The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

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

Tomato haul. Mix of micro tom and cherry. I’m going to cook them down and eat with eggs and bacon 😋

It does feel like summer is over here too, very autumnal but I'm hoping it's not the case.

It's still quite warm but my tomatoes are getting battered by the wind.

Joining please! It’s my first year of growing vegetables and I’m loving it. Started with sweet corn, cucumber, red onion and tomatoes. Tomatoes and cucumbers completely failed, red onions were just a few but delicious and just harvested two very nice sweet corns today! Also planted carrots that have been doing very well as well as broccoli and lettuce which aren’t ready.

Question for the pros. We have a patch of agricultural land back onto our garden. Would you plant straight into the ground or into boxes? There’s a lot of wildlife around so not sure what’s best

Picture of todays little harvest

@Rapunzel91 I'm not a pro, but when we set our allotments up on agricultural land they had to be fenced to stop deer/rabbits/badgers etc. I dont see that it matters whether you plant into the ground or in boxes, assuming the soil is OK. I would have a wildlife pond to encourage frogs and toads who will eat your slugs. And if its weedy soil i would think about putting thick black card down for the first year and growing ground cover type plants through that, eg squash, Potatoes are also good for breaking up ground if its hard.

I would generally prefer straight in the ground because you don’t have to worry as much about watering.

If you sow a slow germinating thing like parsnip or carrot, drop a radish seed in every inch or so. They’ll come up quickly and show you where the row is, and be out of the way before the parsnips need the space.

Hello, wondering if I could have a bit of potato advice? I’ve been watching videos on blight as I noticed yesterday that the plants look decimated all of a sudden. But watched one that said brown spots and floppy stems isn’t blight but die back. I don’t see anything mouldy looking and then dug about and have a few fine looking tatties so thinking things may be ok in there.

2 queries:
If it was blight, would I know about it by looking at the potatoes?

In the vids it mentioned chopping the plant to the base then leaving tatties in ground for 2 weeks to let the skins harden for storage. Is this only in the case of blight or should I be doing this now to try and protect them from blight at this stage in the year (it is very cool and wet here so ideal conditions)?

Oh and just to share a courgette I left a bit too long, and a single plum, harvested today.

@Beginningless
I cut all of the tops off my spuds about six weeks ago so they did not get blight while I was away for a few days.
The stems have dried and vanished.
The spuds will stay in the ground to be lifted one meal worth at a time
until October when I lift the rest and put them in a clamp.

Like carrots and onions and leeks and Kale and Chard , they are happiest where they grew until you need them.

Ooh that’s so helpful, thanks @Talkinpeace. I lifted some tonight that were good to eat. So I’ll cut the tops off tomorrow then. Why October to lift them? I’m in Scotland so wonder if our timescales would be different - feels like winter here already! And what’s the clamp you put them in? How long do they last then?

@Beginningless
When to lift : before the first frost.
Watch the weather. If its dry they can stay underground longer.
Astoundingly the lovely late friend who told me the top cut trick assured me that the spuds kept swelling after the tops were off.
I thought he was daft. He was not.
Each tuber has its roots. So long as slugs and blight are kept at bay they will slowly keep growing.
BUT
The have to be frost free.
AS soon as frost threatens I fill an old wool pellet bucket with dry soil and layer the spuds in - it works as a clamp till January in my polytunnel

I picked a lot today: beans, cabbages, sweet corn. Also, the squash that I had recklessly rendered leaderless in July by clipping willy nilly. The new leader (pickle jar) kept him alive long enough to ripen. He is smallish though.

My tomatoes survived the winds over the weekend. I noticed someone had lost their entire plastic greenhouse at the allotment.

Well my tomatoes are slowly but steadily starting to ripen up - I now have another jar semi-dried in the oven and covered in olive oil. Another 2 dinners-worth of French beans in the freezer. The yellow courgette had an open flower yesterday that I could pollinate from the green plant, and a couple more baby courgettes not yet flowered, so I am hopeful.

But I am also starting to pull up dead plants - 1 courgettes didn't make it and the French beans are starting to die back. Autumn is coming, with its shorter evenings - even if it was still 27 degrees yesterday and 25 today!

Hi,
can I please join?
I don’t have an allotment. I’m growing everything in pots (20+) on the patio.
So far we’ve had courgettes,cucumbers,radishes,spring onions,lettuce and red pak choi.
Tomatoes and peppers are finally beginning to ripen.
I picked some tomatoes today.

LOVE the look of your toms. awesome.
I hope they taste as nice as they look.

what varieties are those?

@bluecomputerscreen Thanks
They are very tasty. All grown from seeds first year trying.
The big one is called purple sunrise.
The green one is Michael Pollan.
The yellow round one is honeybee cherry and the other yellow pear one.
Also black cherry, sweet million,red zebra and gardeners delight.
I like a variety of tomatoes 😅

@PennyWorth I too grow most of my veg in pots on the patio, in my case because my garden gets no sun. But I can’t do radishes! Probably I’m not consistent enough in watering. You don’t list peas and beans?.

@MereDintofPandiculation We don’t eat peas or beans 😅
We also only get sun in certain places in the garden.
These are my radishes. They grow really fast 3-4 weeks from sowing they’re ready to eat.

Whenever I've tried growing radishes they always end up going to seed. Although I think I might prefer eating the pods over the radish.

I'm going to throw some seeds in at the allotment in the hope I might get one crop before the weather properly turns.

Maybe I have another go with radishes in the wetter part of the year and feed them enthusiastically? Mine are a lot slower than 3-4 weeks.

Hello all,

Great thread to find ! I have got into growing over last 3 years and this year have managed beetroot after them failing last year - have loads . Sadly the cauliflowers didn’t work, grew huge leaves and middle callous bit and then just started to wilt and die. No idea why. Did also get spring onions and carrots though so had good soup !

wish i had loads of beetroot star81. after two attempts at sowing i have about 6. they never do very well at my allotment, not sure what i'm doing wrong? Think i'll blame it on the soil

Green tomatoes : Pick and layer into a thick brown paper bag, greenest at the bottom. Check weekly. They may take a month or so but the WILL ripen.

Once it got to about October, I used to pick mine as soon as they had a hint of colour and put them in a dish in the kitchen to ripen fully. But they never seemed to go completely red. After a couple of weeks of puzzlement, I realised DS snaffling the ripe ones as he went past.

I have given up on toms. I don't like them, and no one else is bothered.
I am currently overrun with courgettes and little fat cucumbers