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In the last few days as I’ve been coming in the front door I’ve started to see some signs of life in the 9 plant pots sitting out there. Well, some life that isn’t weeds or grass clumps. A lot of bulbs and things that we put in there last year, along with a smattering of crocus bulbs that we inherited, have all seemed to decide it’s time to have a look at the new year. Which, given that all the other plants died last year in our drought, is a bit of a relief.

So we thought we’d better actually give them a bit of room to be able to see, as well as actually get some sunlight! Out came the big scissors and the gloves (the neghbourhood cats seem to think that our pots are a great place to poo when they’re empty of plants – partly why we’ve let all the weeds and dead trees and things sit there) and we were off.

Kind of! I suspect that there will be a fair bit of desensitisation needed for someone judging by the squeals as a big worm came from somewhere if we’re to look after a 10 acre plot! Mind you, it was a very, very big worm! How it ended up in a pot on our doorstep, I’m not quite sure. But I left it there. Hope it’s happy!

Now we just have to keep them free of cats and weeds for the next few months until we can let them all go again for another year…

It’s almost time to say a final goodbye to this year’s chilli plants. After this last big harvest there are only a few last stragglers on one plant.  The others have gone to meet the dustman now. I guess there’s about 6 left on that plant that I’m determined will ripen, despite the lack of sunlight at the moment.  We’ll see. About a month until I plant the next lot of seeds though, I think.  Yay!

But aren’t they just one of the best looking vege things?!  I might give you aubergines as being slightly better looking, but only just.  And they’re yucky(ish) anyway.

One good thing about having to have the heating on (finally) is that they provide a great place to dry my chillis on! The ring of fire’s have dried really well, and will hopefully get us through the dry spell that’s coming up as the old plants finally finish up this year’s cropping and I’m still waiting to plant some new ones in about February.

But I can’t work out whether to leave them whole, crumble them into flakes, or try to powder them. I suspect that there could be a fair bit of irritation if I try to powder them, so I suspect they’ll end up as flakes…

Through a friend of a friend we managed to get a nice day out at Great Dixter gardens. There is a web site that tells you all about it here. A fantastic old house and formal gardens, and as it was closed for the season, there was just us and the gardening crew there.

Winter in gardens is an interesting time. You can see the structure of the garden without being distracted by all the pretty colours around. There was still a bit of colour around to look at too. And some great topriary. Must be quite a job to prune them all.

An unexpected highlight was watching a guy up a tree. That might not sound that exciting, but when they’re chopping down the tree that they happen to be up at the time, it’s more than interesting.

Sitting in front of the roaring fire in the 15th century solar after a nice luch was so cosy and nice. Almost sleep inducing.

Oh! And I have a new found respect for, and perhaps understand attraction to, Dashounds. They’re actually quite cute. And solid bloody dogs too! And I think the thing that surprised me most about them was just how fast they can get up stairs! In fact, I think they moved fastest when climbing them. Somewhat odd!

Now that we’ve seen it in winter, we’re definitelly going to have to go back to see it at it’s best in spring/summer.

And huge thanks to all the guys there for letting us wander around like we owned the place.

It’s been a while since I gave you an update on the chillis. I know you’ve been hanging out for one, so here it is.

Ever since we got back from our trip to the States the 2 Ring of Fire plants have just taken on a new lease of life. I’m not sure whether it’s just that they like the much cooler temperatures that we’ve had since then, or whether it was the site of the 2 Habenero plants on the way down the stairs to the rubbish bin. Or maybe it was just that they almost died when we were away, and just got a drink from our house-sitter just in time, and they’re trying to be extra good so it doesn’t happen again…

Whatever.

But they’ve now got more chillis on them than they’ve ever had before, and the ones that we’ve got off it lately have been the biggest, fattest yet. Yum, yum! And they have been fertilising themselves a lot more too. Hardly had to give them a shake at all! But there are now starting to be a lot less flowers appearing on them, so I think it’s almost end of season time. I could over winter them and keep them to see how that goes, but I suspect that they’ll be heading the way of the others when the last chilli is salvaged from them. (Good job they can’t see what I’ve been writing! They might sulk and just drop the lot now!)

But I’m already looking forward to next year’s crop. Got quite a few different varieties to try this year. If I can find the packets of seeds! I know they’re around somewhere. Just exactly where is the big question! (Bec says – I bet you’ve just had a “man look” for them. No wonder you can’t find them!!)

Almost time to start the seeds off, I guess. I’ll need to check back on this blog and see when I kicked things off last year… Nice having a memory that almost goes back a year for a change!

Well, it had to happen sometime.  One of the habenero chilli plants wasn’t looking too well.  It’s leaves were all dropping off slowly, and it just wasn’t looking happy.  So I harvested all the chillis off it and said a tearful goodbye to it.  And dumped it in the bin.

No great loss though.  I’ve got a huge stack of them in the freezer, waiting for me to think of something to use them all up in.  And the other habenero is still going strong too!

I’m starting to think about next years planting already.  Next year’s plan is for more varieties.  Yum!

Well, Megan, I found something other than a grumpy old man rant to post today (though that is still brewing, I think).

A while ago I thought the chilli plants had basically done their dash for the year. There seemed to be no more flowers appearing and so I suspected that once the chillis had all ripened on the plants they would have to be found, erm, another home in the big green bin (hope they don’t hear me say that!!)

But since we re-potted the smaller Ring of Fire plants into big new pots they’ve found a new lease of life, and started to flower again. The Habaneros still have lots of chillis, but no new flowers appearing.

All of this is still a bit of a mystery really. I’m still not sure just how long the plants are meant to flower for, how many chillis you get off a good plant, or how long the plants last. But I’ll take all the chillis I can get, while I can get them!

I know you can over-winter the plants, but I suspect they’d best be taking the dive to a better place and new ones started for next year. I’m looking forward to trying some of the other varieties I got at the chilli festival a bit earlier. I hope I have the same success with those as I’ve had with this year’s efforts!

Today was harvest day. Thought I’d better lighten the load on the plants by removing the ripe ones…  I think some will have to end up in the freezer, as I can’t see us using all of these in the next week!

Having heard that it was on, it just wouldn’t have been right to miss it! The 2006 West Dean Gardens chilli festival!

The gardens themselves are down south from London, just out of Chichester. So we had a nice train ride through some countryside for a change, and then a bus ride though narrow country lanes. Makes a change from the tube every day! Probably took us about 2 and a bit hours to get there, but not a bad trip.

So what was there? A lot of people, all enjoying chilli related activity, and a heap of stalls with all sorts of chilli stuff, of course! Lots of sauces, hot (temperature and spice) food, plants, crockery, tea towels, cards etc., bands and beer and cider… And a lot of plants and seeds to buy. Managed to avoid buying too much though. Only came away with a lot of seeds for next year.

It was also nice to wander around the normal gardens though. There were massive vege gardens, glasshouses etc. to look as well as all the chillis. But it was all soooo dry! Brown bits of lawn, empty pools and ponds. All a bit sad, but not surprising given the extremely dry and hot summer!

Really nice sunny day out in the country. Good fun.

And here they are! Ripe and ready for the eating!

We’ve had one of the Habeneros with our nachos the other night… Nice and hot! But too hot just to chew on!

But what I’m really looking forward to is the chillli festival this weekend! I’ll let you know what that was like later!