Friday 17 January 2014

Peppers and Pond


My gardening mojo has been in a state of dormancy over the last few weeks, I haven't really been interested in anything gardening-related, mainly because of the weather. I haven't been able to do anything significant on the plot since before Christmas, I doubt if anyone has. I left a couple of pepper and chilli plants in the greenhouse at the end of the summer, mainly through laziness, but also because the plants still had unripe fruit on, and I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, even though I knew they wouldn't ripen....or WOULD they??? Well, some of the chillis did continue to ripen, and a couple of weeks ago I noticed the chillies were going mouldy, but the peppers still looked perfect, so I brought this stalk in and put it in the vase to see what would happen, and lo and behold! Not only ripening, but still plump and wrinkle-free.

One thing I have been doing at the allotment, mainly before Christmas, is digging this little pond:


At the moment, there is about 6" of water in the bottom, along with a couple of drowned worms and two large drowned green caterpillars. Caterpillars in January??

There is a lot of work to be done: I haven't done any digging yet, the whole plot needs to be dug over and prepared, plus all the fruit needs pruning and weeding, not to mention finishing off the pond. Well if the forecast is to be believed we are due a dry spell at the end of the month and not before time - I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in now!