veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

lolly5648

How do you know when beetroot and onions are ready. I thought they would crown but nothing seems to be happening. I dug up a beetroot and it was tiny so don't want to pull the others. They have been in over 4 months.

Orange_King

Good to hear you have had a great return for your efforts Scotsaver.

I'm reasonably pleased too with good crops of onions, rhubarb and garlic, plenty of carrots & peas, some parsnips, a glut of tomatos and strawberries and a fair amount of spuds. Best performer was the French Beans I got from BBC dig In and they are still producing. Think I might try sweetcorn for the first time next year.

Lolly - the beetroot I had that were any good at all were visible on the surface. The others were miserable little roots of things.

wssla00

mutley74 wrote: »

thanks but not sure what happened to my garlic i did in the spring....?

is that just normal salad leaves from seed?

Yep, normal salad leaves from seed. I have a wide range going in in the next few weeks- winter density, raddicchio, lollo rosso, Australian yellow, Japanese onions (from seed not sets- amazed at how well they do) spring onion winter hardy lisbon and some rocket.

loucroft

Loads to plant everyone?

I'm going to the allotment tomorrow to put in some leeks my Dad gave me in pots, they can overwinter, and to see how my army of beetroots are doing. The last one I dug up I ate yesterday ( with lots left over ) - it was about 20cm in diameter and tasted wonderful in a lemon/lime roast chicken salad!

I can only imagine that the rhubarb is at last dying down, that there's still a load of potatoes and that my carrots may be ready. Loads of beets waiting to come through still, and my cucumbers, radish and runners might just be given away as there were tonnes last time ( though the radish and pots weren't too successful earlier on, it might just be the different variety thats successful ) !

Let us all know if you're still planting and harvesting, for me it would be good to hear about how you plan to redesign or re-jig your veg plots.

Lou

kimmee

A few weeks ago I brought 3 sweet pepper plants into my conservatory and left 3 outside to see if it would make any difference to to ripening the fruit from green to red.

Thought I'd just report that it's been hit and miss - one plant has got all the peppers either red and harvested or turning red. One plant has good few peppers starting to turn red but others are still green. The last indoor plants fruit are all still green.

However the plants outside are not doing very well at all so I'm going to bring them all inside today.

katholicos

Well it feels like seasons end here...the veg growing is winding down and i've taken out my french beans, courgette plants, (rubbish) cucumbers, peppers, (rubbish) aubergines, (rubbish) dwarf runner beans, and some of the tomato plants. There's only some toms, leeks, parsnips, a few squash, lettuce, cape gooseberries, cabbages and sprouts left growing. So much to evaluate about my first year of growing my own, so much to do differently next year! Have all the seeds for next year that i bought heavily discounted this year....have a massive amount of compost i've accumulated from exhausted veg plants, compostable household scraps etc. Should only need to buy some potting compost next year, or vermiculite or perlite, and some general veg fertiliser. All in year, a very good first year and i'm very much looking forward to next years growing.

loucroft

Yeah get that compost in earlyish if you can.

I've done really well with some things, but poorly with others - potatoes just weren't happening for me this year so a bit of rotation with a few potatoes in places I haven't had them might do it for next time.

good luck everyone!

Oh, we ate our giant beetroot the other day, with loads leftover and it was gorgeous boiled and put into salad. Yum!

wssla00

It's gone so quickly hasn't it? We will need a new thread for us not so newbies- perhaps 2nd year gardening school common room :rotfl:
I have been busy in the garden evaluating the year and now ready to plan really excitedly for next year. Some things I wont bother with next year and some things I will do more of. I will definitely redo the cucumbers toms and peppers and will also do some early peas as they were such a treat this year. Won't bother with runner beans as I have hover flies who eat all the nectar and I get no beans but will do french beans again. Broad beans are going to go in, both dwarf and climbing and I am cultivating a cut flower garden too as it was so nice having loads of flowers for the house.
Oh- And I am definitely going to plan more successional sowing as sometimes I can only eat a certain amount of something before I get sick of it. However the more tomatoes and strawberries the better!
Roll on second year of gardening school!

scotsaver

Sounds like a good idea for a "2nd year" thread - it will be my second year with my Allotment next year and already planning what to move around and what to grow more of next year.

Been up there this morning to dig up some more spuds, quite pleased with what I've got so far, so glad I've left them in that bit longer as a lot of people up there were disappointed with this year's crop. Still got loads more to dig up over the next few weeks.

Not much else to report really.;)

loucroft

hey! I was really dissappointed - most of the plants didn't even flower, so I let them die down naturally and now I collect when I need them and there's always plenty in the ground, just small ones though!

Next year is definitely a case of crop rotations. If anyone needs any help with this then please just shout