Glow food

In Anna's year 2 (6-7 year old) classroom they're learning about go food, slow food and glow food. The go food is milk, potatoes, meat etc. Slow food is junk food. Glow food is fruit and vegetables.

This is great news because Anna is a bit reluctant with glow food - apart from coloured capsicums, that is, which are one of her most favourite foods.

I've been eating a lot of glow food myself, come to think of it. Our garden gives us salad year-round, although it's fairly peppery in winter. I love it with this locally grown and produced lime-infused olive oil, but the price of it makes me shudder!

With Anna's glow in mind I'm embarking on a new gardening venture with Dulce espana capsicum seeds. After scrutinising seed catalogues I think these are the closest things to very the long, pointed and incredibly sweet capsicums we've been buying at our Farmer's market (they're not available in winter, though).

I plan to nurture them more than any other capsicum plant I've ever had, most of which have barely got around to fruiting by the time autumn rolls around. This year they will be started early (today!), kept warm overnight, planted in unobscured, all-day sun, watered and fertilised (with compost and worm juice).

Today was the day, and I hunkered down and planted seed, having received my order from Kings Seeds last week. I'm growing double the number of seedlings this year, because a friend is doing me a big favour, and I plan to pay her back with seedlings for her summer garden.

I got these from Kings Seeds, but there a whole lot
more to be planted that we already had in stock.

A tip: to label newly planted seeds, I use scissors to cut a plastic milk carton into strips, write the name of the plant on it in permanent marker, and stick it in the soil. Free and durable.

Last week I sowed pea seeds directly into the garden: snap peas, peas for podding, and sweet peas. Now I'm checking daily for the first peeks of pea sprouts. I also built this growing frame for them. I've wanted to build one for years! I didn't mean it to be multicoloured, but that was the string we had lying round, and to have to buy something for it would have detracted from its coolness. Much as I wanted a nice earthy-toned garden twine...

Spot the domestic fowl on the rampage.

Later this week I'll write about my other favourite seed types: the best beans, best lettuces and best cucumbers! And a zucchini experiment, too.