Garden Studios

They make great patio plants throughout the summer and once the elements turns you may keep them on your kitchen along with your windowsill herbs.

Late February and early March is the appropriate time to sow chilli seeds indoors, and are available the summer you could possibly compare your plants with those on the increasing collection of chilli festivals within the UK.

This week RHS Garden Rosemoor has announced it should hold its first Devon Chilli Fiesta from May 10 to 11, with chilli experts accessible and chilli-based food, from chocolate to chutney, that you can buy.

Other chilli festivals include The Lakes Chilli Festival on August 2&3 at Dalemain House and Garden in Penrith, Cumbria, where you will discover snowdrops and aconites in the intervening time.

West Dean Chilli Festival, near Chichester in West Sussex, is on August 8-10, and the gardens are open to the general public now. Redevelopment work at the Spring Garden has just been finished.

Benington Lordship Gardens, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, has its family event Chilli Festival on August 24&25, and its famous snowdrop special opening ends on Sunday (March 2).

And Scone Palace, in Perth, will host the Awesome Scottish Braves Harvest Chilli Festival on September 20&21, although which you can visit the grounds for gratis in the meanwhile until March 31.

Plant hunter David Douglas was born inside the village of Scone in 1799 and was a gardener on the palace before going off to find the Douglas Fir, that you can now see among giant redwoods and Noble firs within the Pinetum.

As for growing your individual chilli pepper, it couldn’t be easier: all of the seed companies offer chillies of varying intensity, so choose a couple of that fit you best then fill large pots with seed compost (one for every variety).

Next, water the compost in order that it’s ready for the seeds, which can be sufficiently big that allows you to space out, an inch or 2cms apart, so there are a dozen or so in each pot.

Cover with a half an inch or 1cm of compost and firm down, then label each pot so that you know what you’re growing.

Put the pots on a sunny windowsill or in a heated propagator, and once the seedlings produce a number of true leaves (rather then the initial seed leaves) you may gently lift each plant into individual compost-filled small pots.

The best solution to do that is to carry onto a seedling leaf – not the stem in case it breaks – and use a small dibber or pencil to ease the plant out of the large pot and into the small one.

About four to 6 weeks later the seedlings would be large enough to transfer to their final pots – although be sure you hold it by a leaf – then you definately can pinch out the growing point in order that the side shoots become bushier.

Once all risk of frost is over one can put out the pots in sheltered positions on your garden until the tip of summer.

The chillies themselves may be able to eat from in regards to the end of August, looking on how much sunshine they see – otherwise you can grow them in a greenhouse or conservatory for you to speed things up.

Even in case you bring the plant inside, though, you are able to leave the chillies at the plant for several weeks until you will need them for cooking up something hot and spicy.