I'm doing my best to. It's a one-way street though: I just had to go out with a torch looking for my slipper, which she must have popped through the back door to steal while I wasn't looking. For once she hasn't chewed it up, so maybe she's learning 😊

A vixen pauses on a sunny morning to feed all 6 of her kits. She is resident in the community garden behind my house, and paraded them around me in an arc before pausing to show them off. I sat on the ground to take a photo and enjoy the moment. Shortly after, they were startled by a petrol-powered strimmer in an adjoining garden, and they scarpered back to the den, a couple jumping over my feet as they jostled to get to safety.

Surely this is worth #FoxOfTheDay ?

Ah, Marigolds - one of the jobs I completely forgot 🤦

Those are looking great though! I think you've caught up with me. I was away last week, so they got no sun at all, and a couple of crazy uns have further shaded the Testarossas out (Green Trinidad seems particularly rampant).

Repotting today...

Yeah, same. Forecast says 3° tonight - the nights of staying outside seem a long way off! And I really need the aphid eaters to start getting to work. Last year I got lucky with the parasitic wasps, but they're a no-show this year, so I'm waiting on the ladybirds and hoverflies.

Those salsas look entirely perfect 😗👌

Problems 😀🤔

A larval hoverfly lifts an aphid clean off my chilli plant before sucking it dry in the way that only aphids deserve. I'm kidding though, some people deserve that also.

Careful where you blast - I was knocking aphids off the chillies when I saw this hero. Not sure what to do now 🤷

I love a random variety! My mum, less so 😂 But yeah, once they start fruiting I'll know, danger is by then they might be too big to fit in the 🚗

I've posted a lot out over the past couple of years. It can be pricey, but has always been successful. Last year I experimented with bare root posting, which worked well and was cheap, especially with smaller plants. Not sure how they'd fare now that Royal Mail only bother to deliver once a week 😠

A 250ml bottle of home-made hot sauce, on my desk. The label reads, "A hot sauce containing 7-pot brain strain", and features a stylised illustration of a man with the top of his cranium removed to reveal a 'brain-strain' chilli where his brain should be.

I'm unusually pleased with this one. The Brain Strain (I'm 99% sure that's what it is) has all the naga flavour I'm looking for, and I've chanced on a good balance of heat and flavour. 🌶️🌱

My (medically heat-intolerant) mum asked for sweet habaneros. Randomly, almost every seedling succumbed to something or other. So I planted a second tray, half apricots, half brain strain. Then my kid knocked them off the table. Scooped up the mess, then they all germinated. But which is which?! 🧊🔥

I need more visitors like this. I've got friends keen on taking plants, but obviously, the ones that suit them are the ones that didn't do well.

Great pepper. Possibly baccatum though. Definitely want to try this, but I've not got any this year, and I've definitely not got room for more plants. Wonder if it would work with aji amarillo?

Yes, I've never got on well with coir. A couple of people have recommended it, but it's a long way down my list of options. Peat is also off the table for me, so I really need to experiment. Trouble is, whenever I do, I'm too soft to throw out the seedlings so I end up inundated 😄

To be clear, this is a terrible idea, and you should be ashamed for promoting it. You are removing the plant's ability to produce the sugars that it needs to power its growth.

I'm assuming from the replies that @gardeningfriend21.bsky.social is a just bot, but I'll add weight to your reply (as has @lee-in-iowa.bsky.social, unsurprisingly 🙌) - it is ridiculous to remove healthy leaves from a young plant in this way.

Three frames of a vixen in the community garden, approaching and taking an "edible coffee cup" that was left on a trolley. This is good, because she really seems to like them, whereas I tend to favour toast or something like that.

Meanwhile, in the community garden, the edible cups are going down a treat. 🌱 #ukGardening

😂

Then I popped out half of the modules, and it had to upgrade its lunch, and the easiest way to do that was to strip off the leaves.

Every day is a school day with modern composts!

This is probably a cutworm, likely 𝑁𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑏𝑎. It seems improbable that it would launch itself at the modules on one of the few sunny days I've put them outside - they're nocturnal after all. So likely it was in the compost, eating the decaying woody matter and a few chilli roots.

A 'mystery' chilli, one of the more interesting to come from the mystery packet due to its almost black leaves. Sadly the leaves have been entirely eaten, leaving only the cotyledons. Will it survive? I don't know. But even if it does, it's taken a heckuva knock.

Another chilli cut to the bone. Spaghetti this time, which is a pain as I'd promised these to someone.

The culprit. I released her a way away. There but for the grace of god and all that. But it looks like a cutworm, Noctua pronuba, so I hope the Gardening Gods grant some grace for my mercy.

And here she is. IDs would be good, if anyone is able. Because I'm still trying to piece together how she got in.

Another disaster in the modules, as it becomes evident that a caterpillar has climbed aboard during a 2-hour outing to the patio table, and then feasted overnight for the best part of a week. That's another bunch of plants gone. Not my year 🤷 But then it's not like I'm short of plants 😆🌶️🌱

A tiny, baby pepper pod, barely a centimetre long, forming on a 2026 chilli plant, variety unknown (but species surely annuum). in the background, blurred, are a bunch of less advanced chilli seedlings, and the blue gloves of my beloved as she roots around among the general detritus of an overwintered grow tent.

Too early? 🌶️🌱

Your habs are catching up fast, given how early I started mine 🥳 Surprising vitality in the Testarossa Orange, eh? I expected them to be a bit needy, but both yours and mine seem to be showing their peers the way forward.

That's an order of magnitude better than anything I've achieved. Great work!

A 77-cell module of mixed chilli seedlings sits atop a weighing scale, which shows 4.126kg

I haven't watered these modules in 2 weeks and they still weigh over 4kg. But it's a temporary set-back - I'll pot on, and bigger plants will suck up excess moisture rather than succumb to it. And tbf, the plants might not like the sodden mess, but the sciarid flies are having their best year ever 😂

Next year it's either Sinclair or something inert. This year I was led by price and options, because I wanted to buy a mixed pallet to help with the clay on the plot. Figured it'd work out fine if I was careful. Either it wasn't fine, or I wasn't sufficiently careful 🤔

I use both, but I'm increasingly thinking I don't use enough. Sludgification of this new compost batch feels like a wake up call. Water retention seems small by comparison to the clag. Wondering what to try next year. Any thoughts?

Me too. They come with a tray that has inserts to raise them off the bottom. But I don't use that, because I never used to need it. Clearly I should 🤦

Two chilli plants of the same variety (C. Pubescens, Mini Olive) The camera fails to pick this up under artificial light, but the one on the left is going yellow. It has also shed leaves, and looks a lot less healthy than the one on the right.

The same two plants a couple of weeks later. The sickly one has been moved into a vermiculite-rich compost, an has overtaken its stronger sibling. The one in the regular compost is now turning yellow, dropping leaves and struggling to put on new growth.

I messed this up by having the flags reversed on these pics - sorry. But basically, the plant on the left was in a worse state than the one on the right, as its compost sludgified.. Then I potted it on into a vermiculite-rich mixture, and now it's winning.

Chilli roots really need air.

🌶️🌱

Drizzle of pizza crust 😗👌