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

I have a pear tree that just looks like a twig, I bought it last year and thought it was dead but in the last week it has grown a few leaf’s 😬, I think I will be dead by the time it fruits.

I’ve never had much success with cauliflowers, grew some 2 years ago and they took up loads of space and only produced 2 cauliflowers which I could fit in the palm of my hand. I have had more luck with broccoli but got fed up with fighting of pests so I don’t bother anymore. This year I have gone for things that won’t be eaten by caterpillars or slugs.

This year I have gone for things that won’t be eaten by caterpillars or slugs. Oh, do let us know what they are!

@Diversion - whenever I've tried cauliflower it's always bolted and when I looked into it I think it was a combination of hot summers and the raised beds as soil temp is higher in raised beds which is what prompts the bolting.

@MereDintofPandiculation

This year I have gone for things that won’t be eaten by caterpillars or slugs. Oh, do let us know what they are!

I have planted more fruit (luckily I keep the birds well fed and they don’t touch my fruit).

Will be planting runner beans (my favourite) and 2 varieties of French beans (yellow and purple), pea’s, courgette, pak Choi (for some reason nothing ate this last year).

Tomatoes and cucumbers will be grown in the greenhouse.

Potatoes and carrots in flexi tubs.

Staying away from cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage but will attempt some lettuce in a raised bed.

I don’t like using slug pellets as we have hedgehogs and mice. I am hoping I won’t need to net anything this year, hopefully all pretty low maintenance. Last year was awful and I lost tomatoes to blight, broad beans to black fly and carrots to carrot fly 😬. Any cabbage gets attacked by cabbage whites.

Slug pellets are banned from today. Last year was monstrous for slugs, I've never known anything like it. The lawns, the paths, everywhere covered every evening!

The on and off snow here is very weird and I'm getting nervous about the low overnight temps and my fruit blossom, especially the quince, which is not out yet but last week's warm weather gave it big ideas! I might try wrapping some fleece around it.

In better news my seedlings seem happy, including the cucumbers which I've never grown before.

@StyleDesperation - we mainly grow in raised beds. We had good luck with added copper bands around the top as stopping slugs.

The old school metaldehyde slug pellets are banned. They're the ones that are catastrophic to other wildlife. But ferric phosphate pellets are still widely available.

But my good slug news is that my hedgehog is back! Spotted this week, a big fat boar. Hopefully he's keeping warm on these cold nights.

@StyleDesperation I've never had any problem with quince blossom getting late frosta or snowed on it seems to cope perfectly well with any weather except long dry spells in the spring which brings on powdery mildew.

Slugs ate the emerging shoots of my new Timperley Early rhubarb (budded piece). Do you think the plant will survive having its only shoots devoured? No sign of life above ground at all any more . Fulton's Strawberry Surprise is still growing strongly though which I'm thrilled about.

I cracked and sowed a few pumpkin and squash (indoors).

I have a sour cherry 🍒 and I believe it's called Stella, delivers bucketful of glorious fruit, I prefer sour ones to traditional sweet ones.
However, my Morello cherry, a 12 year old specimen, blossoms, fruits nicely and then drops the under ripe fruit. All of them. Every bloody year. End of my tether, have tried everything.
Why is my cherry not working properly?😳🤓

@Lovemusic33 Runner beans and French beans aren’t slugproof. They chew round the base and fall them. I have to keep mine in the greenhouse until they start flowering, by which time they've toughened up.

Peas and broad beans are better.

Growing lettuce inside from seeds, have replanted twice and still bursting out of the pots! Thinking of transferring to my raised bed, but it is a bit cold here, in fact snow today! What should I do? replant into the raised bed using a tunnel or fleece? Or something else?

Repotted my pumpkins , cucumbers and sweetcorn.very little life in my cherry or plum tomatoes.I thought they should have been 3 inch seedlings by now:-( melons doing well.Also repotted some echinacea into bigger pots.
Hoping to get to the lot tomorrow to sow spinach , lettuce etc . Loved catching up on everyone’s discussions and news, so helpful.

I bought my seed potatoes today, just doing Charlotte potatoes this year. Might start some other stuff off tomorrow but short on space inside this year so need to plan carefully

All my careful planning has gone out the window as it was all based on what I have at home but I've managed to erect 4 raised beds at the not so overgrown allotment and need new plans!

old vegetable seeds does anyone know if it's just germination that's a problem with old seeds? Like if you get them to germinate should they then grow fine thereafter?

I think so @PoseyFlump, you could try soaking them overnight then drying on kitchen towel to rehydrate them? Why did your plans change? Did it come together quicker than expected?

I've used old seed before - germination can be an issue so I tend to over-sow; but the plants are then fine afterwards.
Well today I've finally finished painting our fence - English Willow Garden Paint from Wickes - looks really good & now we can sort out reattaching the loganberry.

Yes @DobbleDobble the allotment was my venture but my DP has leapt onboard and loves the solitude of the plot so we've managed to crack on! I've got four beds 8 foot by 4 foot ready to fill and another one ready soon.

Thanks re the old seeds. I've got a few things from magazines etc that weren't suitable for my garden (like brussel sprouts) that are a couple of years out of date so worth sowing loads and having a go. I've no idea either about protecting veg against badgers etc! This first year will be a steep learning curve.

Yes deffo need netting with sprouts /brassicas and peas etc .
I had the same thinking about my plot and my other half has provided a lot more of the hard labour , which has surprised me!
The only pain I’ve found is the cost to fill the beds with manure an compost , but hopefully next year it will only need a top up.

Ditto @DobbleDobble! The only problem being that everyone keeps wandering over to chat and my other half isn't very good at winding up conversations and is desperate to crack on without being rude

Im hoping the same as you about the cost of raised beds. There isn't a lot of topsoil on the plot anyway. The story goes that a few years back someone stole topsoil off the abandoned plots! Ive funded my raised beds via birthday present requests

I've sewn various different ages of carrot seeds this year. The oldest seeds not as much germinated, and they also took longer to sprout. That meant that when I planted the first seedlings out today, that the seedlings from the oldest seeds were smaller, and I suspect their survival rate will therefore be lower.

That's interesting @CrabbyCat will you remember roughly which ones are which when they grow? It would be nice to compare the end carrots to see if they taste or look vastly different.

Our fruit trees were already starting to blossom and bud as it’s been so warm and sunny here. Now we have just had a huge dump of fresh snow and it’s still going! Are they all going to fail this year?

@Caspianberg

Our fruit trees were already starting to blossom and bud as it’s been so warm and sunny here. Now we have just had a huge dump of fresh snow and it’s still going! Are they all going to fail this year?

The snow won’t hurt them. It really depends on whether there are pollinating insects about during their flowering period.

@PoseyFlump they were 4 different varieties so I won't be able to make a clear comparison. I also have clay soil and get rubbish carrots anyway, I only grow them because the kids love pulling them and eating them raw.

However, it was such a clear trend of the 2 new packets sprouting first, then last year's a couple of days later and then the year befores after that. If I weren't trying to get the seedlings planted out before we go away for Easter I'd obviously have just let the smaller seedlings grow a bit longer before planting them out. The carrot seeds from the real seed company come with a warning they only keep one year, I think other seeds aren't as sensitive?

@CrabbyCat ah I see! And carrot seeds are really hard to collect yourself. I saw on real seeds how you have to leave them till the next year and they grow like 6 foot tall or something! I knew parsnips expire quickly but didn't realise carrots too. I like experiments so maybe I'll give it a go too.