The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

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

Picked a red cabbage yesterday.

Weighs 9.09 pounds.

It reminds me of that Kliban book: Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head

Words to live by

WOW
My fave red cabbage recipe is
finely shredded fried in oil and soy with a dash of brown sugar at the end

Thank you Storm Ashley!

(Quinces - teaspoon for size)

That's one serious cabbage.

Ooh found this thread way too late for this year, but following in hope of heads up for next year!

After a couple of years hiatus I got back into growing this year having taken it up in 2020 lockdowns. I was very happy with my green beans, courgettes and cucumbers, and will do all 3 again next year. Tomatoes always self-seed in my garden, despite nobody in my house eating them(!) but I've treated them as a bit of a fertilisation experiment this year. No I don't have a clue what I am doing, I just heard that sometimes farmers grow crops just to plough back into the soil to improve it and that's what I'm calling my tomato plants that didn't produce anything this year!

I'd really like a raised bed trough with a trellis. Debating attempting to make one.

@ThatAgileGoldMoose I've sometimes left the tomato seedlings that pop up from the compost, usually Aldi's cherry tomatoes. They are tough as old boots, unlike the rather precious heirloom types.

My experiment for this spring is luffa, or loofah as I prefer to call it. Possibly the only bathroom item you can eat in a stir-fry - at least in its early and tender stage. I'll tell you how I get on, it's seeds in trays at the moment.

They were all the rage in the 70s among those seeking out novelty plants, though I never grew one

I tried to grow them a couple of years ago but they got decimated by greenfly.

I've spent the last few days digging over my rather neglected plot. Lost my dear Mum last year and I couldn't face being on the allotment where I used to take her. I'm now trying to sort out her estate (sell house) and it's all got a bit much. I'm not sleeping etc etc.

So I've decided to try and get back into it. Have planted garlic so far.

@WitchesButter I hope going back to your allotment gives you some pleasure and you can get back to happy memories of your mum.

Garlic is a good way to start looking forward to the new season.
Gently pottering is good for the soul

The loofah and the garlic... are you growing these in the uk?

Luffas are not hardy - but they are form of gourd so can do a season in a polytunnel.

Garlic is completely hardy

@WitchesButter I am in the same position - lost Mum last year, Dad now in a home and I'm in the process of sorting / selling the house. Honestly... pottering in my veg patch has kept me sane this year!

Mum was a florist, gardener and huge horticulturalist. I never inherited her passion for flowers and garden design but I have found so much peace and pleasure in growing fruit and veg. I feel very close to her there, talk to her a lot while I'm doing it and a robin usually joins me!

This week I'm going through her (at least 100) gardening books. I will keep a few but most will have to go... I'm hoping to donate them to a community gardening project.

In more prosaic news - do I need to gather in the onions? (Sounds like a mixed metaphor!) Many are still in the soil at the moment!

@Pebble21uk that is nice
I feel the same way about my mum's recipes
if the onion green upwards sprouts have wilted you can uproot them

Last of the apples picked today, some have been turned into compote and the unblemished ones have been sorted to store. Also picked leeks and Jerusalem artichokes which we've just had roasted for dinner. Not something we've ever tried before.

I’d love to grow Jerusalem artichokes! But my garden is too shady and I can’t see them doing well in pots

I was hoping to do them in potato grow bags next year, as a tester to see if I like them!

You can grow them in a 100l bag of compost, if you lie it flat on its back and cut the front open. The problem is they become top heavy and are easily blown over, so put them somewhere you can tie the stems to something solid.
They really aren't fussy, you can just throw 4 logs on the ground to make a temporary raised bed, that would suit them better than a pot or bag. They don't mind partial shade.

They were pretty good, roasted with garlic and rosemary.

Going to try this next

https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/jerusalem-artichoke-and-leek-soup

Ok folks I have a few random volunteer potatoes showing. I'm tempted to leave them until the frosts, what do you think? They're all earlies and I'm in the south so I'm thinking I haven't got anything to lose.

We used to always have Jerusalem artichoke soup on Christmas Day but it became more and more difficult to find them in the shops. It’s yummy but they’re not nicknamed fartichokes for no reason.

They don't mind partial shade. My garden doesn’t do partial shade. Just the full variety.