The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

Primrose

It's been death by courgettes, tomatoes & beans in this household this summer and although it didn't turn out to be the hot barbeque summer forecast, my crops have done well. The the freezer is pretty well packed with produce, including tomato purree, tomato soup, beans, ratatouille, etc. as well as soft fruit. I'm not sure how much money we've saved but we should be eating well over the winter months and I always feel quite smug when we're eating our own crops instead of buying supermarket products which have foodmiles attached to them. The breezes are certainly getting autumnal now and I'm trying to clear the ground as crops die back, instead of having a big time-consuming blitz before winter really sets in.
I've got one small patch of worn out soil in the front garden where I dug out a dying shrub earlier in the summer. I've got a tiny blackcurrant offshoot which has rooted from my other bush tucked in somewhere else, so am busy digging in all my kitchen compost into the patch to let it rot down and improve the soil before moving the blackcurrant freebie into it. Amazing how quickly stuff still rots down if the soil is moist and warm. I'll also improve it with rotted manure before transferring it. Banana skins also seem to do well this way and I've read that they add valuable potassium to the soil so I dig them in around the garden borders now instead of adding them to the compost heap.

angelavdavis

Hello all, brews on.....

I have been picking my teeny tiny hundreds and thousands tomatoes which are delicious. There are plenty over for the chickens too much to their delight!

The tomato hanging baskets are practically finished now, so they will be composted this week. I have also got blight in the polytunnel toms (although the garden ones are OK).

Courgettes are still producing, as are the runner beans. The squash plants have done nothing at all and the brussels have been attacked by caterpillars so will be pulled this week too.

I need to think about what I can plant now - perhaps some pak choi and lettuces which I can put under cloches if required.

Ken68

Winter onions, angela..just seen in focus, three packets for a fiver. Havn't compared the price but the size packet looked similar to normal.

angelavdavis

Thanks for this Ken. I am torn about this. I planted loads last year and found it frustrating in spring when I didn't have enough room to plant stuff (seeing as I only have a limited veggie garden).

I have put a few red onions in to overwinter, but last year filled half my beds with onions and garlic and ended up running out of room for summer crops!

Rummer

my shallots were really disappointing this year. Maybe it was a poor choice of sets?

Rummer

Oh no I seemed to have killed the conversation!

Primrose

Angela - perhaps the answer is to grow the onions in a Growbag. They could probably be squeezed up quite tightly together as I can't imagine they'd grow very large over the winter. I share your frustration about having a limited vegetable growing area as every spring I find I'm desperately trying to use up the last of the leeks and Swiss Chard to give me sowing room for something else. We did sneak a little more off the lawn this year to enlarge my patch somewhat and one south facing border, which was originally used for bedding plants is now more productively and permanently used for growing tomatoes and climbing beans.
On another topic I'm very pleased with my experiment this year to see if I could grow tomatoes from "accidents". The top of one tomato plant which got broken off by a squirrel was planted in pot and is producing a nice little crop, and two sideshoots taken from Gardeners Delights have produced plants which are also producing tomatoes which will be late ripeners and probably have to be brought indoors to become red. But it does work, so next year, I'm going to repeat this experiment with Ferline F1 blight reisistant tomatoes. You can't save the seed because the plants won't necessarily come true, but sideshoots from existing plants will, so with seeds being more expensive, it's another way of getting extra plants, especially for anybody with a greenhouse who can prolong the season.

Sally_Davies

Could it be time for this thread to come alive again? I've got trays of everything all over my window sills and have actually, greatly daring, set some little sugar pea plants out in the plot. Still eating bits and pieces of purple sprouting, my absolute favourite vegetable, and just finished scoffing all the leeks, so in that hungry gap where I have to buy it all from the shops [scowl]. Saved my runner bean seeds from last year as usual - interesting how year on year the colour of the seeds changes as the genetics gets all mixed up from my original packets years ago.. this year I've got white ones and I've got black ones, but nowt in between! They both seem to be shooting OK in the pots. As usual I've got far too much stuff to fit in the garden but no doubt once I start setting them out, the slugs will off 70% and then I'll be moaning I haven't got enough plants! Happy growing everybody!

boultdj

Thank's Sally 4 finding the Potting Shed. I'm starting to pick salad from my cut n' come again lettice in the kitchen window,+ lots of seed's are starting to come up.

Ken68

Hiya all...still got some leeks and sprouting brocc and the perpetual spinach overwintered Ok..lesson there, they will take hard weather...
I grow runners for the seed, Sally, only have white and black...soak them overnight, and slow cook.
Extra Broad beans this year. Everything in except tomatoes and beetroot.
Looking good. Pears plums, apples in blossom. No frosts for the coming week, LOL. Goosegogs OK want spraying soon for sawfly. Got some Provado for the little red lily devils. Extra taters in.
Enlarged ornamental for extra foxgloves and hollyhocks, and neighbour gave me two Tree Lillies for the border.
Lots of runner beans in pots. First of the rhubarb. Lots of red onion sets.
Same here Boult...make up a salad with spinach, brocc, cabbage leaves, leeks, and onions all chopped up fine, equal vinegar and olive oil, salt pepper etc.
All Looking Good. Fruitful year to you all.