The ups and downs and ins and outs of growing your own, 2018

Kantankrus_Mare

I was at the allotment last night when it had cooled down a bit. We are surrounded by empty plots so the brambles are always encroaching on our plot. Cut them all back last night and noticed some were ripening. It is usually end of July so maybe with the good weather we will get them earlier this year.

Picked my first courgette as well and with five healthy plants, i think I will soon be drowning in them.

Tomatoes just starting to turn red and think I may actually for the first time ever have a continual supply of salad through the summer. never got round to successional sowing in previous years.

Sweetcorn doing well. Mange tout not so good so pulled it all out last night and put some seeds straight into the ground.

Dizzy_Ditzy

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Dizzy Ditzy, I've grown some chard this year but find it tasteless and it goes sloppy when I cook it. What am I doing wrong, how do you cook it?

Such good intentions for today but did absolutely nothing, didn't even water. I'll pay the price tomorrow

i feed it to my chickens :rotfl:

I *think* you cook it like you would spinach. i think!

zafiro1984

Thank you Out, Vile Jelly and Dizzy Ditzi, the word spinach made me cringe - I dislike the stuff so perhaps the chickens can benefit from this batch of Swiss Chard as I'll not be growing it again.

The joys of having a veg patch meant that when I looked in the fridge for something to go with dinner (having been out for most of the day) and found no vegetables I was able to pick from the plot - purple french beans, mangetout, and yellow courgettes plus I had some previously harvested early potatoes - great feeling.

The mangetout have nearly finished but the new batch has just started to germinate.
Cucumbers are going great guns and so are the gherkins. I tried pickling gherkins but didn't use salt - horrible, I need to think of something else to do with them.
Aubergines have started to set, baby turnips have germinated
The only thing that has been a big disappointment are lettuces and salad leaves - maybe it's just too hot for them or maybe I'm not giving them enough water. - As it used to say on my school reports
'must try harder'

Cheery_Daff

You're all doing so well with the amount you're harvesting! :j

Zafiro - when I've grown chard in the past I treat it like kale - tear into bits and put under the grill for a few mins (perhaps with a spray of oil but it works without too) with a bit of salt and sometimes other seasoning. Crisps up beautifully (just keep an eye on it and don't set the smoke alarm off ) - I either sprinkle it on top of whatever we're having yesterday was scrambled eggs) or just eat it by the bowlful :j :j :j

(Not that I've managed to grow any of my own rainbow chard this year - I started it off but sadly none of it made it past matchstick size...)

I am SO excited about all the things we have growing :j we had such a tiny garden before and I got so discouraged by slugs I barely managed more than a few handfuls of anything. So much more space here and I must be doing something right (so far...). Not bad as we only moved at the end of Feb and didn't really get anything sown til late March (and it was still snowing at the start of April :rotfl: )

Getting à handful of raspberries each morning for breakfast, and I'm having a great lettuce year for some reason - it"s just cheapo mixed lettuce seed from @ldi or somewhere but they pretty much all germinated and I have loads. Growing them in pots and can barely keep up, it's great :j

Purple basil is really healthy :j but in the greenhouse so I keep forgetting to cook with it :rotfl: need to take some off for the freezer I think, and make some pesto.

Two different types of beans FINALLY have some flowers :j labels came off my courgette/squash plants so no idea what's what but the two biggest seem to be developing some yellow courgettes :j There's about 10 plants :eek: but lots of those should be various types of squash to store :j

Got a few baby tomatoes developing :j No idea whether they'll ever developuch further :rotfl: and lots of cucumber flowers, including one that looks like it might even develop into a cucumber! :j

Today I'm going to start off another couple of beds to plant out kale, rocket, and some things that might be either cabbage or cauliflower (more victims of the pen-wearing-off-the-labels fiasco :rotfl: )

So not as far along as some of you (but we started late and we're at 1300ft so apparently our growing season is a bit shorter anyway). I'm still pleased though and excited about making plans for next year :j

unrecordings

We've got a phantom pooper. The peas and beans were protected by a sparse cordon of sticks and canes to prevent our own furry bandit from doing anything naughty, but another cat has started visiting and is most determined. I've run out sticks, and it's still managing to squeeze past and find a spot. It's too hot, but today I decided to prune the holly and try that as an additional barrier.

zafiro1984

Cherry Daff I love you comment at the end of your posting regarding getting excited about planning next year, me too, I've made so many mistakes this year mainly starting things off too early and then having to do it all over again.

Unrecordings Gorse works well if you have any.

Stupid me yesterday - I decided to train the three cucumbers up bamboo canes and started to take out any side shoots. I only went and cut the main stem of one of them. never mind I used the space to put in another 12 lettuces which were waiting in modules in the greenhouse and could have been homeless.

Took out the spent mangetout, they gave a terrific crop over quite a long time but I've sown another row which should be ready end of September.

I'm trying cannelloni beans for the first time this year. There was no height mentioned on the Italian packet but I thought the packet said dwarf - my Italian is rubbish - I'm now trying to put in supports for them as they are 3ft high and falling over, I've no idea how tall they will grow. Such is life.........

unrecordings

I love gorse, but don't have any. I topped the holly with bramble runners instead. This morning I went out and picked a few tomatoes, need another couple of cups of tea before I go back and pick a tub of raspberries - but before the sun comes up over the trees. Going to be another hot one today but I'm hoping to get some nematodes down this evening, there's a little bit of rain forecast - here's hoping...

Dizzy_Ditzy

unrecordings wrote: »

We've got a phantom pooper. The peas and beans were protected by a sparse cordon of sticks and canes to prevent our own furry bandit from doing anything naughty, but another cat has started visiting and is most determined. I've run out sticks, and it's still managing to squeeze past and find a spot. It's too hot, but today I decided to prune the holly and try that as an additional barrier.

I use wooden skewers that you can get in most supermarkets for a couple of £'s for 100 :cool:

Dizzy_Ditzy

I thought having two plots was hard work but three is crazy! Only going to the "odd" plot once or twice a week at the mo for watering and raspberry picking. Starting to bring bits back from there for my new plot and it'll all be done by end of September. In the meantime, progress on plot 3 is coming on nicely and I've planted some cabbages in there already :j

Digging continues on the new plot and its starting to look like an allotment now

unrecordings

Dizzy_Ditzy wrote: »

I use wooden skewers that you can get in most supermarkets for a couple of £'s for 100 :cool:

Far too flimsy - my nemesis would just push them over. He's managed to uproot an 8mm diameter cane (okay maybe I didn't get it deep enough into the soil)

In other news, I was due to treat the patch with nematodes last week, and ummed and ahhed about whether it was worth it. I've seen very little slug action so far this year, so with a 'kick em when they're down attitude' I ordered some nematodes and applied them today because the forecast said it might rain. Which it did. Five minutes before we went out, and only slowing down just after we finished. So everyone and everything got a really good soaking. Which was good, and a fantastic excuse for a really large brandy...