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

I've never noticed this before about cucumbers. Is this true? it doesn’t match my experience, all the flowers seem female, but they’ve been highly bred for self pollination in greenhouses.

difference is in life span. My greenhouse is still going strong 32 years on, whereas you’d have had to replace the cover of a polytunnel two or three times in that time. Of course, not many people expect to be gardening in the same spot for 32 years.

I think once they are up they are less maintenance I don’t do any maintenance on my greenhouse. I probably should wash it down once a year.

It’s a great growing day today. I’ve put in my first potatoes and had a bit of a tidy up.

So this is my second year experimenting with veg gardening. I only have tubs and pots and a couple of raised beds.
So far I have planted (indoors) cherry tomatoes, chillies and peppers. I put some beetroot seeds in one of my raised beds yesterday.
Potato seeds are on the windowsill.
I have a small lightweight greenhouse and DH rolls his eyes at the various pots currently taking over a corner of the kitchen.
Looking forward to picking up tips from other posters

Finally put the overwintering succulents outside to make space for seeds indoors. I've not sown chillies this late before, but the summer seemed to last so long last year, I'm sure it'll still be a good harvest.

Sowed Ring of fire, padrón, jalapeño, sweet banana, pretty n sweet, chorbadzhiyski, and ribki (little fish). Last two are Bulgarian varieties. Padrón seeds are from 2019 - suspect they might not germinate, they didn't do well last year.

The seed box is ridiculously full and my garden is too small! I've no idea what to do with it all.

Started properly on our allotment yesterday as the weather was sunny and almost warm.
Planted broad beans (plants), spring onions, sugar snap peas (seeds), seed potatoes and narcissus bulbs (we want flowers this year).
My rhubarb is growing well and I made crumble this evening with the first crop of the season.
I also have purple sprouting broccoli (over wintered), kale, lavender, rosemary, cabbages and the start of some mint.
I have serious shed envy. Friends on the allotment showed me theirs today which was like a beach hut, with camping stove, seats and pictures on the wall. Mine is like an old cupboard with all sorts stuffed into it - so full I can't get through the door.

I think I am a bit behind with potato’s 😬
I have so much more to do this year now I have a small plot on the allotment as well as some raised beds in the garden. One of my raised beds was rotted out so I decided to replace it but ended up digging the area it was on and the soil was pretty good, removed a whole bucket of bindweed roots and decided I would make it into a pumpkin/squash patch instead. Put cardboard down on my bigger raised bed and topped with compost (needs some manure) ready to plant into, haven’t decided what’s going in there, possibly onions and kohl rabbi if they can grow together?

Most of my fruit bushes have been moved to the allotment and I have peas, mangetout and broad beans to go up there in a couple weeks. Having huge issues with my peas as I seem to have a mouse living in my greenhouse 😬 (humane trap coming tomorrow). My greenhouse is full but as soon as the peas and beans have gone I can start on the cucumbers, squash and runner beans (in a month or so).

sadly it’s raining here today so won’t get much done but tomorrows looking good and I a, working from home so might get a few bits done in the garden.

Has anyone been successful at growing celery? I've heard it can be tricky. Thinking of ordering some seeds!

I do. You have to forget about it being thick watery sticks and think of it as a thinner shorter smaller and punchy ingredient. I grow pink celery. I mainly use it in cooked dishes. Here are last years seedlings from last May.

Ah thanks @AlisonDonut I would mainly want it for soups and stews. Think I'll give it a go!

I only grow in containers too as my garden is mainly concrete apart from a patch of lawn and one flower bed. I'd really like to dig up some of the lawn to make another bed but DDs are only little and like playing on it so I'm keeping it for now!

So far I've got potatoes in buckets and have sowed courgettes, beans, lettuce, radish, spring onions and sunflowers for the mini greenhouse. I've also got Jerusalem artichokes in two big pots which is a first try for me this year but they're apparently reasonably simple and grow really tall. We shall see.

I've planted up a herb pot too with mint, parsley and rosemary. I grow a lot of herbs in my one flower bed alongside flowers to make it both pretty and productive. The oregano, thyme and the daffodils are looking good at the moment.

I've seen videos on YouTube where people grow all sorts of veg in pots. One calls it their 'square foot bucket garden'. I've got a fair amount of concrete in my garden and it looked great last year with lots of pots. Think I'm going to up those this year and include more veg.

Buy another Blueberry! Game changer.

Yes, they are all officially self fertile, but when I went from one plant to two and or three, the yield from each plant went up massively. They fruit far better if they can cross pollinate.

Planted some parsnips on the weekend
Just one large pot to see how that goes.
Just experimenting a bit and seeing what does well.
Learnt what was good last year and what I wouldn't bother with again.
loving seeing things starting to grow and itching for the weather to improve so I can get going properly

And I've done some lettuce and rocket in the greenhouse and basil on the windowsill
My basil did really well last year so fingers crossed

I grow in 12inch square pots, so effectively “square foot gardening”. What do well for me are tomatoes (in 8inch pots), cucumbers, climbing french beans, swiss chard (5 to a pot), tree cabbage, cavalo nero, beetroot (5 to a pot), magentaspreen. Also not too bad are runner beans and mangetout peas. Lettuces do very well inthe slug free greenhouse, one to a 6inch pot.

I've not thought about beetroot in pots. That's going on the list too, as well as cavalo nero!

potted on what I was sold as tomato seeds today.
not sure though. they don't look like tomatos and also didn't smell like them when handling them.

variety is supposed to be 'yellow pearshaped'. seeds bought at a garden centre.

any ideas? aubergine? chilli? peppers?

I garden on my balcony. usually have cucumbers and tomatos. alsohabe a currant and gooseberry bush. woodruff (smells amazing) and other stuff.

they were incredibly quick to germinate. only 4 days.

@greenacrylicpaint they're not aubergine (leaves are more rounded)

Possibly pepper.

thanks posey
I have never grown peppers. but will give it a go.
not least to find out what this actually is

Yeah it's all good fun! Will be interesting to see how it goes. I sometimes sow seeds from a fresh snack size pepper from the supermarket and they always grow really well @greenacrylicpaint

When I did it last year I had some great mini peppers and one even gave mini bell shaped peppers! Sometimes I think I enjoy the growing more than the eating

Today's haul from the allotment.
Rhubarb
Kale
Cabbages
Purple sprouting broc
Rosemary
Will use all with the roast lamb this evening

Celery can be slightly tricky. (Needs loads of water regularly and is vulnerable to slugs.) But celery leaf is MUCH easier, and will give you the same flavour if you're using it for cooking. Mine seems to have survived the winter too, so I'm not bothering to sow more just now.

Hello to the thread, by the way. I grow as much food as possible in our small garden, plus in a little bit of space loaned by friends. Have learned loads about forest gardening which I'm implementing in our small space, plus no-dig, permaculture, organic growing and wildlife-friendly growing. Slightly obsessive about weighing every single bit of produce and recording it all.