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

My cucumbers are getting quite big, and I'm not really sure how to support them. I tie them to a cane to start with, then they start putting out tendrils and clinging to everything in sight.

Basil is more a tropical herb, not a Mediterranean one. Likes it warm with plenty of moisture. You may be just a bit too early.

@deplorabelle Slugs don’t eat much in a single night (it’s quantity of slugs that causes the devastation), so they come back to the same plant the next night and the next. So if a slug hasn’t visited a plant, it probably won’t do so the next night either.

@deplorabelle I fancied doing hanging baskets last year, but didn't want the standard flowers that would die after a few months. Saw some dwarf thornless blackberries on T&M that said they're suitable for hanging baskets, so got three - two for hanging baskets & one for a pot. However I think they find our south-facing front too hot? & they've had aphids & just not happy (probably not helped by us forgetting to water them ) so have brought them round the back & rethinking. Tbh the one in the pot in the back garden isn't doing great either, so who knows.

Thanks @APurpleSquirrel and @Meredintofpandiculation 🙂. That makes sense about the slugs, but I have definitely lost plants more or less overnight so there must have been a lot of slugs there at the time...

Re basil I have some seedlings that aren't very happy as well, but I don't think I'm going to bother with them. I divided a 49p pot of lidl basil into four and took three cuttings which are all doing well. I keep meaning to plant Thai basil and Greek basil though (Greek more for ornamental reasons as it isn't that different from ordinary basil)

I planted out some dwarf French beans today as they were getting too tall in the greenhouse, night time temps here are around 10c so I’m hoping they will be ok. I just hope the slugs don’t get them but if they do I have back up planted.

I've direct sown some french beans and mange tout today.

Courgettes (three varieties, gold rush, black beauty & yellow scallion) sown (pots inside).

Onions have gone into a prepared bed, challenge now is to keep the pup off them.

Hopefully get round to preparing a space for the last of the seed potatoes tomorrow.

Contemplating starting some french beans off inside in pots too as backup, although very short on inside space this year.

It's been really dry here, so hoping the slugs won't be too abundant. We did at last have some rain last night so at least my water butt is full again.

I fenced round my peas with netting to protect them from rabbits, deer and my DC. They were planted out in March and are just starting to flower, which is making me hopeful there might start being some reward to the gardening effort. They seem to be coping well with the lack of rain, everything I've planted out more recently is struggling though.

On the less positive side, the sawflies have found my gooseberries so I've had to spray.

Productive day today - sown Zephyr courgettes, Goblin cucumbers, three types of basil, garlic chives & various sunflowers.
Put some supports up around the peas which we're growing in troughs this year.
Went to a local plant sale & got two strawberries, a Halloween pumpkin, mixed chillis, two borages, a sun gold tomato, a salvia, geranium & a Mexican hat plant all for £9.50.

My potatoes are starting to poke their heads out! Hurrah! We had a heavy downpour overnight on Friday night so hopefully that will have helped the soil.

Touch wood, everything that went in the ground last week looks to have taken well, though something has nibbled at my courgette a bit. I’ve put down some slug pellets so hopefully that will keep the critters at bay.

More mange tout and some rhubarb today

Repotted all my tomatoes and potted my tiny teeny aubgerine in hope I might get something from it 😂.

Pumpkins and courgettes seem to have taken well outside. Only time will tell with them. I also have lots of weed looking things but I wonder if they're seedlings that flew around my plot. I've never grown parsnips before and so wonder if it's that. Mumsnet still won't let me post pictures!

good catch up of everyone’s posts.
planted sweetcorn and butternut squash out.
my tomatoes are really not growing very fast at all :-( personally I think it’s down to peat free compost.Will have to research more for next year as it’s not been very good at all for veg .Is anybody else finding same?
move Strimmer and mowed the plot and the spare shed is housing broccoli/rhubarb which I will put out at the weekend.
already seeing some tweaks I can make for next year too.

My tomatoes have been poor this year too, they are still tiny, and I haven’t been able to grow many lettuce, I do think it’s due to the compost, some things are just not growing well in peat free 😞

Its been raining here all day today which is great as it’s been way too dry, my water butt is filling up nicely but now it’s looking pretty dry from tomorrow onwards.

My tomatoes are still small (but are in very tiny pots, I have so many of them that I couldn’t be bothered to pot them on) but are very vigorous and healthy looking. I am going to plant them out next week I think. Also sweetcorn and sunflowers. The greenhouse is getting crowded!

Finally got a decent bit of rain here yesterday, it’s been weeks and the soil dry as a bone.

but I have definitely lost plants more or less overnight so there must have been a lot of slugs there at the time... Either a lot of slugs, or one slug felling it. Sometimes they eat at soil level, so one day you have a healthy plant, the next you have a pile of limp leaves lying on the soil.

It’s interesting regarding peat free.I’ll deffo need to investigate and experiment next year.

I experimented last year with peat free for my tomatoes in the greenhouse . I grow 8 plants . 2 each of 4 different varieties . I used regular multi purpose for half , and peat free for the other half ( one variety in each medium ) . I could not see any difference in growth or crop .
This year , I sowed all my seeds in peat free ., with mixed results . Brassicas have all have been okay, , so have leeks , beetroot , tomatoes , aubergines , courgettes and squashes . I didn't get peppers , French beans or asters to germinate , and ended up mixing the peat free with seed compost for further sowings .
Last year I used RHS recommended peat free ( Melcourt ?) This year used cheap Wickes own .
But as always - the weather I think played a part . All my early sowings were fine in the nice weather we had , the later ones coincided with the colder nights

is anyone planting tomotoes, beans etc outside yet? The forecast isnt mentioning frost, but i put things in too early last year. Cant decide whether to hold off or not. I'm in the south

@dreamingofsun my tomatoes have been out for a week or so (in pots) and one even has a flower on it. 😊 I'm in london.

South of England here and I've been putting things out since the last couple of days of April (end of April is the last frost date for a lot of southern england so you should be fine unless very exposed on high ground)

Not me, I am south of England but in a frost spot, we often get them in late May (there are websites you can look up your last frost, ours is the end of May). None forecast though so I will plant out in the next week or so.

I'm leaving my tomatoes in the greenhouse for a little longer as it's really speeding up their (extremely slow growth). The heat has done wonders and they've almost doubled in size. Still tiny for where we are in the season but hopefully they catch up.

Has anyone ever done that thing where a whole tray of squash didn't germinate so you sowed loads more, which ALL germinated and now you've just noticed that the original tray of seeds you slung in the corner have now also decided to entirely germinate.... 😅

I wish the wind would blow off. I want to plant out!!

I put tomatoes out on Thurs before checking the forecast for wind. Yesterday covered them with a fleecy blanket and they seemed to survive it. Scotland here and I’m probably too early but they were looking leggy and not that happy indoors so went for it after a bit of hardening off. And forgetting to bring them in overnight.

gone for it, everything bar cucumbers is out on the allotment now. Fingers crossed the late frost of last year doesnt catch me out