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

catching up with the posts, seems that June is whizzing past and everything popping up faster.I’ve got ants in my raised beds but I figure they feed on the greenfly so not terrible.Ladybirds a plenty too.
Because it’s my first year with an allotment again after many years I’m leaving the creatures to see if they help.I had more trouble with the pigeons attacking my peas, I had to re net them.
strawberies at home coming thick and fast now so I’m going to put the runners in old recycle bins at the lot, so they are a bit more controlled.
happy gardening everyone 😊

@Barrawarra no idea on plum tree diseases I've recently been looking into what might be causing our individual branches on one of our cherry trees to die. One of the websites I looked at has a plum tree diseases page that looks pretty comprehensive www.gardenfocused.co.uk/fruitarticles/plums/pest-disease.php .

For identifying the tree, again no idea but have you tried putting some photos into the app PlantNet? I find it pretty good at identifying other types of plant, it gives multiple options ranked by their % match. I never used it on fruit trees though.

The warmer weather has certainly given everything a boost - we have peas forming, a few cherries ripening that the birds haven't got to yet; tonnes of gooseberries & loganberries, a newly planted strawberry bed (lots of foliage, not a lot of fruit yet), blueberries, a self-seeded raspberry cane, beans & radicchio & chilli's indoors.

@GalactatingGoddess we have blueberries in pots which do really well - we weed & top up the soil each year, prune & feed & they do well.
We have a self-seeded raspberry cane (it just appeared one year in an empty pot, so I let it grow to see what would happen) it grows ok, but can be a bit floppy & the fruit probably isn't as good as proper cane stock.
We have gooseberries & loganberries in the ground - they do fantastically but the loganberry does wander - if it's branches touch the ground it roots!
Last year I tried growing a thornless dwarf blackberry in hanging baskets & a pot (variety said it could be used in both baskets & pots) - it has been a disaster! They've either got to hot & withered, or been attacked by pests - here is the one in the pot. Last year it had a decent amount of foliage but it's all died away. The ones in hanging baskets aren't any better. I think any of blackberry family prefer the open ground.

Excited to announce that despite the best efforts of the caterpillars, I harvested my first cauliflower yesterday. Never grown them before.
Looks like we'll be eating a lot of cauliflower this year because there's about 18 of them!

Well done! Never been able to grow cauliflowers.

My blackcurrants are starting to ripen, I picked a few today to stop the birds eating them, hopefully I will have enough to make a few jars of jam.

picked my first purple dwarf bean (yes, just one lonely bean) and have dug up my first early potatoes which I grew in flexi tubs, I now have empty tubs, wondering what I can plant for a quick last minute crop?

I'm wishing all my fellow allotmenteers a bumper crop this year as someone who got their plot too late to have a bumper anything. I'm hoping they will take pity on me and shower me with veggie gifts

I've just picked our first bowlful of loganberries & the gooseberries are nearly ready too - I think I'll be making jam in the next few weeks.
Unfortunately after seeing so many nearly ripe cherries on the tree; overnight the bloody birds have been at them & now there are practically none. So another disappointment from the cherry tree

Same here re the cherries. We have quite a young cherry tree and dh very proudly pointed out the cherries on it last week. Not one left the next day 🙄

All the young fig buds have gone too.

I've got blackcurrants under a net and planning to do the same with gooseberries as something ate all the fruit off one (small) bush last year.

It's so disappointing isn't it @StrawberryPot? It's not like you can net a whole tree & ours isn't that big (we prune to keep it smaller) but we were quietly hopeful this year as there were so many cherries. Sigh.

Nothing seems to want our gooseberries! I'd happily sacrifice them for the cherries, but clearly our local bird population has different tastes!

Our fig tree is tiny, but has got lots of leaves this year - no flower buds though.

What does everyone do with all their gooseberries??

Our strawberries are going great guns this year. Something very strange has happened to one of the raspberry plants though....diagnoses welcome (other than - it's clearly buggered!)

We've lost most of our cherries to pigeons too. It wasn't going to be a bumper year but there were a fair few. The tree is 20 years old, we have had two bumper years so far (2015 and 2020) when we have had so many cherries we haven't known what to do with them.

Strawberries are just about finished here,I have had enough for 6 jars of jam as well as some for eating. That's after two years of failed crops.

@BulliedBySlugs I make jam with the gooseberries - either on their own or mixed with other fruits to cut the acidity.

My OH got an ice cream maker for his birthday and I've found a frozen yoghurt recipe with elderflower and gooseberry to try out.

I would love the recipe. I have a ice cream maker too. Elderflower is coming to a end here but I maybe able to find some 😁

I might make ice cream with so e blackcurrant too.

I think the recipe uses elderflower syrup so you could use cordial. I think I saw it in the book that came with the machine so I'll have to dig it out.

I now have empty tubs, wondering what I can plant for a quick last minute crop? Good time for planting things like chard and purple sprouting for the winter and early spring. Japanese veg are mainly short day, need to be planted after the solstice. Radishes are a useful catch crop, though I’ve never managed them in tubs.

Our fig tree is tiny, but has got lots of leaves this year - no flower buds though. For those that are new to fig growing, the flowers are internal, so all you-see is what looks like baby fruits

Oh really? This is my fig - got it last year, it didn't do much last year, a few leaves & nothing else. Have moved it to a sunnier position on the patio & it's got a lot more leaves now.
@MereDintofPandiculation is this pinky spike more leaves or a fruit?

APurple - that looks like a leaf/stalk to me. Fruit looks like tiny peas.

Ok thanks - I'll keep an eye out for tiny peas. I'm just glad it's doing better this year.

@BulliedBySlugs I do a German gooseberry meringue cake. I use a recipe in Germam, but along the lines of this one bosskitchen.com/swiss-gooseberry-cake-with-meringue-topping/ . The meringue balances out the gooseberry tartness enough my DC love it too, and with 500-600g per cake it uses up a reasonable amount.

I also do a gooseberry flapjack, where you cook the gooseberries down to make a fruit puree that sits between 2 layers of oats. I use this recipe www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/g/gooseberry-and-pecanoatbars.html .

The rest I freeze, and mostly end up eating with porridge over the year. Gooseberry ice cream sounds good though.

Oooooooh lovely! Thanks everyone for your gooseberry recipes

It was actually a BBC recipe I'd seen, I might try it this weekend if gooseberries are ready

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/gooseberry-elderflower-yogurt-ice