Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 16 Weather weirdness prevails !

[bookbook]

Hello to everyone !
pull up a garden chair and join in with the trials and tribulations of growing your own , against the odds of weather , pests and diseases.
Previous thread is HERE

Afternoon!
well, it is bitter here , drizzling a blowing a fair stiff breeze . So much for August Bank Holiday .
tiz - supposed to be cold tonight!
Love - still time to sort out spring greens/spring cabbage , maybe some chinese salads/pak choi etc . I also pant out overwinter cauliflowers ,but the harvest is about March/April . I suspect you can get some seedlings/plug plants still . Mine are almost ready to plant out . Blueberry - as soon as my squashes are big enough , I tend to stand them on old kitchen/bathroom tiles to keep them off the soil . If going soft , better to get them used up - maybe cook and freeze?
It was just a picking day today . I had pulled up the sweet peas the other day , so dismantled their wigwam . Deadheaded all the other cutting flowers , and cut some dahlias for home . Picked the last few peas - these will need to be pulled up now too. Sweetcorn and a cabbage .
It is all looking very bedraggled and autumnal ...
But I did bring home next years seed catalogue , so can sit and enjoy looking through that and planning over the next few days , and sort my seed box out :)

That's even more impressive @MereDintofPandiculation. My friend has been trying to get her fig tree to produce fruit every summer and to no avail. You'd think she has a better chance as she's in the south east and (usually) has more sunshine.

The fruit that develop in late summer start as tiny flower buds in early spring, so heavy pruning in late winter might not be a good idea. Then during summer and autumn you get a second generation developing which in our climate won't persist over winter and will all fall off in spring.

Fruit develop on the ends of branches, so once the tree is a good size, pruning a few branches each year so that they sprout lots of new shoots seems to work.

I've no idea what the "approved" pruning regime is. I may be doing it all wrong

Small harvest today. First batch of spinach.

Afternoon all
they look delicious Rookie :)
I think I may have to pass on the figs if it takes 25 years Mere !
Had a couple of mornings at the plot - at least today it was warm and sunny .
More prep for winter veg , also dug out the row of peas and weeded around there .
Harvested more sweetcorn , lots of calabrese trying to flower ( and purple sprouting broccoli ! ) , and got given a red cabbage in exchange for 2 aubergines , and today a couple of courgettes . Everything is just toddling along now , just need to keep on top of the weeding :)

I think I may have to pass on the figs if it takes 25 years Mere It doesn't take 25 years! We've been having figs for that long - it's just that in the early days it was a few figs and we savoured each mouthful, now we regularly eat 2 or 3 for each meal.

What winter veg are you growing @bookbook? Those sweet corn look lush!

I don't know if anyone remembers but my tomato plant snapped during the days of very strong winds. I put it into a vase of water and almost a week later the leaves are still healthy and vibrant and the tomatoes have started ripening :))

Morning ! ( and a glorious one too! )
Mere - old lady brain fug there
Rookie - the things I am preparing to plant are I suppose technically overwintering veg , to take me through spring - when there is little else fresh - so spring greens , spring cabbage and cauliflowers . The things I will be harvesting over the winter period were put in a while ago - leeks/kale/cauliflowers/savoys/sprouts/purple sprouting broccoli/perennial spinach were planted up in late spring/early summer - its a constant juggling act to plant things in the places where they can be left in peace , whilst growing other stuff for summer , and deciding how much space you want to dedicate to each of them . I err on winter veg , as it is always when I feel I get the most value from my own freshly picked veg :) .

Glad the sunshine is back, even if it's still quite chilly. Starting to think about what to put where next year and how much extra space to steal from the garden.

Courgettes, blackberries and tomatoes coming along nicely. Chillis looking good too.

Quick (possibly stupid) question- I’ve just had an omelette with some of the ornamental chillies in it and they are quite hot and have a slightly fruity taste. Finished omelette and realised I’m not 100% sure they are edible! Are all chillies edible??

My mum offered me her fig tree but it’s huge and I have nowhere to put it, it is producing fruit unlike my small one (3 years old).

I have planted a few things in hope to get some winter crops but all will depend on the weather 🤣, I have empty beds so thought I would try a few things. Have planted carrots (these worked last year and I had Christmas crops), PSB, rocket and winter chard.

I still have mystery squash growing, they look like butternut but are white 🤔, I think they have cross pollinated with a ornamental variety so unsure if edible (theres 6 of them growing).

My lonely pumpkin is getting massive and has taken over my lawn.

Ornamental chillis should be fine to eat @Cathpot they might not have the best flavour but won't do any harm. I'm presuming you've grown from seed? If bought plants you don't necessarily know what they've been treated with.

I still have mystery squash growing, they look like butternut but are white 🤔, I think they have cross pollinated with a ornamental variety so unsure if edible (theres 6 of them growing). If their mother is edible, they'll be edible. The cross-pollination will affect only the seeds, so if you're in any doubt, don't grow next year's plant from the seeds, use the rest of the packet of seeds that you grew this year's plant from, or buy a new packet.

Afternoon !
Cath - bit late to reply , but I seem to think you can eat ornamental chillies , so hope you are okay .
Only a couple of quick trips to the plot - yesterday to cut the grass , and picked some raspberries . Today , a very quick fly in to pick some more sweetcorn . They are good this year !

@Lovemusic33 can you post a picture? I've got butternut squash growing that are white/cream, they're still quite small so am assuming they will go more yellow-orange when they've matured.

Everyone's veg is looking fab. Our sweetcorn has been amazing this year. Biggest cobs we've ever had!

First photo is the white butternut squash (if it is a butternut), 2nd is of the ornamental squash growing near it that may have cross pollenated?

The squashes are quite big and still growing, already the size of a butternut but skin doesn’t seem to be changing.

Thank you for reassuring chilli replies- yes grown from seeds so that’s all good. I like them actually- have a thicker crunchy wall than standard chillies. My - why don’t you get a fresh supermarket chilli and just use the seeds - crop grown from advice from this thread also nearly ready , so thanks to whoever suggested that!

This may be an extremely stupid question but what's an ornamental gourd? If it's inedible why grow it? (I'm guessing it must go off pretty quick so wouldn't last very long as an ornament? Or have I taken the name too literally?). Never heard of ornamental chillies either. So interesting. Are they just for growing for show like a flower plant?

Rookie I'm showing my age now but in the '70s people used to varnish them, arrange them in bowls or in a fire place and use them as ornaments.

Yes, they can used for display purposes. I’m not that keen on eating squash but love the look of them hens why I’m growing them, they look pretty and autumnal and make a great Halloween or harvest festival display.

@Lovemusic33 no definitely doesn't look like butternut. Mine definitely looks like a white butternut squash. If you press your nail into the skin does it make a dent? Ornamental gourds tend to grow extremely hard skins with little flesh inside, which is why they're no good for eating but keep very well for decorative purposes.

Do you know the variety of ornamental gourd you planted? My understanding is that squashes cross pollinate within a group. Butternut squash is C. moschata, so if your gourd is from another group, it's unlikely it's pollinated it, and in any case I think it's more likely that saved seed from this year's fruit would likely not come true rather than this year's fruit being affected?

Did you save your seed for the butternut or buy seeds? Squash don't reliably come true from seed because of the risk of cross pollination.

I bought a mixed pack of ornamental squash seeds from lidl and butternut squash seeds from somewhere else (online). The skin seems quite hard on them, I have 6 or 7 of them and then the one small round squash. I think we will end up carving them instead of pumpkins for Halloween 🤣.

Any chance the butternut squash didn't germinate and they're all plants from the mixed pack? Sorry no definitive answers!

@RestorationInsanity

Any chance the butternut squash didn't germinate and they're all plants from the mixed pack? Sorry no definitive answers!

It’s possible, I do have other butternut squash growing somewhere else but they are not doing great (only just flowered). I planted several seedlings in this area, possibly one butternut and 2 ornamental.