Fruity Things

I have just sorted out our strawberry plants. In the Autumn we potted up runners from our main plants and put them in the greenhouse for over wintering. Now the weather is warming up we've moved them to our recently bought cold frame. We did lose a few plants but we have twenty looking good, which will more than double the number we already have.

And our rhubarb is coming along very nicely. This is it's second year and it will be the first year that we will be able to harvest it. The variety is Stockbridge Arrow. We're growing it in a small triangle of earth between the greenhouse and the garden path. Possibly a little too close together, but we'll see how well it does and we always have the option of splitting it and finding another location for half of it.

Planting Garlic Bulbils

Last year our garlic was not as successful as we would have liked. The bulbs were small and some were eaten by mice just after planting (our cats clearly don't like garlic flavoured mice). It was not all bad as we did get some to cook with, but most were small bulbs and rather fiddly to peel, although they did taste good. Some also went to seed rather early. Not sure why, could have been the dry weather we had last year. Our onions seemed to fare a little better but also suffered from going to seed early.

On the up side the flower heads produced lots of little garlic bulbils

Bulbils are not seeds. They are clones of the original plant and in this way are like the cloves.

This year I'm trying to grow these bulbils into garlic plants. I understand from my research (Google) that it will probably take a few years to be big enough to harvest, but I can wait.

Today I've planted them quite close together in a old herb planter. This planter took about one head worth of bulbils. I'm using John Innes No. 1 compost.

I'm not sure how important it is to get the bulbils in the right way up. When you pull them gently of the clump easy to see the right way up.  The top of some of the bulbils were sprouting and this end was more bulbils, the other more pointed. So I've tried to plant mine narrow, pointy end down.

After planting I sieved a little more compost over the top and then watered well. I've positioned this tray on the window ledge of the utility room. It gets morning sunshine and I can keep an eye on them. The rest of the heads I managed to squeeze into a spare seed tray. I'm leaving these in the greenhouse, and we'll see which one does better.

Gooseberries and blueberries

In a back corner of our garden we've eventually got around to planting the gooseberry bushes we bought by mail order before Christmas. They've been kept in water and have started to sprout a little, so I have great hopes that, despite the later than intended planting, they will survive. I think they're hardy little plants. We've no expectations of fruit this year, but hopefully next we'll have added to the crops we get from our garden.

OH also bought a blueberry bush, from the pound shop this week. Now, blueberries (in the UK) are best grown in pots, so we had to buy a suitable pot , which needed to be rather larger than OH expected. However before we could pay for our £50 pot the owner of the garden centre, having heard we were going to plant what could be best described as a 'twig' in one of his beautiful pots instantly offered us one of his blueberry bushes for half price. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, we now have a blueberry bush (from the garden centre) and a blueberry twig (from the pound shop) sharing a rather nice pot on our patio. Crossing our fingers they'll all survive the frosts the weather forecasts are now predicting and we'll be sitting out eating blueberries straight off the bush later this year (it may take a little longer, I think, for the twig to bare fruit).

Download and kettles

Watching kettle boils and software downloads seems to follow the same laws of physics....

Another 42 minutes. what should I do? I know, I'll go and watch paint dry.

iPad and fingerprints

I've owned iPhones for quite a while, for home and work use, and the fingerprints on the screen never seems to trouble me, but within a day or two of using an iPad I find the fingerprints are so much more obvious.

Apple claim the iPad has an oleophobic screen. It appears not to be that effective, or are my hand more oily than American hands?

Maybe it's just because the screen is bigger or maybe its because its new and shiny. I must admit that as the amount of fingerprint grease is building up on the screen the overall effect is a to produce an almost silky lustre. Only the edges have clean places now. Or maybe I'm getting more use to it.

I really ought to

I wonder if I really ought to blog more often. Why have a blog and not blog. Um, maybe because I just don't know what to say. Spend too much time reading other blogs.

I'm supposed to be working

I'm supposed to be getting by head around C++ template classes, but I keep finding myself studying the folds in the clothes people are wearing and wanting to draw them. Too little sleep and and I find the wool between the ears dulls my ability to process complex, abstract thoughts.

I want to be constructive. I want to make things. But the only pleasure I'm getting is to see text scroll past with less warning than the last time I typed 'make'. A pencil sits tantalisingly near, as I type but I'll pretend I'm writing code and not thinking about getting dirty with graphite...