First of the seasons wild strawberries from the garden wild corner in my breakfast bowl of cornflakes this morning. Delicious!
What are you growing?
- Thread starter punkrockcaveman
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I’m trying to grow grass, seems the weeds are flourishing though
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I do have some grass growing, I found it in the dirt when I started digging up the weeds, not sure what they are but there is a major root system under the mud that I’m trying to turn in to a lawn.
Think it’s going to be a long term project killing the weeds regrowing them and killing them off again.
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Well, it’s been a long, cold, wet winter and spring here in north western Somerset. Everything in the garden and greenhouse has been at least a month behind the usual growing progression. Things are picking up now, but I don’t think some plants will be as successful as we’d hoped.
We grew the following flowers from seed this year. All were started in the greenhouse, but all are now out in the garden:
Cheers, Bob
We grew the following flowers from seed this year. All were started in the greenhouse, but all are now out in the garden:
- Linaria ‘Fairy Lights’: took forever to get started, but a nice show of blooms now. They are like very small snapdragons, but with a flowing form more like lobelia (we have some of them coming up too).
- We have some bee-friendly sunflowers, chosen by the organisers for the village sunflower competition. They are now out in the flower beds having been started in a corner of the greenhouse. This type aren’t very big yet, but we shall see.
- Nasturtiums and french marigolds being grown in amongst the veg beds as complimentary plants for the veg - they might help keep some carrot fly away.
- A lot of Nicotiana, looking much more interesting now that they are growing properly. I can’t wait for the evening scent from these - one of my faves in the summer.
- Old fashioned sweet peas. IMO, these have the best scent of all the types we have tried. These are our cut flowers for the house.
- Several cucumber plants growing well, a mix of mini (‘Mini Munch’) and standard (‘Carmen’) cucumbers. We did these mainly late as the first-sown early plants all died, probably due to the cold. They are all growing strongly now, and have a lot of flowers on them. I expect we will be sharing the cukes themselves with the neighbours as we will probably have too many…
- One courgette plant indoors (one outside too to give a harvest progression). These plants were sourced as swaps with our neighbours as we always grow far too many tomatoes. We have been eating the courgettes from the two plants over the past two weeks, and very nice too.
- Mixed hot chillis. Slow growing but there are some fruit now showing. Let’s hope for lots of sunshine to help ripen them.
- Sweet peppers, same as for the chillis, but little sign of fruit yet.
- Lots of basil, as we like to make our own pesto. Growing well.
- Six or seven varieties of tomatoes, from cherry to beefsteak types in about a dozen builder’s buckets - much, much cheaper than pots from garden centres and perfectly good when you have drilled drainage holes in them. Most of our plants now have small fruit on them, but no ripe fruit yet. My missus likes to dry and save seeds from any particularly nice supermarket tomatoes that we might buy in the winter, so we have a nearly-free source of seeds.
- Raspberries. This year the three short rows have really grown up well, and are now covered with blossom, young fruit and bees. Today we had the first handful each of berries from the end of the sunniest row. I haven’t finished using up the end of last year’s harvest in jam yet, but maybe some extra jam making will be necessary to give freezer space for this year’s bounty.
- Blackcurrants: Last winter I tied two of our blackcurrant bushes out into espalier-like forms for reasons of space and neatness , and then pruned all of the bushes lightly. They have grown up nicely, and are bearing a good load of fruit right now. The currants are just starting to turn colour. We also seem to have far fewer leaf curl bugs this year, but that is probably down to the poor spring weather as we don’t use any sprays in our garden.
- Gooseberry - we were gifted one very small bush. This has now taken, and has about a dozen berries on it. It will probably take a while to get well established but we will eat them fresh as a treat.
- Blackberry - we planted a commercial plant two years ago now, and it is coming in nicely. It has lots of flowers on it right now. I doubt if we will get a good harvest from it, but I have formed it out on a frame to catch more sun. We will probably eat the fruit fresh with clotted cream as a summer dessert
. Note that we wouldn’t have bothered with the commercial variety as we like a bit of hedgerow gathering, but the wild blackberries round here are a bit tasteless compared to what we used to get in Surrey. - Wild strawberries: loads and loads of plants around the bases of our fruit bushes. They currently bear a lot of flowers and some early green fruit. Nice to eat as a snack while gardening, or to be added into the jams we make.
- Peas: we have sown Jaguar and Marrowfat varieties, and they are doing really well. Plenty of pods and flowers, but not much in them yet. There were so few plant failures that we will probably be freezing a lot of the harvest this year.
- Onions and some shallots and garlic: now growing well but I think these will be a very late harvest. We have grown some spring onions from seed too, and they are looking OK, but again they will be late.
- French beans: our first early sowing was perhaps a bit hopeful, and most of them died. A second sowing is doing much better, and there are flowers and some early pods on them. Last year we tried freezing some excess pods, but when cooked they had no texture and were horrible to eat. So this year we will eat all of this year’s beans fresh as they come ready.
- Carrots: a very poor showing from some expensive, taped seeds. We will get perhaps one good feed from them.
- Beetroot: we started these in the greenhouse in a four weekly progression. So far so good, but none near eating size yet.
- Parsnips: growing well with a surprisingly successful germination rate this year. A favourite of mine to eat.
- Rhubarb: we forced some stems for use in a bottle of rhubarb vodka, but since then our single root has outgrown most things in the fruit cage. The stems and leaves are now enormous. I will probably take some stems out to make up into pie and/or crumble fillings, which will go into the freezer until required.
- Tomatoes again. My wife bought some outdoor bush type tomato seeds (‘Veranda’), and these plants have done well so far with green toms on them at the moment. They are short, dense bushes which seem very hardy. Along with some of our other excess tomato plants that we couldn’t pass on, we have a mixture planted in both the flower beds and in more builder’s buckets. These bring us up to about 40 plants in total, which will keep us in fresh and frozen toms for the foreseeable future. Good thing we like to eat them.
- Potatoes sown in used compost bags and spare plant tubs. A lot of foliage, but no flowers yet. We will dig them up one plant at a time when once they have flowered and died back a bit.
- Liquorice bushes: we still have three bushes growing in a 70L builder’s mixing tub. They have been in for three years now, so perhaps I will dig one up this autumn to see how the roots are.
Cheers, Bob
Some read that Bob! The liquorice root sounds interesting, I was literally talking to someone about it today, we used to get it from a local sweet shop. I hate liquorice sweets but liquorice root is way better IMO.
I had a busy night on the veg, bought some seeds on my lunch, sewn a bunch tonight. Grabbed a load of cow manure on my way home from work, forked over the veg bed with a good 100L of homemade compost, planted some sunflowers and french dwarf beans and started to germinate some coriander. I'm really late with the effort but I thought there's still plenty of the year to learn a thing or two. Late sewing might teach me a thing or two about successive planting atleast.
I had a busy night on the veg, bought some seeds on my lunch, sewn a bunch tonight. Grabbed a load of cow manure on my way home from work, forked over the veg bed with a good 100L of homemade compost, planted some sunflowers and french dwarf beans and started to germinate some coriander. I'm really late with the effort but I thought there's still plenty of the year to learn a thing or two. Late sewing might teach me a thing or two about successive planting atleast.
Everything is so late this year. My peas are still only a foot high, normaly I'm picking them by now, and the runner beans are still not at the top of the poles, but I have seen a few flower buds this morning. Courgettes are still to flower, and tomatoes have one truss of flowers so far. Carrots and beets are finaly starting to grow, though far from at the edible stage.
I lost so many plants this year due to the cold wet spring I have a very sparse garden this year.
The garlic seems to be doing well, though the leeks seem to be stuck !
Soft fruit seems OK,... apart from the apples.....4 fruits between 2 trees...
I lost so many plants this year due to the cold wet spring I have a very sparse garden this year.
The garlic seems to be doing well, though the leeks seem to be stuck !
Soft fruit seems OK,... apart from the apples.....4 fruits between 2 trees...
Broad beans and baby potatoes on my dinner plate from the garden this week.
First couple of pea pods forming and some tiny tomatoes beginning to form, more cold wet weather holding things back again.
Garlic is doing well though.
First couple of pea pods forming and some tiny tomatoes beginning to form, more cold wet weather holding things back again.
Garlic is doing well though.
Tomatoes are ripening just now - the little ones - along with the quick growers like radish, beet tops, chard. This time of year, not much makes it to the table. It all gets grazed on, mainly as passers by stop to talk garden. The peas never ever make it in as the kids get them.
Problem this year has been spinach. On a third try now and it's not looking good. First couple of plantings all bolted. The spot is too hot I think. Probably plant the shadier parts in the back, get rid of some of the Hostas that came with the place.
Problem this year has been spinach. On a third try now and it's not looking good. First couple of plantings all bolted. The spot is too hot I think. Probably plant the shadier parts in the back, get rid of some of the Hostas that came with the place.
Payoff (a.k.a harvest) time has now started in earnest our garden . The restocking of our big freezer for winter, and some really good fresh meals to follow…..
We now have our first pick of the peas, in this case the Marrowfat variety. I picked a big bag of them this afternoon and have just finished shelling them. Some for consumption tonight in one of my wife’s fantastic risottos, and the rest washed, portioned and bagged and into the freezer for later use. This is the first year we have grown the Marrowfat variety, usually going for Jaguar, but these seeds (from DT Brown) have been very successful, and are now ready for picking. The patch of Jaguar we also have growing look like they are a week or two behind but are looking like a good harvest as well.
We will also be having our second large portions of raspberries and wild strawberries with a splash of double cream tonight. The rasps are coming, but not in large numbers yet, so we’re eating them fresh as far as possible. I dont think this year will be as good as last for rasps, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem because we haven’t eaten all of our frozen fruit from last year yet, even as ‘extra’ raspberry jam !
Our plant-swap courgettes have done very well, and I have even converted my wife to eating them, so long as we have them with the french beans we’re growing. Just as well really, because the french beans really have been quite poor this year - very late to start, small bushes, and a low yield. Perhaps the long, cold and very wet spring was not what they wanted…..
Cheers, Bob
. The restocking of our big freezer for winter, and some really good fresh meals to follow…..We now have our first pick of the peas, in this case the Marrowfat variety. I picked a big bag of them this afternoon and have just finished shelling them. Some for consumption tonight in one of my wife’s fantastic risottos, and the rest washed, portioned and bagged and into the freezer for later use. This is the first year we have grown the Marrowfat variety, usually going for Jaguar, but these seeds (from DT Brown) have been very successful, and are now ready for picking. The patch of Jaguar we also have growing look like they are a week or two behind but are looking like a good harvest as well.
We will also be having our second large portions of raspberries and wild strawberries with a splash of double cream tonight. The rasps are coming, but not in large numbers yet, so we’re eating them fresh as far as possible. I dont think this year will be as good as last for rasps, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem because we haven’t eaten all of our frozen fruit from last year yet, even as ‘extra’ raspberry jam !
Our plant-swap courgettes have done very well, and I have even converted my wife to eating them, so long as we have them with the french beans we’re growing. Just as well really, because the french beans really have been quite poor this year - very late to start, small bushes, and a low yield. Perhaps the long, cold and very wet spring was not what they wanted…..
Cheers, Bob
Knocked these little guttering planters for a few quid tonight. I had a bunch of the roundline stuff left over from guttering the log store plus a couple of clips, so I bought a few end caps and some extra clips and threw them together.
I've filled them with my first lot of homemade compost and sewn a bunch of lettuce in them
Those rones are a great way to grow strawberries
I'm growing pretty much the same as the rest of you.
Had our first early potatoes a fortnight ago (maris bard) and lifted a potful of second earlies (maris peer) yesterday. Nice haul of really tasty spuds
Rasps will fruit from now until December. Mine are Autumn fruiting ones and neatly fill in after the blackcurrants and gooseberries and main strawberries are by. The rhubarb is prolific this year.
As a fun thing I grew on some of the seed from my sprouting mixture, and I have a pot load of lentils growing Didn't think that would happen in Scotland, but it's happily filling out.
Beetroots I grow in troughs and we've had so much that I'm pickling it now. Carrots have been pulled and eaten and I'm going to sow more. I like the big rich juicy Winter ones, so am happy to let them stay in the ground. My mini pumpkins are happily flowering and filling the greenhouse. They're supposed to be long lasting (bought from DT Brown too) small pumpkins that taste like butternuts that will happily store and still be edible by Christmas, so we'll see. Looking hopeful though.
My peas have been bountiful and we've eaten our fill. I dried the last pick of marrowfats that I grew, so they'll either be eaten or next years seeds
My apple tree is going to need some de-budding, the fruits are really huge already though, and there are masses of them. My neighbour's pear is the same way.
Other than that, we've done some major re-construction in the garden and have slaved for weeks. Growing stuff kind of got left to it's own devices, but seems none the worse for casual attention re watering, feeding and potting up.
Garden is still full of scent too. Roses, lavenders, sweet peas, evening primroses, lemon balm, honeysuckle, lady's mantle, etc.,
The Rowans are rich red this year and there are masses of them. There must be a dozen trees in the street and they're all like this. The big woodpigeons are getting fat.
I'm growing pretty much the same as the rest of you.
Had our first early potatoes a fortnight ago (maris bard) and lifted a potful of second earlies (maris peer) yesterday. Nice haul of really tasty spuds
Rasps will fruit from now until December. Mine are Autumn fruiting ones and neatly fill in after the blackcurrants and gooseberries and main strawberries are by. The rhubarb is prolific this year.
As a fun thing I grew on some of the seed from my sprouting mixture, and I have a pot load of lentils growing
Didn't think that would happen in Scotland, but it's happily filling out.Beetroots I grow in troughs and we've had so much that I'm pickling it now. Carrots have been pulled and eaten and I'm going to sow more. I like the big rich juicy Winter ones, so am happy to let them stay in the ground. My mini pumpkins are happily flowering and filling the greenhouse. They're supposed to be long lasting (bought from DT Brown too) small pumpkins that taste like butternuts that will happily store and still be edible by Christmas, so we'll see. Looking hopeful though.
My peas have been bountiful and we've eaten our fill. I dried the last pick of marrowfats that I grew, so they'll either be eaten or next years seeds
My apple tree is going to need some de-budding, the fruits are really huge already though, and there are masses of them. My neighbour's pear is the same way.
Other than that, we've done some major re-construction in the garden and have slaved for weeks. Growing stuff kind of got left to it's own devices, but seems none the worse for casual attention re watering, feeding and potting up.
Garden is still full of scent too. Roses, lavenders, sweet peas, evening primroses, lemon balm, honeysuckle, lady's mantle, etc.,
The Rowans are rich red this year and there are masses of them. There must be a dozen trees in the street and they're all like this. The big woodpigeons are getting fat.
We use guttering much the same in which to sow our early peas in the greenhouse. They come on well, and when they’re big enough we take the end off of the gutter, and transplant the whole contents into a groove cut into the veg bed. Easy to do - a simple slide - and doesn’t disturb the roots.View attachment 67759View attachment 67760
Knocked these little guttering planters for a few quid tonight. I had a bunch of the roundline stuff left over from guttering the log store plus a couple of clips, so I bought a few end caps and some extra clips and threw them together.
I've filled them with my first lot of homemade compost and sewn a bunch of lettuce in them
Weeds 1-0 Brian. For some years, I really did try. Carrots, green beans, radishes.
Exhausted pulling weeds in the heat & humidity & bugs, I quit. There's a perverse satisfaction watching the gardener mow down the weeds.
Even the goose berry and 3 Lonicera bushes are gone. Wanted rhubarb but I guess that's next spring. Just a few perennials = apples, black currants, bush cherries and of course, the grapes. Amelanchier (Saskatoon) flowered profusely but not a single berry. Probably a late frost got them all.
Exhausted pulling weeds in the heat & humidity & bugs, I quit. There's a perverse satisfaction watching the gardener mow down the weeds.
Even the goose berry and 3 Lonicera bushes are gone. Wanted rhubarb but I guess that's next spring. Just a few perennials = apples, black currants, bush cherries and of course, the grapes. Amelanchier (Saskatoon) flowered profusely but not a single berry. Probably a late frost got them all.
I have more Chard that I can ever eat- The village cafe now has a bag every Monday from me in return for a free lunch
Harvest from the garden and a few shop bought needing to be used up, like a pepper and tomato thrown together to make......delicious hot piccalilli.
Water bathed for added storage time.
This recipe is so easy.
3lb of mixed veg, beans peppers cauliflower tomato onion
Ginger, turmeric and mustard powder plus a bit of white sugar
White vinegar and cornflour to thicken the sauce.
Water bathed for added storage time.
This recipe is so easy.
3lb of mixed veg, beans peppers cauliflower tomato onion
Ginger, turmeric and mustard powder plus a bit of white sugar
White vinegar and cornflour to thicken the sauce.
Attachments
Well I've just pulled my onions (not a euphemism!) and it's not been a great year. I didn't expect it to be brilliant because I rotate my crops and this year the onions ended up in a shady spot. That combined with the cool, sunless summer hasn't been good onion growing weather. However my swedes are looking good and the cabbages have got enormous. Runner beans are coming thick and fast, plenty of potatoes and decent leeks.
Last year I let a few parsnips go to seed so that I had plenty to sow this year. Well, they have been a resounding success to the point that parsnips are coming up everywhere! I've just collected some more parsnip seed and inevitably broadcast it all over the place so I expect I'll be sick to death of parsnips next year.
Last year I let a few parsnips go to seed so that I had plenty to sow this year. Well, they have been a resounding success to the point that parsnips are coming up everywhere! I've just collected some more parsnip seed and inevitably broadcast it all over the place so I expect I'll be sick to death of parsnips next year.
Just to show how worthwhile saving parsnip seed is, we bought a packet of fresh seed from a large UK supplier and had absolutely zero germination. Tried a seed tray in a heated propagator to test and it also failed to germinate. Probably old seed being sold as fresh.
Absolutely bang on there. I struggled with bought stuff for years but strangely I've used seed I collected that is several years old and had good germination. I really don't know what they do to make packaged parsnip seed so poor.
Had our first sweetcorn from the garden tonight; soooo sweet - much tastier than anything I've ever bought!
- much tastier than anything I've ever bought!
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