The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

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

Last harvest of climbing french beans today.
Towers will come down next week to make space for digging out the compost heap.

Leeks, beets, chard, kale, carrots still going strong.
Spuds are in storage.
Late sown pak choi, last tomatoes and LOADS of peppers still in the polytunnel.

I pulled up my tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers today. There are a couple of courgettes lingering, but I doubt it will be warm enough for them to come to much. I'll give them a reprieve until next weekend.
I usually just leave the beds for the winter, a bit of muck or compost or seaweed on, and let them rest.
Any thoughts on winter planting?

I picked the King of the Pippins today. Herrings Pippin were picked a couple of weeks ago, so the cellar now has that lovely ripe apple smell.

What can I plant now?

Some varieties of broad bean (look on the packet)

good time for planting fruit bushes and trees.

I picked the last of my Zombies today and found an extra one secreted in the sage bush. Sweet! Also picked two under ripe Queensland Blues. They are still green but I need the bed. I have left two kuri and two Queensland plants still in the ground since their leaves are still green and the kuris could darken up a bit. but with the rain that is coming it seems unlikely that they will progress much.

Adding photo of Zombies.

And I am going to spend the rest of the day ignoring these joy-killing zealots:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/22/carbon-footprint-homegrown-food-allotment-increase/

The carbon footprint of my home grown veg might be higher
but the health benefits of gardening
and the improved flavour of my unusual varieties
beat shop grown every time

All very good points.

If farm grown produce is more 'efficient' then I can hardly wait for them to get around to looking at home cooking. Ready-meals are probably 20+ times more energy efficient. We may also be advised to wash our clothes communally. One car per block. Only heat and light the village Hall in winter...

I tell a lie. I can wait.

This carbon footprint thing has been around for a while.Full paper is here https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-023-00023-3#Sec2

Telegraph article is a barely correct headline summary. Surprise surprise.

A better summary here https://record.umich.edu/articles/study-examines-carbon-footprint-of-urban-farmed-food/

Telegraph article is a barely correct headline summary. Surprise surprise.

This one will surely be off the scale then:

https://slaynews.com/news/wef-demands-ban-home-grown-food-stop-global-warming/

I will just happily ignore. I have been romping in the garden for hours today, better that than sitting on a chaise longue eating chokkies and watching daytime telly 😄

The sheds on my allotment are falling apart, from what I gather from briefly skimming the article is that reduces my carbon footprint dramatically 😂

Quick skimming - it’s the “inputs” that are the problem. Building raised beds, making paths, that are used for only 4 or 5 years. Compost, fertiliser, weed suppression membrane, irrigation, petrol for machinery.

I note that the comparison was with US urban gardens. I’d suggest that UK gardens use a lot less water, less machinery.

Personally, the structures in my garden have been there 30 years, I use my own compost and don’t buy in any, apart from a lawnmower I use only hand tools, I don’t use weed suppression membrane, I use fertiliser only for pots and in the greenhouse, and almost all my watering is from collected rainwater.

I sent off a wheelbarrow load of various squash/pumpkins to decorate the village pub today, and told them to let me know if they need more. Then came into the house to hear "slug ravaged pumpkin harvest!" on the news. <smug>

However I know that I was simply very lucky to avoid the huge increase in slugs this year.

Doug, you’ll have to tell us how you did it!!!

Like I said, just lucky I think.

Although I did spend an exhausting few weeks trundling squash seedlings back and forth from house to greenhouse (because of the cold) and waited a while to put them out so they were stronger and more able to fight off slugs. Farmers plant the seed in the field and trust the weather, they work on too large a scale for my niceties!

We put ours out start of May and some were eaten, some survived. Got a few decent size pumpkins but so many young fruit were eaten and coupled with the bad weather it has been a disappointing haul 😞

I grew about 40kg of courgettes, squash and pumpkins this year, most of them pretty small. I've never seen so many slugs and they were enormous. The only other thing that did well were turnips and I'm not that keen on them.

They're looking shook, but still producing here

Planted 500 onion sets last week and started bagging leaves for leaf compost today.

Spread grass seed over bare bits, I know it's late but decided to go for it.

Took up courgette plants finally, extended and mulched the bed ready for winter.

I dug out my compost heap and mulched the bed that has sandy soil. It didn't go as far as I'd hoped, I might sow some green manure next year.

Here in Melbourne the snow peas have been rubbish so they come out next week. I've put in new coriander seedlings and the first basil of the season, also chillies and lettuce. Chat potatoes and tomatoes are in containers. Marigolds are the companion plants.
I have horrible black aphids on both chives and spring onions, so hose them off every morning. Gits.
I've also mulched the beds with pea straw, the real stuff from a bale, not the horrible powdery leavings sold as the real thing. Here it is, and cleaning the detritus out of the boot is a PITA.

Planted onion sets and garlic this week. Took out peas and beans. Any ideas for what I can plant for the winter?

Probably a bit late for sowing for winter. But garden centres still have plants, mainly different brassicas.

you can also sow Aquadulce broad beans ready for spring if you’re in the south