The Vegetable Patch Mark 2

[MereDintofPandiculation]

A continuation of the thread for those of us growing edibles, to share triumphs and failures, swap expertise and solve problems

You didn't kill the thread, think it's gardener hibernation season! I've done a bit of late seed saving - chillies, tomatillo, physalis. Was hoping to overwinter them, last winter was milder, but then the snow came. Pulled up the dead plants, mulched.

Had a fun time making emergency space in the kitchen for large pots of succulents - and picking up the snails that came in with them. The tree aloe (does aloe count as a vegetable) is planted out so tbc on whether that will recuperate.
Need to start thinking about what I want to sow in a month or so.

Aha there you all are……hibernating 🤣great to read .
I'm sure everyone is planning ideas in their heads for the spring.I’m happy it’s getting lighter for longer and we gain 2 hrs more light between start of feb and the end! Looking forward to catching up with all of you and your advice, ideas and chat 👍🏻

I did intend to sow my aubergine seeds in January but I've lacked the enthusiasm to unpack the grow lights etc. I blame the dark mornings and evenings. Instead I've thrown myself into jigsaws and Netflix. Maybe today's the day!

I'm lurking here, reading as everyone updates and trying to learn.

Im hoping to be in our new house by summer but for now have to settle for planning the new garden. Its 100ft long, south facing and currently just grass with (yet to be identified) shrubs at the edges. A good blank slate but a little overwhelming. I'm itching to start growing some vegetables.

Hi @superdupernova

There's a website I used a lot when I first started growing veg called gardenfocused dot co dot uk. Look at the fruit and veg calendar.

You can set your town and it calculates your frost dates and tells you the best time to sow seeds for your local area! 😊

ooh the frost dates websites…I love em! Off to look at predictions now

We harvested artichokes today, or rather DH did.
"Get me a bag", so he did a whole 'bag for life' of the windy little buggers.

On the topic of tomatoes, last year I sowed chillis, peppers and tomatoes a year ago today. However I remember having to resow due to them getting really, really frozen later in the month even though they were inside a shed, with insulating doors, and on a heat mat.

And I resowed in March and everything caught up. So I'm not doing any time March again.

I contemplated sewing tomatoes yesterday and then remembered the year I planted them early and they were taking over my house, they didn’t fruit any earlier than those planted later. So I won’t be planting any until next month.

I did plant Broad beans yesterday and repotted my leeks in the greenhouse.

I will sow a batch of Red Alert first, and grow them in pots which can be moved if necessary. Then the main polytunnel vines and bush tomatoes and then after that, a few weeks later, the main outdoors ones. So I do 3 seperate sowings.

I've got loads of old tomato seeds from various swaps etc and I'm going to sow them all just to clear all the old packets and if they germinate, I'll grow one on myself and give the rest away as swaps. I must have over 150 different varieties in my seed box and I want to clear that down to a more reasonable level.

Do you find they store ok? I only harvest what we’re using that day because the advice I got was Jerusalem artichokes don’t keep like other root crops.

it would be much easier to dig up a bunch at once.

I admire anyone who grows, harvests and eats Jerusalem Artichokes to be honest. I've been veggie since 1984 and I tried them once and - well - it wasn't pleasant. I'd love to like them but I just can't.

@HiccupHorrendousHaddock they seem to keep in the fridge in a produce bag for a week or so. Though normally he only picks about a kilo.

@AlisonDonut you need to train you gut to like them. Two little chunks is quite enough for a first taste. I have no problems, I think I eat more fibre than most people.

I agree with @AdventFridgeOfShame , @AlisonDonut ! If you have a couple of little pieces a couple of times a week your gut soon adapts. They are very tasty and fantastically good for encouraging healthy gut bacteria.

I like to dice them, roast them with cherry tomatoes and serve as a warm salad with feta.

Hi apl, can I join you? I grow veg in my garden borders. I have garlic growing at the moment, and raspberry and blackberry bushes, amd strawberries. I usually grow salad leaves and other stuff varies year by year. I am very much an amateur gardener.

Advice please - what grows well on north facing fences? Amd what perennial veg is easy to grow?

We have summer fruiting raspberries, wondering if I am too late to add some autumn fruiting ones, or a different type of fruit bush? (ideally thornless due to kids!)

Hi all, can I crash and ask if anyone uses water from a soak away to help in their vegetable garden? We are about to put in a soak away from the new garage roof and it will be located about 4m away from my vegetable patch. Seems an awful water of water. I was wondering about some sort of pump system. We already have water butts coming off the down pipes.

I’ve finally sorted through my seed stashed, decided with 30+ packets of flower seeds I can’t buy any more, and that all I can do is pick up some broad beans, tomatoes and courgettes. My favourite parthenogenetic courgette is now out of stock, so I’ll be back to hand pollination.

re soak away - not a clue, but share your frustration over the lost winter water

@Flower0503 perennial vegetables we grow are:
Perennial kale (usually over winters very well but we seem to have lost a few plants this year)
Welsh onions
Jerusalem artichokes
Perennial spinach, grows like a vine, it comes back every year but is not really very prolific, we have it on a shady wall, maybe it would prefer somewhere with less deep shade.
Rhubarb, pus other fruit

If there is a source of electricity then you could put a submersible pump into your soakaway however the idea of a soakaway is that it soaks away so when you need it in the summer, it will all have soaked away.

What you could do is to put a water container [like a 1000l IBC container] in and have it fed from the garage roof, and let it then overflow into the soakaway. Then use that for watering and it will collect water whenever it rains again.

To put it into context, I had a full size allotment in the UK with a polytunnel, and a greenhouse and only raised beds [about 30 of them]. We had zero water on site. So all I had was those to collect water. I had 2 1000l IBCs, and 4 water butts, and I collected water all winter from the poly and the greenhouse, and filled all the 1000L containers from the butts that collected the water, and whenever it rained, they would fill back up again and that used to keep me in water for the poly, the greenhouse and the raised beds all year round.

I had a delivery of mushroom compost today (which is in fact manure and is quite smelly), I was hoping it would be enough to cover the rest of my plot but I don’t think it will be. Have spent the day transporting it up to my plot in my nice clean car which is now covered in manure 😬. I am trying to do no dig but am unsure of the depth of compost/manure? I keep reading different things. Hoping to get it finished tomorrow and start moving my fruit bushes.
I am also starting to wonder if the plots either side of me have pinched part of my plot as mine seems a lot shorter than there’s. I am a bit scared to ask but I am paying the same as they are and my plot is 5ft shorter.

I got my allotment this week! Bare except for two rhubarb crowns HURRAH and three currant bushes. At least I think they might be currant.

so excited! It is 18m by 6 - a bit overwhelmed but planning on growing a good few flowers for cutting.

Going up this week to mark out new beds as it’s a bit neglected.

We should be getting some new allotment neighbours soon. I'm quite excited, we have been the only people on a block of four allotments, it has been lonely.

@Lightninginabox if your neighbours have a fabulous shed and round lawn, welcome

I planted the first thing on my plot today 😁😁😁, I am a tiny bit excited. Planted 2 blackcurrant bushes, raspberries and rhubarb, I am hoping the blackcurrants will be ok, they are established bushes which I have moved from my garden.
I was worried about planting into my no dig bed, the soil underneath is mainly clay which is why I went no dig, i am hoping in time the soil will improve.

My damson tree has been dispatched after the last one vanished in the post, haven’t got a clue where to plant it.

Checking in from Melbourne and after a six-month winter we've had an indifferent summer. Corellas, a small cockatoo, flock in autumn, it's one of the first signs, but they've been around since mid-summer so I don't know what this bodes. It's symptomatic of how cool it has been that parsley and nasturtiums have continued to grow, when a proper summer in store would fry them.

I decided to let the teeny-tiny tomato plants I grew from seed carry on, just to see how they would turn out, and they're doing well at last, though I think there might be a lot of green tomato chutney to come, as sun has been inconsistent. Land cress has re-seeded well and rocket lives up to its name, cayenne chillies not bad. Climbing beans have been good and I've planted new row for autumn.

I now have so much shade from next door's trees I will try rhubarb, another plant that can't take the summer onslaught.

March is time for broad beans and sweet peas.

Any advice about harvesting rhubarb?