Just harvest my first home-grown crop!

[spokette]

I have grown lettuce and cress in pots and yesterday I collected some of each.

I made cress soup which I am having for lunch today and tonight will have chicken salad.

I feel really virtuous!!

My 5yo DTS will not eat either the cress soup or lettuce though despite being involved in sowing, planting and watering the plants.

Next year I intend to grow potatoes,tomatoes, carrots and if possible, broccoli because at least the boys will eat those.

It's so exciting isn't it. We've been eating radishes for a while now, they're really good for fast growing. The lettuces have started too, I'm not sure that planting 4 rows (my dh did that) is such a good idea, but I do have a recipe for lettuce soup on standby!

Every evening I go and check my veggies and ask them how they are - broad beans are a bit bent after all the rain, but I have a baby (about 2cm) yellow courgette coming and I can't wait! Sweetcorn, potatoes, peas and beans are all growing well, and toms in the greenhouse are beginning to shoot up, but no flowers yet. We've grown carrots and haven't been hugely successful - probably only about half have come up so not sure I'll do those again!

I do wish I had been more adventurous instead of just doing cress and lettuce. I will add peas, sweetcorn, runner beans and courgettes to my list of things to grow next year!

Spokette, It isn't too late to sow runner beans or sweetcorn. You can also get varieties of peas that can be sown up until the end of June and I think it is still okay to sow courgettes too. You can also sow beetroot (there is a yellow variety that doesn't 'bleed' so less messy). If you like tomatoes, you can buy plants now that are ready to plant out - more expensive than sowing the seeds but still worth considering.

To be honest, you can sow most things now and get a crop apart from things like chillies, peppers, aubergines etc which should be sown in Feb and March.

Thanks for the tip. I will try runnerbeans, courgettes and peas.

Can I still sow potato seeds?

if you have them (spuds) then try sticking them in - they may well come to something if they don't get blight - worth a try

Some people plant a couple of seed potatoes in August so that they have new potatoes for Christmas day! Not sure if the grow them in a greenhouse though.

Fresh new potatoes are very yummy! I harvested our first from the allotment (had a few in tubs last month) today.