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

@TheGander : thank you, I’ll buy some leek plug plants (and get onto catch up later!)

@PoseyFlump : I would say the blueberries all taste similar but big difference in size/number: my blue crop & Birgitta are bigger & better. I’ve also seen/tasted some Patriot berries recently (at the garden centre) and they are all tasty too, much much nicer than supermarkets

I think reasons for difference include: whether the plants really are self fertile or not (I have blue crop & Elliot together, Birgitta, duke & blue gold in another part of the garden all together), amount of sun, & just how healthy/vigorous that particular plant is

I can’t really detect much difference in taste of my plants (though I can in eg raspberries): if buying again I’d go for blue crop all the way

@CrabbyCat : re strawberries, I would suggest this year that you pick them slightly green

could you try to put a cut off bottle or similar around some if the clusters? I also wondered if the straw is getting wet & providing a slug hiding place? I think with slugs the best way is actually to pick them off by hand if you can bear it (wearing gloves obviously). I tend to dump them in a bucket then put them on pavement/road and let the birds at them …

… I find them more an issue in my lettuce than strawberries (which are in the next bed). Maybe you could distract the slugs with some tasty lettuce/nasturtium etc in your strawberry patch next year?

Clearly something about the combination of a warm autumn and a dry spring has confused everything. Sometimes the apparent confusion is because plants have different triggers, eg after a warm winter, those plants that are directly triggered by rising temperatures will be early, whereas others which want to be sure winter is over are triggered by having endured a certain period of cold, and they will if anything be late after a warm winter.

Great @BlooberryBiskits so blue crop for blueberries, Cambridge for strawberries. I'm writing this all down 👍

@PoseyFlump : I think my personal best tip on gardening is just to nip to Morrisons every few weeks & see what is there - the prices vs garden centres are v impressive to me :)

@BlooberryBiskits I might just start doing that! Although I've got this problem where if I go into a shop for a loaf of bread I always come out with £30 of stuff I don't need 😂

I harvested a loaf of not loganberries yesterday & made jam with them & some gooseberries. Unfortunately as the gooseberries were underripe I had to add a load more sugar But DD said it was the best jam she'd every had!

@APurpleSquirrel - that's encouraging. I harvested all our gooseberries last week when they were still a bit hard because last year the birds ate them all. I was working on the assumption that it wouldn't matter too much for jam!

@PoseyFlump for blueberries they fruit better if you have more than one variety. The tip I saw, but of course can't find now, was that actually all blueberries flower at the same time. What you can do is therefore get 2 or 3 varieties that fruit at different times, which will extend your season and reduce the chance that in a few years when the plants are bigger that you have a glut and also reduce the risk that poor weather at the wrong time ruins your harvest. Blue crop is mid season, Patriot for example would be an early season variety you could grow as well, or Chandler would be late season.

@StrawberryPot I have no trouble with birds taking my gooseberries at all, they are reasonably sweet ones (Hinnomaki red and possibly Invicta) and they don't get touched. However, they will take any chance to break into the fruit cage with redcurrants in, which are equally sharp!

@StrawberryPot yes I think I'm going to be working on a 2:1 sugar:gooseberry ratio for this batch. I harvested early because they were simultaneously being attacked by both sawfly & gooseberry beetles!
Will also likely do mixed jams - so loganberry or strawberry etc, with more of the sweeter fruits to balance out the tartness of the gooseberries.

Thanks @CrabbyCat so blueberries are a bit like strawberries with different times for different varieties so best to have a combination.

Does anyone have a recommendation for number of blueberry bushes and strawberry plants for say a family of four? Google says 30 to 50 strawberry plants for example.

I have about 10 strawberry plants, and the two of us have been having a small (about 10 stawberries apiece) bowl of strawberries for tea every night ever since they started cropping. So for 4 you might get away with 20.

@PoseyFlump: depends on how much space you have!!

For blueberries I would say 2-4. I would actually suggest you start with 2 & see if it’s enough. OR possibly buy 3 (early/mid/late varieties) which might extend your crop from July -Oct: I say this because you also need to give them a sunny position & you’ll get a bigger crop as the years go by (they fruit on last years wood). You can expect to pay £5-7 for a young blueberry plant, £12-17 for one bearing lots of fruit now (lots of places selling blueberries in fruit just now)

I’m having success with bluecrop (mid) & Birgitta (late). Duke is a good early season . Don’t do just early & late as you might not get the crossover on flowering times which boosts the crop

on the strawberries: I’ve read 10 per person, I have more than that (maybe 30?) but some are more/less productive. Depending on the space you have get at least a dozen plants: now is a perfect time as places are selling them off as it’s the end of the season. I’d get more than one variety (maybe HoneyOye & Cambridge favourite)

do you have space/are you planning to get anything else? An autumn fruiting raspberry on top of strawberries & blueberries might have you in berries from late May - end Oct (this is my personal goal!). I’m trying autumn bliss for raspberries and understand it’s no so demanding on a sunny position

That all helps thanks! I've got room to put the strawberries in 4 raised beds and probably about 20 x 20 ft for the fruit cage. It depends how much space I save for the dwarf fruit trees. There's an old shed on the allotment right in the middle of the plot so I'm thinking of getting a better one and putting it right at the end which will free up more space for the fruit. It's tempting to shove plants in everywhere now but I think I need to get it right first time. I've got a real good idea now of what to grow, how many plants and how I can plan the spaces. 👍

Hello, is it ok to join with a question? I'm afraid I haven't read this thread as its huge! So apologies if this has already been discussed.
Basically my garden has gone to pot (it's a 'wildlife garden' is my excuse) because of illness and big workload but I'd really like to get some veggies in for later in the year. Is it too late? All I have at the moment is my trusty rhubarb but I'd really like some purple broccoli, brussells and anything else lowish maintenance for autumn/winter. I assume I'll have to buy them as plants now. Is there anything else I could possibly grow? Are broccoli and brussels an option?

Realistically I will be ready to plant something in 2 weeks time once I've cleared and improved the soil in my veg beds. The soil is ok, it's been fed with homemade compost and has been fallow for over 2 years now.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions

@ticktickticktickBOOM : it is absolutely not too late at all to sow winter veggies, midsummer is a great time to start as is Aug/sept

you can do:

• winter greens (kale, spinach, pak Choi, broccoli, sprouts, cabbage) - from seed


• lettuce for now (from seed)


• some places still selling Tomatoes/pepper/aubergine, courgette, squash etc


• autumn & winter perfect for planting out fruit bushes, trees etc

I’m v much a beginner & easy winter options I’m doing are : spinach, chard, kale, bit of lettuce.

I’vs sown broccoli & cauli seeds too but understand brassicas can be a bit more challenging….

what kind of space do you have/what di you want to grow?

Thank you @BlooberryBiskits

It's very reassuring to know that I still have time!

I have spinach, broccoli and brussell sprout seeds that I will plant once the ground is ready, hopefully next weekend.
Luckily I have a shop on my road that is selling broccoli, tomato and courgette plants so I may buy one or two and try those too.

I currently have two small 2m by 1m raised beds but I'm going to reconstruct these into one larger patch with some old fence posts so I will have a 2m by 3m patch which should be plenty for this year.

I have a 5 year old blueberry bush that has been neglected and has stopped producing berries - is it possible to bring this back to life?

Thank you so much

Hi @ticktickticktickBOOM : definitely time for those! in fact, I think spinach & sprouts are normally sown a bit later (spinach late Aug/Sept), but I’ve started a few plants anyway to have them earlier

I’m a beginner so just learning but I think courgette/sprouts on sale are still good: I’d check that any tomatoes you buy are not root bound as it’s really late for most places to be selling them (though 1 nursery I know in S Bucks has good healthy stock where I bought mine recently)

As you already have seeds, would you consider starting some of your seeds in trays/yogurt pots etc so that you can take advantage of this current heatwave to get a FEW seedlings going that you can transplant later?

I have a few seedlings of winter veg (spinach, kale, cauli, pak Choi) that I’m growing on which were sown 2-3 weeks ago. I’m planning to do a few more later so I have a succession of plants, & will do some more every 3-4 weeks in August & September . I’m trying to be mindful of how much I can eat at a time so only starting eg 4 - 8 seeds per ‘batch’

What kind of broccoli are you growing? I’ve started some tenderstem and excited about that :)

Tick, look on the Real Seeds website, there is a monthly sowing list that will help you. .sorting my seeds out for sowing my winter stuff and the pile is not small. I already did beets, lettuce, coriander and basil for this summer just last week.

Yes I will definitely start some seeds @BlooberryBiskits!

My broccoli seeds are Claret F1. The packet says sow Mar-May but I'll give a few of them a go and save some for next year when I'll be more prepared!

I'm really excited now as I really thought I'd lost this year completely.

I will take a look at Real Seeds too as I have all sorts in my cupboard - not sure if they'll still be viable but it's worth a go - thanks @AlisonDonut

I'm raring to go now. I might even go in the garden after work this evening and get started. I've just found a youtube video on growing ginger from the buds on shop bought ginger so I may try that too as I have a very warm summerhouse (actually a glorified shed with lots of windows), I may be able to grow some late tomatoes and chillis in there from shop bought plants.

@ticktickticktickBOOM : this is definitely the weather for it! I say start your broccoli, if it doesn’t have time to turn into proper heads you can still steam/stir fry it anyway!!

PS - my now & into winter sowing list is:

• brokali ‘ Columbia’ & ‘royal tenderette’ (both tenderstem types which need sowing NOW & into sept)
• kale (cavalo Nero) & spinach
• lettuce - in pots on shade
• pak Choi
• March (tomatoes indoors)
• may - loads of stuff outside after frost
• midsummer - now, fast crops for before frosts (so loads of greens)
• late august/September- to get stuff established before winter

ive also found sowing calendars really useful - like this one www.lovethegarden.com/uk-en/article/uk-vegetable-planting-calendar