Musical Gardening

Have you ever tried singing 'La Bamba' to a chilli plant?  If you haven't you really should.  Not only will it provide amusement while you try to mumble the Spanish words and then replace them with English ones but it will make your chillies grow.  I kid you not.  After two weeks of staring at small pots of just compost I asked Twitter why my chilli seeds weren't doing anything.  I got lots of sensible replies telling me that chillies take a while to germinate and the like but then Pauline suggested I try singing a samba or something more suited to a chilli.  You see, I'd stupidly been serenading all of my seedlings with  'Reach for the sun, grow into lovely flowers' to the tune of S Club 7's 'Reach' (as you do) and Pauline said that maybe the chillies would like something different.  So that night I sang 'La Bamba' to the chillies (with some lyrics that included the words 'hissy feet' and 'piece of care' because I don't know the actual words) and sure enough the next morning I had two tiny chilli shoots peeping through the soil.  Result!

I then went on to sing to my other pots and trays of compost :

• To the sweet peas : 'Sweet peas are made of peas, come on seeds just be sweet peas' to the tune of  Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)'

• To the lobelia : 'Lobelia, you're growing some leaves, you're going to be pretty flowers' to the tune of Paul Simon's 'Cecilia'

• To the marigolds : 'Mari-GOLDS, golds, always believe in your soil, you've got the power to grow' to the tune of Spandau Ballet's 'Gold'

• To the basil and chives : 'Basil and chives, basil and chives, chives chives' to the theme tune of Blankety Blank

So anyway, yes, I now have lots of seedlings and I can't help but thinking that my singing has helped.

But seriously, if you are having trouble getting your chillies to sprout can I suggest that you put them somewhere warm?  I read on t'internet that ideal places are an airing cupboard or on top of a boiler.  I put my second batch, covered in cling film, up on top of the boiler on Sunday night and now this morning I have four little seedlings.  Top chilli tip, there!

I just went around with my iPhone and took some quick pictures to show you what's growing.  Up at the top of the post are some morning glory that one of my lovely bead customers, Mandee, kindly sent me from her garden.  They are growing like mad things (I don't need to sing to these at all - maybe they're growing fast so that they won't have to endure my face shoved in their leaves crooning at them) and they're going to be a gorgeous purple colour.  I've already identified the perfect place for them in the garden when it's time to move them outside.

Then we have some marigolds and yes, those are indeed Tesco mushroom trays.  I have started looking at food packaging in a whole new light since I started this seed growing malarkey :

Here's a little chilli :

And here are 'Basil & Chives' :

Chris pointed out that 'Basil & Chives' sound like they could have been the herby detective rivals of the ITV crime-fighting powerhouse that were Rosemary & Thyme.

I'm expecting a delivery of seeds  this week - some parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (and yes, I will be singing Simon & Garfunkel's 'Scarborough Fair' to them) along with a blueberry bush.  Exciting!

There's not a lot happening bulb-wise.  My snowdrops and crocuses are there but they haven't flowered and I'm a tad miffed because I keep seeing them in bloom all over the place.  Obviously mine are a bit lazy.  I have got lots of green leaves in the daffodil department, though, so hopefully they'll be on track.

That just about concludes my little gardening update.  I'm off out to the shed now to make beads.  I wonder if I could plant myself a bead tree .....