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

Tiz, you are the biz!!

Some massively overgrown courgettes greeted me at the allotment today.

Need to get the potatoes dug up but didn't have time this morning. Sweetcorn looking good. Wondering whether to try lift the butternut squash off the ground, it's so wet at the moment I worry they'll rot.

Climbing French beans I planted late are already flowering but don't seem to have climbed at all.

Picked beans, berries, courgettes, and a couple of leeks.

Need to get some more freezer bags as I'm getting so many beans, had such a bad year with them last year we never had any spare to freeze. Such a contrast this year.

french and runner bean glut, as well as courgettes, and now the pattypan squashes. tomatoes are meh…lots of sungold, few of the other varieties. Sweet peas have been magnificent and still blooming their heads off.

I'm completely drowning in runner beans, didn't expect the plants to do so well. I just picked 2kg this evening, and the same on Saturday. I have already given some to my neighbours! Growing 'white lady' this year.

I'm not harvesting much at all at the moment but my tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.

When you mention sweet peas, I always think about the flowers - they aren't edible are they?

Very much not edible.

Pea family is one of those where you really need to know what you’re doing. Mixture of edibles and extremely poisonous. Carrot family is another.

This is what happens when you miss a couple of days picking figs because you can’t face the idea of getting up close to that dripping wet fig tree

Am pretty sure I am about to start harvesting my sprouts and am now wondering if I didn't plant them too early? Surely it's a bit soon in the year for sprouts? Still, they look ok.

I have had one harvest of cabbages and broccoli - blanched and frozen - and now now growing on round 2. My caulis were a bit meh, but again I wonder if I planted the wrong time of year (even though they were called All Year Round). We got some harvest off them, but not a lot and Round 2 has failed completely.

Like others I have had a real glut of french beans so far this year. I think it's all the rain they got just when they started to produce, it's kept them going and going. I am forever finding massive ones that I somehow missed a few days ago.

My garden sweetpeas are also having a much better year this year than last, even if I have had to cobble together some support for their wigwam, which has collapsed under them all.

Am pretty chuffed with some of my allotment cutting flowers as well - especially the roses for whom this is their first year. Again, I suppose the rain has helped but I've had more off them than I expected to in Year 1.

Like others I have had a real glut of french beans so far this year. I think it's all the rain they got just when they started to produce, it's kept them going and going I’ve found this year has been a runner bean year not a French bean year. I notice runners seem to like it wetter, French are better for hot summers.

Then I must be a rather excellent french bean grower - because the buggers are growing faster than I can pick and blanche them

@NewYearNewSeeds - I don't bother blanching, just straight in the freezer on a tray, then transferred to a bag once frozen.

Noooo - blanched and then straight in a bag as a bundle. They are one of the few veg I don't need to freeze on a tray and they still freeze seperately

Funny how we all have our ways!

I am forever finding massive ones that I somehow missed a few days ago

This is why I never grow green beans - always yellow or purple.

First year I've had rhubarb crowns, here's my crop. I was told by a colleague at work that it's best to have harvested the crowns by now to give them time to recover and regain strength before the winter. I'll be leaf mulching them in October.

It looks like a great crop but I've read somewhere not to harvest them in the first year and only sparingly in the second

it's best to have harvested the crowns by now the crown is the bit you leave in the ground not the bit you harvest.

I've made fritters and two courgette cakes today but still ended the day with more courgettes than I started with!

Sorry, terminology fail there @MereDintofPandiculation that is what I meant but it probably wasn't worded very well 😂

Weve been eating stewed rhubarb and apple (with a handful of dried fruit and some spice thrown in for good measure) all weekend, so I'm temporarily a bit sick of it now. But maybe after a break for a day or so .... I might do a crumble for a change. I've frozen some as well.

Actually, talking about the crowns, I did accidentally pull one up (it was only a little one) - it doesn't have any actual rhubarb on it anymore and now I'm not sure whether I'm meant to leave it dug up (and the other 3) or whether it is ok to leave them in the ground over the winter... any thoughts?

@tooearlyforthis98 I heard that too, but a friend at work who is a keen allotment owner said that if there is health growth on the crowns with nice chunky rhubarb, it's fine to take them off and eat them, so I've chanced my luck. The rhubarb is very flavoursome and not too sharp (I have Victoria and Temperley). I'll mulch them well now and hopefully they'll build up for the Spring.

Allotment pickings from yesterday - just the 10 courgettes 😂

Weeded round my sprouts and repurposed part of a portable greenhouse for a cage for them. I've got some more butternut squash set and another pumpkin.

Hopefully spend some more time there tomorrow tidying up a bit. It's surprised me how long I've spent there just picking things, without getting round to any weeding or the like.

Harvested some of the spuds, and realised we'd inadvertently chosen exactly the same colours as the blueberries they're growing next to. (We grow Pink Lemonade blueberries as well as the more usual Jersey and Top Hat.).

Blueberries - in tart form.

It's surprised me how long I've spent there just picking things, without getting round to any weeding or the like. From July to September I spend up to an hour at least every other day picking. Raspberries, alpine strawberries, tayberries, loganberries, blackberries, mulberries, figs. As one comes to an end, the next is building up to a peak. It’s a relief when I’m into the relative calm of apples, quince, medlars.

I have neglected my plot over the summer holidays. My sprouts and broccoli really need sorting, they have outgrown the netting and have no space to grow. I might try and sort them out today/tomorrow. Are cabbage whites still a risk?

My runner beans are hopefully coming to an end, my freezer is full. Cabbages are ready as are some of the cauliflowers even though they are tiny, I might have enough to make a cauliflower cheese.

Autumn raspberries are in full swing, picking a tub full every other day.

My butternut squash have spread across one of my plots but a lot have rotted away. Spegetti squash are doing great.

Why do you think your squash has rotted?