My home-grown red onions.

This year I decided to do a spot of gardening. I'm not known for being that good at gardening - I struggle to keep ANY plants alive in my house.. And I have also never grown my own vegetables before. But after receiving some free red onion seeds in the post, I thought I'd give it a go.

Firstly, I planted my seeds into little trays and left them in the greenhouse to grow into seedlings. It was strange because I checked daily with no progress, but then suddenly - like over night - all of them popped up! I felt so proud that I actually managed to successfully grow something from scratch!

Then, once all the seedlings had popped up, they were ready for re-potting. I came up with the issue that I had no land that I could dig up to plant my seeds in... If I dug up a patch in my garden, they'd get dug straight back up again by my rascal of a dog. But I found some old plastic storage boxes, so decided to get to work on those. I got a wireless drill and drilled lots of little holes all over the bottoms of the boxes to allow water to drain out the bottom. I then filled them all up with compost. I watered the compost to make it moist. I then started pulling apart and untangling the seedlings. I placed them evenly spread out into the boxes. Then I had to play the waiting game.

Waiting for any onion-like things to start growing felt like forever. But once the first one appeared, again, it felt like they all followed suit, and soon enough I had 3 whole boxes full of little red onions! I was so proud of myself for not killing them all, which is what I expected would eventually happen.

Personally, I think home-grown red onions are much tastier than shop bought ones! Especially the ones I grow. ;) I made everyone try them and the verdict was pretty much the same. The countless amounts of times going up the garden to water them and waiting for them to grow was well worth it! I'd recommend anyone to give growing their own vegetables a go. I found it strangely relaxing and it helps clear your head, and also gives you something to look forward to. I definitely want to grow some more in the future, maybe something different... potatoes maybe? Not sure yet. :)

Herbs - update!

I told you that I'd let you all know when they start popping up, so here's the herb update!

I didn't even know that they had started growing! My mum came to my room telling me she has to take their lids off as one of them was pushing up against it. I had no idea, as about 3 days before she told me, I watered them and absolutely none of the pots had anything growing in them at all. They're growing so fast! Especially the coriander. They're not edible yet though, but even if they were I want to leave them until they get really big and full. So proud of myself for actually being able to grow something! Normally any plants I buy, that grow, die within the first 2 weeks.. So I guess this is a personal achievement, haha.

I'll give an update one these again when they're even bigger!

Discovering my green thumb!

Whilst doing the weekly shopping, with my mum and sister, I spotted these awesome things - Sutton's seeds "Grow Your Own" pots. (Click the photos to enlarge them). They were very cheap - just under £1 each - they're on special offer at the moment. They are pots that contain compost and the seeds to grown your own herbs and vegetables.

We bought 3 pots - parsley, coriander and chives. I've just been sat downstairs "sowing" the seeds. I've never grown my own plants before. I've always wanted to learn to do gardening properly.. I want to be able to grow some pretty flowers in our back garden - even though I know the dog will destroy them.. But I can't seem to even be able to keep plants that are already grown and potted alive for longer than 2 weeks! So this may be a challenge for me.

The pots are really easy to do! All you have to do is move the compost around to loosen it, take a bit of compost out, make a hole and sprinkle the seeds in. Then put the compost back in to cover the hole, push it down to compress it slightly, water it and shove the lid back on. And hey-presto, you've done it. Put them in a window sill and hope for the best. Normally my main problem is remembering to water them.. I'm not even sure how often I'm suppose to water them but oh well, haha!

Wish me luck! I'll take a couple of progress photos, as/if they start to grow! *fingers crossed they do*