Autumn today, spring tomorrow...

My little gardens have reached their personal autumns. Won't last long; growing stuff indoors makes you less vulnerable too seasonal changes. The real autumn is noticable too, however, the plants don't press themeselves against the windows anymore, and the added light becomes more and more important.

The reasons behind the personal autumns are my lack of time for the gardens combined with bugs. I have thrips in two windows. At first I planned drastic cures; to empty the windows entirely, clean them and then leave them empty for two weeks. Felt boring though, I mean; two entire weeks without growing anything. So I decided on a milder version. I leave one of the windows be for the moment. I grow my herbs there, and they do fine as long as I spray them with water a few times a day. Thrips don't like a humid climate. The other window will host my tiger nuts. Tiger nuts grows like a weed (ahaha) thrips or no thrips, and since it's the tubers you eat I can spray the grass above as much as I like.

But spring is not far away. Today I brought out my seed envelopes to what I'll sow today or tomorrow. My plan is to do new sowing every other week during some months to see how well this meets the needs and demands for vegetables in this household. One or two times a week I can already add vegetables for my lunch completely out of the containers. The goal to feed the entire family comes closer.

As you see on the picture I have lots of envelopes. I buy seeds like others buy fabric, and I haven't even opened some of them. Adding to that is the seeds I took from my calamondin and a bunch of tasty grapes we bought. It was with a bit of anguish that I selected what to grow this time:

*Common purslane
*Iceplant
*Salad 'Frisée d'Amerique'
*Calamondin
*Grapes

I'm counting on the calamondin and the grapes to be difficult to grow, so I'll sow them only for fun. To be honest I don't even know what I'll do with a couple of calamondin plants - I guess I'll give them away. Grapeleaves are edible, so they do have a place in this garden. Gadgeteer as I am I'm already inventing contraptions to make it possible to move the plants and provide them with added light.

I'll replant the tiger nuts as well. This includes sterilising soil, boiling soil walls and cleaning boxes. My friends; I'll put my body through a training session a bodybuilder would be proud of.

Evil twins

One of the reasons I wanted a citrus bush is that they smell so good when they bloom. We gave my mother in law one and it perfumes the entire flat with a scent of orange and jasmines every time. That's why I was surprised when I started to smell liquid manure around my calomondin.

First I blamed the farmers around Uppsala. In this place you're never far from a field in need of fertilizer, especially not in the spring. Then I started to think over the fact that the smell was located around my citrusbush. Lastly I started to look, and found a shy flower under a leaf.

It does smell like liquid fertilizer, but better. As if liquid fertilizer was an evil twin of a smell, and that smell was calomondin. I have mixed feelings, but prefers to take the flower as a kind of flatter; I do some things right at least. If I continue in this way I'll soon have new little citrus fruits for my marmalades.

Things are progressing in my seedlin boxes; the ordinary nasturtium have 'hatched', and the strawberries are on their way. Soon I have the entire collection firmly stuck in the boring phase.