The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

unrecordings

I've been a little distracted with some repairs to the garage and the joys of pointing. Tomatoes still going strong in the older nackered leaky greenhouse, in the newer sunnier aluminium greenhouse the tomatoes are almost done. Second sowing of potatoes aren't looking too good - might be blight, need to look it up. Still plenty of blackberries to pick and squirrels haven't had all the apples yet. Wild garlic ramsons arrived last week and the postie had to inquire what was in the box because it stank out the sorting office. Planted some at the bottom of the garden, and will pot up a few for the shady spot on the patio

zafiro1984

gsdloopy wrote: »

I think you mean Yacon? If so, I've planted it for the first time this year. The plant hasn't gotten very big but I haven't had a good year this year with most things; partly due to the weather and partly due to me. I haven't dug up the yacon yet so can't say what the crop is like though I can't wait to see.

I bought it from real seeds. It wasn't cheap but can't remember how much I paid for it now. They have a list they put you and will contact you when it's available.

Yep, spelling isn't my strong point. Anyway many thanks, I'd be very interested in what you think when you harvest them. Are you growing it indoors or outside - I thought I might try it in the polytunnel. I'm growing Oca for the first time and have put it in the tunnel. I can't wait for the frost to kill off the foliage so I can see what it's like.

Happygreen:- I took your advice last year and bought a tray of living salad they were great and lasted ages.
This year I've already got some 'homegrown' living salad started - I've used the old out of date red and green lettuce seeds plus some odds and sods of old seeds like chard, carrot and beetroot. - I thought I'd give it a try rather than throw them out.

The paths and surrounds to the plot are looking a mess - wet and soggy with some weeds that have crept in whilst my back was turned.:(

Dizzy_Ditzy

I've pretty much written September off in terms of allotmenting - two weeks holiday plus extra time away for a wedding = nothing gets done! We have now pulled up all the potatoes at both plots as they were looking a bit past it. We aren't going to plant anything else this year other than onions and garlic.

But we've started making plans for next year - having seen lots of different techniques and simplistics while we were away, my mission seems to be to "Greek-ify" one of the allotment plots, starting with my grapevine which is going to get a pergola to grow up and over. The rest I'll figure out as and when I need to

zafiro1984

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

We have now pulled up all the potatoes at both plots as they were looking a bit past it. We aren't going to plant anything else this year other than onions and garlic.

Regarding potatoes, do you grow main ones as well as early ones. I want to try and grow all my potatoes - first ones in the polytunnel followed by some earlies outside and then main ones - but I don't know how many to grow, I don't know what the yield is likely to be so I can estimate how many to plant. Also, when you buy seed potatoes they tend to be by the kilo - how many seed potatoes do you get in a kilo? So far I've decided on swift or rocket for the earlies, Red Duke of York and sarpo Mira for the main ones. - help!!
Soil pretty good and I use nemaslug - if that's any help.

The other thing is I have vastly underestimated just how much we consume in vegetables, there is only the two of us plus the kids arrive most weekends. I grew 75 onions this year and I've used about half already, I really must grow more of everything.

Dizzy_Ditzy

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Regarding potatoes, do you grow main ones as well as early ones. I want to try and grow all my potatoes - first ones in the polytunnel followed by some earlies outside and then main ones - but I don't know how many to grow, I don't know what the yield is likely to be so I can estimate how many to plant. Also, when you buy seed potatoes they tend to be by the kilo - how many seed potatoes do you get in a kilo? So far I've decided on swift or rocket for the earlies, Red Duke of York and sarpo Mira for the main ones. - help!!
Soil pretty good and I use nemaslug - if that's any help.

The other thing is I have vastly underestimated just how much we consume in vegetables, there is only the two of us plus the kids arrive most weekends. I grew 75 onions this year and I've used about half already, I really must grow more of everything.

I grew pentland javelin as my early crop and they were my best. I planted 21 potatoes and got more than 30lb in weight from them, some of them were huge. They tasted great and were really versatile. I also grew sarpo mira and king edwards and jazzy potatoes and after the pentlands, I was quite disappointed with their yields. I won't be bothering with sarpo mira again, we had hugely odd shaped ones and they were harder inside than other spuds. All were grown outdoors. I'll definitely be doing the pentlands again. I keep the potatoes in a dark, covered box. We are still eating all types.

Have a wander around a garden centre - I *think* I bought mine in 2kg bags but I can't quite remember.

We need to grow more of everything next year. Definitely sweet corn, cabbages and brocolli. Hopefully the fruits will be more productive next year; split between the two plots we have gooseberries (which don't need to be more productive!) raspberries, strawberries, red and blackcurrants, cherry trees, apple trees, plum and pear trees as well as an apricot in my garden.

My winter planted onions were quite crap really but my spring planted ones were much better.

unrecordings

I pulled up my blighted potatoes and chucked the haulms in the green bin. Surprisingly I got a nice little haul of tiddly potatoes, so they shall be washed and fried in butter sometime this weekend. Finally planted out my garlic & onions for next year - all from DT Brown: Bohemian Rose and Solent Wight garlic, with Senshyu (white) and Electric (red) onions. The choices were pretty arbitary, I'm still experimenting really. Tomatoes still going strong in one greenhouse

Ken68

I just love reading this thread QofC, what others are growing, what works and what doesn't.
Rarely buy seed taters, (only about every third year) just put the best small ones aside on the ground to harden off, then put them to chit in the greenhouse later on.
Agree about Sarpa Mira, later getting off and hard but big and need to harvest very late.Best for my light land is Carla and for early/second early is a variety name beginning with C.name later.lol
Envy you Unrecordings being able to grow onion.

unrecordings

I think it's early days for onion envy :-)
The ones I grew this year (Radar) were quite small, but very tasty I must admit - I don't think I got that many of them given the 50 or so that were planted (okay, maybe I got around 40 back). What's the problem with onions around your neck of the woods ?

edwink

I have just found this thread. YAY!!! LOVE IT!!!

Can I join in please Queen of cheap? We grow all our own veg for us and our hens/ducks.

Have enjoyed reading what others have been growing and what they have been most successful in. Really made a good read for me.

Our courgettes have been really good this year as we have had heaps of them and still have some growing even now. Just picked the last of the tomatoes today and they are now ripening on the kitchen window sill with a couple of bananas on the top. We used a lot of our tomatoes this year but have also managed to freeze loads in preparation for making tomato soup for the winter and tomato ketchup when we find the time. We still have plenty of carrots growing. We grew the rainbow carrot variety this year plus others. The rainbow variety are real fun because they are purple, orange and yellow. Looks a bit odd on the dinner plate but they are so tasty. Lots of other veg still growing that I will mention those another time.

Happy growing everyone.

Edwink x

Happygreen

edwink wrote: »

I have just found this thread. YAY!!! LOVE IT!!!

Can I join in please Queen of cheap? We grow all our own veg for us and our hens/ducks.

Have enjoyed reading what others have been growing and what they have been most successful in. Really made a good read for me.

Our courgettes have been really good this year as we have had heaps of them and still have some growing even now. Just picked the last of the tomatoes today and they are now ripening on the kitchen window sill with a couple of bananas on the top. We used a lot of our tomatoes this year but have also managed to freeze loads in preparation for making tomato soup for the winter and tomato ketchup when we find the time. We still have plenty of carrots growing. We grew the rainbow carrot variety this year plus others. The rainbow variety are real fun because they are purple, orange and yellow. Looks a bit odd on the dinner plate but they are so tasty. Lots of other veg still growing that I will mention those another time.

Happy growing everyone.

Edwink x

Oh, hello! Nice to see you on this thread as well, edwink and chooks!


For that it was largely neglected, my veg didn't do too badly this year My timing was out of kilter due to bad weather, periods of ill health in good weather and such like....I still got lots of salad potatoes, lettuces and tomatoes. Better planning, effort and timing next year!
I just bought the living salads for winter planting. When the rain stops I'll tidy up a bit, not too much