  next week.

I’ve now acquired two of each 2 litre and 3 litre black plastic pots to grow the dwarf tomatoes Aztek and Red Robin in.  I’m undecided which size to use but it will probably be the smaller 2 litre ones.

Have a good week, and take care!

I wasn’t going to start sowing anything in pots until next month but both English Daisy (Bellis perennis) and Mountain Daisy Avalanche (Arenaria montana) seeds can be sown from January onwards.

During  last week I sowed a few of each, the English Daisies in a 3.5 in / 9 cm  black pot and the Mountain Daisies in a slightly bigger 4.25 in /11 cm one.  They are both are on the windowsill with thin plastic sheet covering them. At this time of year I move the pots off the windowsill when I close the curtains late afternoon then put them back after I’ve opened the curtains in the morning when it’s light.

The Gazania rigens Talent Yellow and Candytuft Fairy Mix (Iberis umbellata) seeds can be sown indoors from this month onwards so I’ll be sowing a few of each next week.

I’ll give them all until mid March to start germinating, and if they don’t show any signs of doing so I’ll resow and start again.

Have a good week, and take care!

This year was a really good one for tomatoes, especially as there was no blight, as there often is late August onwards.  I grew the red variety Outdoor Girl and the yellow one Yellow Perfection, both widely recommended for growing outdoors. My only problem was that some of the yellow ones had split skins which was probably due to my somwhat erratic watering.  I’ll almost certainly grow both of these again next year.

I have tried growing a dwarf tomato variety at home on the windowsill in the past but generally without success, although I see that back in 2016 I grew a Tiny Tim which did  quite well as you can see.  

I’m going to try again next year with the variety Aztek (note correct spelling) which has yellow fruit.

The Candytuft (Iberis umbellata) Fairy Mixed seeds I sowed on the plot this year was one of the flowers that didn’t germinate and grow.  I’ll be sowing more next year which will hopefully do much better, as the pink-red, purple and white flowers are attractive to butterflies such as the common blue as seen in this photo from summer 2018.I’ve also tried to grow Candytuft at home in a pot on the windowsill  a couple of times without success but will be trying again next year.

Have a good week, and take care!

Further to last month’s post in early October the Common Nipplewort continued to die back and sadly so did both Gazanias, which I had hoped would survive over the winter, so the windowsill is now empty.

Looking back on the year the best plant was the Sunflower Big Smile,  the most disappointing was the Gazania flower bud not opening and the most interesting was the Common Nipplewort.

I’ve tentatively decided what I’ll be growing on the windowsill next year.  There are five flowers – Calendula officinalis / Pot Marigold Fruit Twist, Cosmos sulphureus / Cosmos Limara Lemon (see picture), Gazania rigens / Gazania Talent Yellow, Helianthus annuus / Sunflower Big Smile and Iberis umbellata /Candytuft Fairy Mixed. I’ll be growing them in various plastic pots, either 4.25 in /10.8 cm or 5 in /12. 5 cm.  Posts over the winter will go into more detail about all these.

I’m also going to try a dwarf Tomato Aztek (note spelling is correct), which is a yellow variety, in a 6 in /15 cm 2 litre pot.  I have tried before with other varieties without much success.

Have a good week, and take care!

Sadly the Gazania Talent Yellow flower bud I mentioned and showed in the post Home and plot  nearly a month ago  never opened, and the much smaller one on the other plant simply didn’t grow.

These plants are perennials which, here in the UK, are mostly treated as annuals when they’re grown outside.  I’m going to see if they survive over the winter, and if they do I will repot into a slightly larger, 5 inch / 12.5 cm, pot and see how they do next year.  If they don’t survive then next March I’ll be sowing a couple of seeds.

I also mentioned and showed a flower stem that had appeared on the Common Nipplewort.  This grew to over 24 inches / 60 cm with lots of tiny flower buds towards the top.  However so far only one of these has opened to show a really small yellow flower.  Being an annual plant the leaves are now beginning to die back.

This plant had been interesting to look at over the past six months and certainly been a worthwhile On the windowsill plant.

Have a good week, and take care!

I haven’t been to the plot since last Saturday morning, mainly due to the weather being rather unsettled with plenty of rain and showers, heavy at times.  Little wonder that it’s been a somewhat difficult growing season as it was the driest spring for fifty years and the hottest summer on record.  The temperature for around sixty days was 25 C / 77 F or higher so it’s not surprising that I spent so little time most weeks.

I’ve started to think about next year and I’m going to make a special effort with the plot sunflowers to make up for the almost total lack of them this year. I saved the two flower heads from the dwarf sunflower Big Smile  I grew on the windowsill, and was pleased to collect over sixty seeds.  I’ll be sowing most of these on the plot where they should grow to around to around 20 in / 50 cm, and have several flowers on each plant.  Hopefully they’ll go well with my favourite variety MusicBox, which is slightly taller. This picture is from September 2020.

Have a good weekend, and take care!