Mmm Minty Fresh

Ooh that was tasty. The small mint (spearmint) plant is already looking a bit bare as last night we used a handful of leaves to make some mint tea and tonight added some to ice cream and a sprinkling of chocolate (all vegan). 

Very refreshing. Maybe 'Desktop Kitchen Garden' would be a more appropriate title.

First Tulips in Bloom

Lovely! A few tulips really brighten up the place and there was not a single open flower in this pot yesterday. 

The other two types we bought are unlikely to flower for a few days yet, hopefully we'll have a steady stream.

This is more satisfying and hopefully longer lasting, than just buying the stems to put in a vase of water. Of course, in future years we'll be doing the whole thing and planting the bulbs ourselves.

Going to do something with mint tonight...

Tomatoes Progress and We Add Tulips

We returned from another trip to the Garden Centre with 3 different types of Tulip. Not really an impulse buy (honest) we had decided we needed a few flowers to spread the joy around the apartment and you can't beat bright Tulips in early Spring.

Now the Tomato seeds are just about ready to be potted up. There's only 5 so I'll have to be extra careful. We may experiment with some upside-down plant holders for these, there's a few on the market now and, presumably, saves messing about with tying then to supporting dowels etc. Though I suppose they won't then technically be on the desktop but hanging above it!

First Tray of Rocket Seedlings

So here is a tray of 14 little Rocket plants that I've just 'pricked out'. Hope they all prosper, I've put the pots onto a tray of fine gravel to avoid waterlogging and increase humidity.

It was great to see that the Tomato seeds have just sprouted early this morning - too small to show in a picture yet.

I re-used the seed trays from the Rocket to plant a few Spinach seeds, they're quite big and easy to manage so I could easily pop one in the centre of each module.

Rocket, Tomato and Spinach - we will have Salad :)

Thyme for the Soup

Made cauliflower soup for lunch today, it's one of our favourites but for the first time I added a handful of fresh thyme from the desktop garden.

I'm not sure if I mentioned the thyme earlier, it's just the basic Thymus pre-grown from the garden centre. I've re-potted into a larger pot, it would probably last for many years in a sunny garden but we'll have to wait and see how it survives indoors.

Really must pot up those rocket seedlings, they're getting quite leggy already.

The Rocket Takes Off!

After only a couple of days the rocket seeds are already growing tall. Will need to pot up very soon.

As well as a few Tomato seeds we also planted some Japanese Basil (Shiso or Perilla) which we have grown successfully on a window sill in the past - looking forward to harvesting that in the Summer, it's delicious in Tempura :)

So the desktop is starting to fill up already. We realised we forgot to get labels to put in the pots, we need to get some soon before we lose track.

Making a Start

We cleared our desk which is 120 x 80 cms and placed in front of the big window which is West facing. There's plenty of light without much direct sunlight (but the sunsets are amazing!)

We already had some week-old supermarket chives and basil seen here in the mugs.

We bought a basic unheated windowsill propagator kit, a few plant pots and 4 packs of seeds: Tomatoes, Rocket, Lettuce and Spinach. I reckon the rocket and spinach should be quite straightforward but am less confident about the lettuce and especially growing tomatoes indoors.

We also have a bag of compost, peat-free of course. So here we go, green-fingers crossed!