The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Come and share your triumphs and failures in your vegetable plot or allotment.

Saw a newt in the pond dive into weed with something in its mouth - turned out to be a large white slug.

Berries and currants picked this evening. There's more redcurrants to pick but I only went to water so ran out of room in the only tub I happened to have with me.

Less happily, my butternut squash has disappeared.

my currants (white) and gooseberry (red) bushes have not flowered at all this year.
I think they got too cold at the crucial time in early spring.
do i need to give them something now to help for next year? they are in pots.

Two of my squash plants, growing amongst sweet corn. I worried we would never get this far this year

I am debating sowing some broad beans ....
Yes, I know its July but the nights are cool enough.

Carrots I sowed two weeks ago are coming on apace after all

Has anybody else tried it ?

My tomatoes are doing so much better growing them up string - I've been keeping the leaves to a minimum and getting the light and moisture levels right with Tomorite every week to 10 days. Lots of flowers and maturing fruits at the right time in the growing season with about 8 - 10 weeks still to go 👌 av temps around 28 - 30 deg, outdoors yesterday was a miserable 13 C - pitiful!

We've been enjoying a mix of salad leaves: tender rainbow chard, lambs lettuce, cos, red/green mix. And some pungent aromatic basil. When I walk into the greenhouse the beautiful smell hits you along with the toms. The smell of summer!

Give your broad beans a try, it only needs a blast of heat from the Azores (lives in hope!) and they'll soon catch up.

my French beans are limping along, we'll probably get one or two meals out of them at this rate but hey that the joys of home growing, they still taste wonderful and zero air miles.

Those berries look delicious @tizwozliz

Well done getting your squash to such a size @DougAndTheSlugs they're nice roasted with a balsamic and pesto glaze mmmmm

my French beans are limping along, we'll probably get one or two meals out of them at this rate but hey that the joys of home growing, they still taste wonderful and zero air miles. My French beans got shredded by the wind we had the other day. Lots of flowers still but no leaves left. They look really miserable. Too late where we are to start again.

The leaves on my French beans are all shredded, Meredint. Just hoping the weedy little beans will swell with all the rain, sigh!

Wondering what to do with all 4 blackcurrants... 😂

Freeze and drop into Champagne

Like everyone else, my french beans are suffering. Regretting rushing to use up last year's stocks from the freezer now! Mange tout doing pretty well though, these were from the garden. A quick trip to the allotment this evening and picked more raspberries and potatoes.

My French bean plants look pretty good but they are only just starting to flower, I planted them pretty late as the first lot didn’t make it.

I have pulled up my onions and potatoes (left a few in), now my plots looking a bit empty, I do have some squash plants but I already have butternut and Turks turban growing like crazy, I’m not sure I need more squash? 🤣.

Sympathy! I’ve watered mine well and fed them

Today I’ve picked broad beans, sugar snap peas, courgettes, loganberries, tayberries and raspberries. And the usual lettuce leaves for lunch. Loganberries with chocolate icecream for tea, raspberries on our oats tomorrow breakfast. Anything left into the deepfreeze as I shall be picking again tomorrow.

My potatoes are still in the ground
if this rain carries on I will cut the tops down to 4 inches - so no leaves
and leave them in the ground until I need them later in the year
as blight gets in through the leaves
no leaves, no blight

We cut ours down 2 weeks ago due to the blight. They have recovered somewhat and grown new leaves but we check every day to see if any more needs taking off.

What a shitshow of a year.

Cunning!

I can cope with the occasional rubbish year. What worries me is whether this is the new norm. Winters not cold enough to see off pests, summers so cold that the plants don’t grow well enough to shrug off the pests.

There is no Norm.
Human induced climate change has broken the weather
its all guesswork from now on in

Strangely my tomatoes, chilli and salad leaves have been the best this year in the greenhouse. Everything raging outside and they're quite happy in there, enjoying the warmth and calm. I think I'll set up home in there myself, I've been absolutely freezing all day. Got into my thick pjs, fleece and fleecy scarf and pottered around in there for an hour and felt a lot better for it,

the forecast does look like it's on an improving trend - shows how bad it's been, I'm feeling happy if we get a run of 3 fine dry days. It's July!!!! 😱

My plants were parched when I got back, despite a drenching before I left and a water ball in most pots to see them through.

But since I got back on Monday, they've had to endure soaring temps (had 30 degrees on Tuesday) before wild thunderstorms which meant plants getting wet leaves (but no real rain in pots as it is protected) but also hurricane level whirling winds blowing things over. Again. Cooler today - around 20 degrees, which a nice.

Had 2 red cherry tomatoes for lunch on Tue, and there are baby courgettes on a couple of plants so 🤞 they get fertilised and grow!!

Where are you? Recently I’ve been pleased when the temperature has got higher than 15deg

Today I’ve picked the first cucumber.

I'm in Brussels, in a concrete jungle spot, and 11 stories up with a balcony that faces the sun from early morning until about 3pm. And just on the corner of my building which is in a wind tunnel so the winds can be relatively calm on the street on the other side of the building but much higher on my balcony...clothes are always well pegged down on the clothes horse, even on calm days!!