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

It's fascinating to read how everyone's growing experience is so different and no one 'right' way. It supports that gardeners mantra of doing what works best in your garden!

Yes very interesting the differences. My autumn canes do spread a bit but always I a manageable area. My blackberries are a thornless cultivar which I grow as part of a fruiting hedge and they grow like billio but don't seem to spread like wild blackberries. This will be my first year growing summer raspberries so I'm keen to see how I get on.

My seedlings are doing well, all my cucumbers have just appeared and several of my new tomato seeds, I also sowed some old ones to use them up, no sign of those yet. One variety of chilli (lemon drop) is up but I'm waiting on the aubergines and sweet peppers still.

@MereDintofPandiculation re bilberries in the ground, we have strange soil here, chalk/clay mix, extremely fertile and pretty free draining. I've never tested my soil but my camellias and heathers are happy in the ground with the addition of ericaceous compost into the planting hole and an acid plant feed so I'm hoping I'll have similar success with the bilberries. Watch this space I guess.

Planted a horticult petite blueberry they other day. Supposed to stay small and hardy.

I’m considering a fruit bush hedge type thing. Any ideas of what would work best? It can be more of a boarder than hedge. It will be on a steep south facing alpine slope.

Was wondering compact variety raspberries and blackberry and redcurrants. Would you alternate or group? Or something else?

I can't say what's best but I planted a pack from Habitat Aid a couple of years ago. It's thornless blackberries, redcurrants, white currants, cobnut and gooseberry. Had masses of fruit from it last year and relatively easy to maintain.

@Caspianberg I find redcurrants are absolute birdfood so I wouldn't bother with them. You could try white currants instead.

Have a look and see if there are compact versions of tayberries, loganberries and the other raspberry-blackberry hybrid things. Also gooseberries, jostaberries.

I'd be inclined to include rose hips.

Standard hedging plant is blackthorn, but it depends on how much sloe gin you can drink.

Damson is traditional in hedges, usually allowed to grow as a small tree out of the top of the hedge.

Thanks. Our redcurrants seemed fine before, but they were just random ones in the garden planted years ago, and a friend ‘accidentally’ hacked them down when helping garden.
We don’t really eat those things much, and I don’t have lots of time to process everything. so I was hoping to plant berries Ds can just pick and eat straight off the hedge/ raw.
I will look at Tayberries though, I did see those somewhere recently

Ooh I wonder if I could grow a blackthorn in a pot to get my own sloes? I'm toying with a few other less common things, nothing wild but wondering about edamame and a curry leaf plant. Anyone had any joy with either of those?

Loving catching up on the berry debate.
I’ve got a loganberry and the fruits are superb but it’s very rampant ! I’ve had to lift it and put into a flexi tub which I’m going to take to the allotment I think and grow there .

I wonder if it's the varieties that are different or just the growing conditions?

My loganberry the canes get ridiculously long (5m plus) but I wouldn't described it as particularly prolific or the flavour as superb. They seem to go from underripe to overipe and hardening without pausing in the middle. I also have a boysenberry planted 4 odd years ago that still isn't doing much. My tayberry however clearly loves my garden, and grows lots of much more manageable 2-3m length canes with lots of fruits, which do taste superb.

Think I'll stick to strawberries

For your hedge, what about blackcurrants? You can get some now that are just sweet enough to eat off the bush (e.g. Big Ben), they grow quite tall, and in my garden at least, the birds don't go for them. We've just replaced the net, but the birds used to break into the fruit cage to get our red currants through a tiny hole so not sure about using them in a hedge....

The hedges round here also have crab apples in,
admittedly you can't eat them off the tree you can make lovely crab apple and chilli jam with, and they can help with pollinating garden domestic apple trees if you have any.

Blackberries, loganberries, Tay berries all spread by rooting at the tips of the branches. If you train them along a fence and keep the tips off the ground, they won’t spread.

I bought pinkcurrent last year, didn’t get any fruit but it’s looking hopeful for this year.
I have…

Blackcurrant
Red current
Pink current
Raspberry (autumn bliss)
Gooseberry
Blueberry

Most are 3+ years old and fruiting more each year. I would love a loganberry or honeyberry.

Not fruit/veg related, but thought you lot might appreciate this - I managed to get this little haul from Waitrose yesterday:
5x orchids
1x fig (houseplant)
1x bromeliad
1x tub of Tête-à-tête
1x anemone
All priced at 49p each!! Plus a bunch of Mothers Day flowers free, which gave perked up lovely now they're in a vase & water.

49p each! Well done bargain hunter @APurpleSquirrel 👏🏻

I keep getting told at the allotment to look at Lidl for fruit trees.

I just popped to Morrisons and came home with some raspberry plants (yellow and red) for £2 each, I would have bought more but there wasn’t any left. That had blackberry and redcurrant too.

I'm still hoping for Lidl to bring in the sweet pepper plants. They had a random selection of chilli peppers and chard but nothing else. Or I missed it.
Has anyone seen sweet peppers in Lidl this year?

I'm going to Lidl today in the hopes they have some citrus plants - will see what else is there.

Oooh yes @APurpleSquirrel let us know what they've got!

@APurpleSquirrel

I'm going to Lidl today in the hopes they have some citrus plants - will see what else is there.

Just been to my local Lidl and they had citrus plants (lemon and some kind of orange), I didn’t buy one as I’m struggling to keep the one I bought 2 years ago alive 😬, I have tried everything and have got no fruit.

On the theme of I have tried everything and have got no fruit, I have a non productive plum tree that has never fruited. It is on its last warning.

It's had beautiful blossom this year and was thrusting with bees on the sunny days, and I so was ready to fleece it from this cold snap. Only to discover that some fecker has pecked off all the blossom . It's all on the floor like sad confetti. Well it was, before the snow came down.

So, no plums for me this year again

But I do have a ton of other fruit, all the currants, loads of blue and pink berries, strawbs and rasps. And a wild thicket of loganberries which I prefer to tayberries as I find they store a bit better.

So Lidl did indeed have little citrus plants - a Calamondion Orange & Limequat - so I got the Limequat (have an orange already).
They also had bedding plants & bougainvillea outside; inside they had succulents, a few green houseplants (got myself a snakes tongue) & that was it.
No other fruit or veg plants I'm afraid.

@TheSpottedZebra we too have a fruit tree off which we've never had fruit - a Stella Cherry Tree. Every year it has tons of blossom, lots of pollinating insects - but some of birds do pick tear flowers off; those that survive & get to baby cherry size are swiftly eaten by the blackbirds before they even turn red. We've had the tree for probably 9 years, not one single cherry! I've given up & make do with the gluts from the gooseberries & loganberry, & admire the cherry blossom & the fact our leaf cutter bees love the cherry leaves for their nests, so end up with dozens of perfect circles cut out.

Oh no, Squirrel ! My tree is only small -it's a patio plum. Next door have a glorious plum tree that's smothered in blossom, whereas I'm left with a sad bundle of sticks! No fruit again this year either
I caught my culprits in the act this afternoon - tree sparrows. A few of them, having a grand old time bouncing and pecking

Could someone please help me grow a decent cauliflower? I love cauli but they always seem to bolt, we still eat it though. We are container/raised bed gardeners and use chicken manure pellets in the soil. We have tried compost, half and half compost and top soil and just topsoil but nothing seems to work. I just want a lovely firm cauliflower to make cauliflower cheese with.