The green shoots die off

Last month I planted some vegetables in pot noodle style tubs in my window sill. I did not have very high expectations that I would ever eat the produce grown like this, but I thought it was worth trying anyway. I got a very pleasant surprise at the start of this month, when I saw green shoots peeking out of the tub.

These small green shoots rapidly grew into large healthy plants and so last week I followed the instructions on the packet and separated each of the plants into their own pot so that they would have more growing room. It was immediately obvious that this was not a good idea because the plants never thrived in their new pots. At this stage they have completely died out.

In recent times the newspapers have started using headlines like "The green shoots of recovery have been spotted!" whenever the economic statistics look good. I hope the green shoots of Ireland's recovery will not suffer a similar fate to my vegetables.

The first green shoots appear

The Zucchini shoots

I wrote earlier about my attempt to grow vegetables in pot noodle type containers on my kitchen windows sill. At the time I held out some hope of being able to grow chives, but I was very sceptical about my chances of growing Zucchini in such a container.

The instructions say that the cover should be removed once the shoots start to appear above the soil, so every few days I have a look to check if this has happened. This morning, to my amazement I saw the Zucchini (Courgettes) beginning to appear.

There is still no sign of the Chives, but it is only a few weeks since I planted them so there is hope yet for some healthy home grown food.

Growing Vegtables in my windows sill

I have often heard of people growing herbs like chives and parsley etc. in their window sill, but on a recent visit to my local supermarket I was surprised to see that they were selling kits to allow people grow vegetables in their window sill.

I decided to purchase a pot that supposedly allows me to grow Courgettes (the local name for Zucchini). I must admit that I am sceptical about the chances of growing a large vegetable like this in my kitchen window, but the kit was cheap and so I thought that there was no harm in trying.

The kit looks surprisingly similar to a pot noodle container and the clear instructions on the side are equally easy to follow. The only problem is that while pot noodles are ready to consume after 3 minutes, the vegetables will probably take more than 3 months to grow. I will let you know later in the year how I get on.