I picked these today, some ready to eat now and a few to ripen on for later:

There are still two plum tomato plants growing, along with sweet Genovese basil, purple spicy basil and Greek pot basil from summer sowings. One is on its last legs (roots?) and the other is almost certainly going to make it to the end of November. We might get six or seven more fruits from them before they go, not bad at all.

I moved the cayenne chili plant in from the greenhouse about two weeks ago and it seems so much happier indoors, happy to the point of producing another 30 or so flowers. Potentially a lot more of the hot stuff on the way, so I’ve misted the open blooms with a tiny amount of warm water to help them make fruits. The two lemongrass plants came indoors at the same time, and they’re doing better too with lots of new green shoots.

There are also some new sowings: baby salad leaves, land cress, peas (for shoots), parsley, coriander, spinach and giant red mustard. Nice to have a few salady ingredients within easy reach to chuck into sandwiches and side salads.

I’ve scrubbed down and sterilised the mini-greenhouse, and it’s now home to a completely new set of sowings, including leaf beet, Arctic King and Tom Thumb lettuces, Italian chicory, White Lisbon spring onions, lamb’s lettuce, golden purslane, lots of rocket, dwarf kale and more herbs. Will be interesting to see which ones grow the best.

Outside in the garden at the moment there are: Shimonita onions/leeks, spring cabbage, curly kale, mustard greens, mizuna, sorrel, the last few carrots, purple and white sprouting broccoli, and a couple of Brussels sprout plants. On the herb front we have the hardier plants such as sage, thyme, rosemary and chives, plus some surviving mint, chervil and oregano.

If I have time this week then there are a few more bits of preparation for the winter that need doing, mainly sowing some pak choi and a few other oriental leaves, tidying the beds up, sowing green manures and washing out any remaining empty planters.

Are you still getting crops from your summer sowings? Have you planted anything for the winter or early spring this year? Please let me know how you’re getting on, or what varieties you’ve had lots of luck with.

Meanwhile, back on the windowsill, the not-so-dwarf beans are about to burst into flower. And they’re too tall to go into the greehouse, so maybe I’ll have to put them out in a bigger pot on the back doorstep soon.

Here’s the alfalfa, nearly ready to eat. Maybe needs a couple more days. I suspect that this will be a lifesaver in the winter when not much else will grow – it’s quick and it’s healthy, it’s easy to grow (just rinse daily and drain) and it costs pence. OK, maybe it’s not what everyone would call gourmet, but it’s good for a bit of variety.

We’ve had a couple of home-grown salads in the last week. One was a gorgeous mix of pea shoots, baby lettuce and radish microgreens. The pea shoots are re-growing already:

Last week I also learned that some cheap brands of dried peas can be used for pea shoots, including ‘Leo’ brand. They’re 26p a packet in Asda at the moment, or 27p in Tesco, if your local one stocks that type. When I finally get my hands on some I’ll be growing them by the trayful.

The lettuce is supposed to be a ‘cut and come again’ Salad Bowl, but I have my doubts about its ability to regenerate. Seriously, look at the state of it:

We didn’t eat all the radish sprouts – here’s what’s left of the first big batch. They were delicious. Greenhouse or not, I think these, along with cress, pea shoots and herbs, will always have a home on the widowsill.

The land cress, spinach and rocket experiment is not doing much at all. Fingers crossed that at least the rocket will grow this week – it’s like a weed outdoors.

Those spring onions have got their act together now:

Some of the many tomato plants:

I think I’ll grow a couple of them indoors anyway, in case of blight. And finally, the cucumber plant seems set to make an escape bid. Either that or it’s doing an impression of Dustin Hoffman at the end of The Graduate. Not sure which.

Are you growing your own food this year? Do you have any success stories?

My other new addition is some closely-sown radish seeds to try growing them as microgreens:

The pot that was new last week is doing OK now – spinach at top left, rocket top right, land cress at the bottom:

Those Salad Bowl lettuces have revived after their recent strop:

While the spring onions have improved, I think they take too long to grow and probably use up too much space that could be given over to faster or more expensive crops.

My crazy beans got even crazier. I’m going to have to cut one of them back:

Cucumber plants doing really well:

The biggest chore of the weekend was pricking out all the tomato plants and potting them up. They all germinated, all grew OK, and all seem to be fine in their new pots. Which, I think, is rather unusual. Here are eight of the 32 surviving plants:

Something tells me I might have a few tomato plants to give away next month. Just a few…

Thinking about sowing anything, or buying some seedlings? What’s growing itself silly on your windowsill this week?

Here’s how it’s getting on:

First, here’s the pea shoots about 13 days after I cut the first set off (delicious, by the way). I had to throw out a couple of peas that’d gone bad, but nearly all the remaining peas have sent up a new shoot.  Some sprout from the cut stems, others grow out of the pea itself. They should be ready to cut again before the weekend, and I hope they taste as good as the last lot. Read somewhere that you can get up to three crops out of one set of peas…

Next up, the cress. No need to mess about with cotton wool, just pop a folded-over bit of kitchen paper in a novelty eggcup, sprinkle with water and seeds and away you go. The double egg cup means you can have one lot ready and another lot sprouting at the same time.

And you can’t have cress without a bit of mustard… The seed collection I bought last month had mustard greens seeds in it – I’m sprouting a few here that seem to be enjoying the party. Will thin a few out to eat with the cress in a salad, and maybe keep some of the others to grow to full size outdoors in a pot. They make gorgeous curry.

My parsley has gone mad. It’s what I’d call ‘leggy’, which is fine for a ballet dancer but not a good thing for a plant, and it probably needs some more light and nutrients. The orange bobbles are granules of slow release plant food I found in the shed. At some point very soon I will have to write about how it went from being The Shed Of Doom to The Shed That Keeps On Giving, but not today.

The chilli seeds sprouted, and I kept the biggest, toughest looking one to grow on. It’s just thinking about stretching out its first pair of true leaves. Thinking about it, not quite doing it.

The spicy baby salad leaves are still doing the square root of eff all, so I’ll give them a dose of plant food tomorrow and hope for the best. Meanwhile, the mint and the purple basil are finally making an effort. That effort is so tiny you might miss it, but credit where credit’s due and all that…

That’s it from the windowsill this week. Next week there might be some new varieties growing away on there – I’ve found a couple of packets of bargain seeds on eBay and it’s time to break out the spare propagator. 

What have you been growing?