The Vegetable Patch

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Now bookbook has sadly left us, and stirred into action by @DobbleDobble, I think it’s time to start a general thread for those of us who try to grow edible produce, fruit, veg, herbs, to share successes, failures, questions and answers

Marking my place, I'll be back to read properly and comment. I'm starting my allotment this year so need lots of tips.

That's interesting @Lovemusic33 that you have had success without chitting. Think I'll experiment with that this year!

What a fab weekend of sunshine that was!
I managed to obtain woodchip so my whole plot got covered! Most of the raised beds now filled with cardboard, manure and soil.After 6 months clearing , building etc the plot is ready for veg and flowers massive sense of achievement .

Well done @DobbleDobble 👏🏻👏🏻 I'll use you as inspiration to spur me on!

@PoseyFlump

That's interesting *@Lovemusic33* that you have had success without chitting. Think I'll experiment with that this year!

Theyve got a strong urge to grow, if you think about how readily they chit at the bottom of your vegetable rack

Plus potato farmers don't have trays & trays of potatoes chitting, so I guess it makes sense.

I chit potatoes, mainly because I split seed potatoes so they need to dry out on the cut edges before planting anyway.

Speaking of potatoes, has anyone seen any sign of seed potatoes in Aldi?

Wow Dobble great work

Haven't seen any in Aldi @tizwozliz but have seen them in BnQ and Homebase. I normally plant smaller varieties but this year I went for a larger variety and decided against filling my veg patch with veg I don't particularly like to eat.

My squash, pumpkin and courgettes are coming along nicely. Tomatoes seem like they are racing with I don't know who and my aubergines, peppers and chillies are off to a really slow start. This happened last year and I never got any fruit from my aubergines. I had to buy seedlings in store. I may do that again this year as soon as they're available.

@tizwozliz

I chit potatoes, mainly because I split seed potatoes so they need to dry out on the cut edges before planting anyway.

Speaking of potatoes, has anyone seen any sign of seed potatoes in Aldi?

No, I usually get the Aldi ones; been keeping an eye out for weeks. Gave up in the end & bought some from Home Bargains - nowhere near as good but at least they weren't expensive if they don't crop well.

Thank you.I knew it would take a while to get it ready.
@MereDintofPandiculation it’s interesting as over the years everyone says to chit, but I was reading something by Alan Titchmarsh the other day and he says he has exactly same results with not chitting too. I think I’ll give it a go not chitting and see.Have you tried with a sweet potatoe at all?

My aubergines are thriving but peppers are a no-show ☹️. Second year running. Good seeds too, from Franchi. Hoping to buy some plants from Lidl, if they bring them in this year.
Does anyone know a good preventative treatment of plum trees against brown rot? Lost majority of crop last year 😢.
Heard that lime sulphur is used by organic farmers but haven't found any for sale.

Will go with no-chitting method 🤓 this year. All I have to do is clear the space of weeds and prepare the ground. Bonemeal is supposed to be good for root crops so will chuck some in.
Any other advice oh knowledgeable ones? Many thanks for all the wisdom shared here😍

I was late planting aubergine, couldn’t decide if they were worth growing or not but then decided to go with it, hopefully they will catch up. Trying to reduce the amount I’m growing in the greenhouse this year so have planted less tomatoes and have planted varieties that can go outside. I will plant mini munch cucumbers in the greenhouse as dd loves them.

Spent a hour driving around looking for pony poo yesterday, usually there’s loads for sale outside farms/houses but found nine yesterday 😬.

Opened my compost bin yesterday to find 2 mice looking at me, they are very cute but I don’t really want them in my compost bin, kind of guessed we had mice as I can smell them on one of my raised beds. The cat is obviously not doing his job.

I chit potatoes because it gives me something to stop me doing other things too early and regretting it when we get a frost etc.

Yesterday was a big day, moved the gooseberry bushes to their new permanent home in the veg garden. Put my first earlies in. Am growing a variety called Chieftain this year for first earlies. My autumn raspberries are shooting but no sign of the newly planted summer ones doing anything yet.

And seed sowing galore for tomatoes etc and transplanting my autumn sown foxgloves, sweet Williams, larkspur and honesty. Felt so invigorated!

I have grown my own veg for awhile but for second year running am struggling with bastard leather jackets again. So disheartening.

@DobbleDobble I'm trying sweet potatoes this year. Started on Sunday after watching some YouTube videos. No idea how sound this method is but I'm following:

Cut sweet potato in half and stand in an inch of water (I'm using a takeaway tray)

After a month slips should have grown which you carefully remove and put in a jar of water to develop roots. They can then be planted out about a month later and a few weeks after frosts. So now is a perfect time to start!

I saw lots of videos of people letting them trail across the ground but the vine starts to root wherever it touches and they were less productive. Then I found a video of an old boy who was growing them up a pole like beans and his potatoes were huge (and his sweet potatoes! )

Great news @PoseyFlump , you have done the research for me! I’ll start one this weekend

Fingers crossed for a decent summer now!

@PoseyFlump presumably it also works for white and purple sweet potatoes? I like both of those but don't get them very often.

This is the fruit of my labour so far this week for the veg patch. Seeds in the porch and the summer raspberries with half the supports in, gooseberries in their new position and row of first earlies in that bed with the spade on! What a glorious week.

I should think so @StyleDesperation I've never had purple sweet potatoes, do they stay purple after cooking? Purple coloured fruits have additional health benefits. I wonder if it's the same for purple veg. My purple carrot seeds said they stay purple. Now I'm going to have to find purple sweet potatoes

They do stay purple! They have a different texture, slightly drier and less sweet, closer to a potato. They make good wedges. I think the white ones are the best but I've only had them once or twice!

Sweet potatoes are very good for you but I'm not keen on how sweet they are to eat as a potato (usually put in soups) so I'll try and find some purple! Sounds like they are antioxidant too according to what I found on google:

"Purple sweet potatoes have about three times more anthocyanins than the average blueberry."

Purple sweet potatoes have about three times more anthocyanins than the average blueberry." I wonder if that’s by volume or just a refection that the average sweet potato is more than three times the size of the average blueberry?

Lots of scientific papers on the internet on the deleterious effects of cooking on anthocyanins. Blueberries have a distinct advantage over sweet potatoes in that respect