The even newer good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2021!

carinjo

On weekend picked loads of sloes and a tub of blackberries on camping trip. 
Yesterday on allotment we planted a raised box with tulips and a row of spring cabbage, blask radish and winter lettuce, none of which got anywhere last winter, but having another go this year.

carinjo

Harvested marrow, butternut, honeyboat squash and crown prince pumpkin. The latter 2 since i accidently broke the stems when i checked them. Oops. Also some beetroot, only ones i managed this year. That left room to earth up the leeks.
One butternut plant going crazy and formed 3 more! Makes up for the ones i lost.
The zephyr courgettes done now, they were my best veg this year. 
Rain tomorrow and a busy week ahead, but hoping to tidy up the brassica bed before the weekend. 
I checked the broadbean pack and got 5 seeds only! Need to find some more before next month. 

Suffolk_lass

I think we will use our winter beds for heeling in plants that I want to temporarily move - I have one bed where I am killing ground elder and another that I want to reduce in one place to increase a patio and reduce grass behind so it is still about the same size overall. I also have rabbits to contend with and mice in the roof of the extension that are being treated (blow flies in the house suggest this is working) - so not sure I will plant any more veg. I want to have a really good tidy up this year. I need to get on FB Marketplace for some old carpets too, to suppress weeds. Mine are disintegrating

carinjo

Harvested last of the pumpkin so the broadbeans can go in by the weekend.
The fig tree which have never had more than 2 figs are heavy under a few dozen! Unfortunately too late for them to ripen i think, but glad to see the pruning advice from mr A worked.
The leeks, chard and kale all doing well, so will get the beds ready for the colder weather this weekend.

Suffolk_lass

How diligent of you! We are away at the moment and things have been largely abandoned. Just three of the beds have leeks in that have been under the squashes all summer. We certainly have enough squashes to last the winter, and twelve 1 litre jars of homemade tomato sauce. Plenty of onions and apples, together with berry fruits are in the produce freezer. I am hoping to run it down to empty along with the chest freezer (meat and bread mostly). We are due half a grass fed lamb shortly too...

carinjo

The broadbeans went in this morning, as did the onion and garlic. Was not planning on the latter 2, but an allotmenteer neigbour was planting some and recommended a garden centre nearby, so thought, why not. 
Got about 7 double glazed windows from a neighbour who was replacing his and the neighbour putting in a new conservatory also said i can have a look through his windows (single glaze), see if i can use anything! 

On another note: for those of you planning on covering up for overwinter to kill grass and weeds, please learn from my mistakes: proper plastic like a tent groundsheet, prevents water from reaching your soil and in my case, does not kill marestail. I had a lot more luck with weedsuppressing sheets (L1dl). Lifted it up after a season of pumpkin and marrow and the soil was crumbly and mostly clear of weeds and grass.
Carpet is good for a season, but keep an eye on couch grass which will grow through anything! 
El cheapo rolls of "weedsuppressing fabric" is just a big no. The ones that have a bit of a stretch to them. I am still digging some up after 3 years of having the plot. They become like stretchy glue and a shovel will not go through it You better off with cardboard.
Cardboard need a heavy weight on it, otherwise it will blow away. I found it more a pain than useful, except for a base in a raised bed (it kept most of the marestail out of the raised bed). So if you able to check on your plot regularly over winter, then it can work, otherwise it will disintegrate and leave gaps exposed where you don't want it.

Some of us learn from other people’s mistakes and the rest of us have to be other people.” Zig Ziglar

Tomorrow (later today?!) is rosehip picking. Got a yummy marmalade recipe on another thread here.

leftatthetrafficlights

Planted broadbeans at the weekend and put the garlic in the weekend before 😊 I'm looking forward to next year as I will be able to start the season at the right time now that the beds have the right amount of compost in! 

droopsnoot

I've planted some of my pepper plants out in the garden plot. All the plants had yielded one pepper each, and were looking very much the worse for wear - I'm not sure if I'm over-watering, under-watering or doing something else wrong. In any case, I've read that they can be an outside plant so I figured I had nothing to lose. In clearing out the vegetable patch (it had become very overgrown because I've just left it alone all year) I did get quite a crop of small potatoes, which was nice. Some of the pepper plants have been in there a few weeks now and show no signs of improvement. Some of those still in pots are growing new peppers, with one plant having about four on it at the moment.

Maybe next year I'll remember to plant the onion seeds that I bought, and perhaps nothing will steal the lettuce.

Kantankrus_Mare

I grew ginger in the greenhouse for the first time ever this year. I put it in a pot around early summer and initially thought nothing was happening. After what seemed a rather long time some shoots started popping up and a few weeks ago I had a delve and lo and behold there was copious ginger roots in the pot!! Just took a bit off for what I needed but now Im not sure what to do. Will it keep as it is in the greenhouse over winter? Can I just keep taking what I need? Would love to hear if anyone else grows ginger and their experiences.

Scottiedog_3

Kantankrus_Mare said:

I grew ginger in the greenhouse for the first time ever this year. I put it in a pot around early summer and initially thought nothing was happening. After what seemed a rather long time some shoots started popping up and a few weeks ago I had a delve and lo and behold there was copious ginger roots in the pot!! Just took a bit off for what I needed but now Im not sure what to do. Will it keep as it is in the greenhouse over winter? Can I just keep taking what I need? Would love to hear if anyone else grows ginger and their experiences.

I have two ginger plants, grown from a lump of Lidl ginger- both overwintering in my kitchen. I dig a lump up from time to time, cut a bit off then bury the remaining lump in fresh compost. I never get the beautiful flowers you see in other people's special ginger plants - but then what can you expect from a lump of Lidl ginger?