2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

leftatthetrafficlights

Picked loads of tomatoes today- still some left but think within the next two weeks they'll be finished. Also picked a load of scarlett runner beans and cooked them - lush!! 😍

Planted cauliflower seeds, more rocket and winter salads, some charlotte potatoes for a winter crop and more onion seeds as the ones we planted a couple of weeks ago are doing really well 😁 

I've cut back some leaves from the winter squash to encourage the squash to ripen, the courgettes are still coming thick and fast and the cavolo nero is massively productive too. Parsnips are looking really good - it's tempting to pull them but I know that it's better to wait until the frost sweetens them, the cabbages are forming decent heads, the leeks are bulking up and the sprouting broccoli is doing well 😁

I need to find some decent garlic to plant - we had a look yesterday but the bulbs really didn't have good sized cloves - dh is keen on doing elephant garlic but I've been told that it's very mild flavoured which is pointless as far as I'm concerned!! 😳😂 I'll need to spend some time to find some decent stuff in the next few weeks...

KajiKita

Good spud haul @sammy_kaye18 👍😊
There seems to be masses of black berries this year! 😳👏😊🤩 The birds don’t eat them here, so I feel no guilt now in taking as many as I can 😊

KK

sammy_kaye18

KajiKita said:

Good spud haul @sammy_kaye18 👍😊
There seems to be masses of black berries this year! 😳👏😊🤩 The birds don’t eat them here, so I feel no guilt now in taking as many as I can 😊

KK

Same. I always tend to leave any that haven't turned black yet for the birds or any that are smaller - they still need to eat after all but I always make sure I get enough to get a decent portion of jam and then maybe some syrups or cough syrup for the colder months. 

Can someone help me too? I have a few questions 
1.  I am trying to figure out what to do with the compost I had grown the potatoes in.......am I right in thinking I cant put more spuds or anything else into it or am I better setting it aside for a bit to add some nutrients back into it. They were grown in a bag so not a bed. 
I have a few more bags and boxes with spuds in as well

2. I would like to grow a few more bits and hopefully over winter. I have read that I can plant things now like winter salad leaves, spinach, radishes are all fairly quick growing and I can over winter things like broad beans and peas. 
Apparently if I plant turnip seeds now too they would be golf ball sized by Christmas and could make the dinner table. Is there anything else? I do have a plastic greenhouse I can grow in as well so wouldn't have to be sown outside. 

3. What do I store pulled potatoes in? Someone suggested a potato bag and somewhere dark? but what on earth is a potato bag and what is it made of?

Also forgot to add I managed another small haul today too. I was busy tidying up the garden and enjoying some sunshine and noticed an area that needed weeding, well I must of just chucked some spare seeds in or spilt compost that was seeded because I pulled up a little crop of small carrots! So tea tonight was chicken in white sauce with a shortcrust lid, carrots and potatoes followed by leftover shortcrust pastry with a blackberry jam filling and custard. 

And to then add to the jam stash - husband had a lady approach him in work asking about a stack of pallets they had outside, he jokingly asked what she had to trade with - and before he could ask her how many pallets she wanted so he could put them in her car - she'd gone back to her car and came back with two jars of jam - one blueberry and one rhubarb and ginger. Sounds like a good trade to me! 

leftatthetrafficlights

sammy_kaye18 said:

KajiKita said:

Good spud haul @sammy_kaye18 👍😊
There seems to be masses of black berries this year! 😳👏😊🤩 The birds don’t eat them here, so I feel no guilt now in taking as many as I can 😊

KK

Same. I always tend to leave any that haven't turned black yet for the birds or any that are smaller - they still need to eat after all but I always make sure I get enough to get a decent portion of jam and then maybe some syrups or cough syrup for the colder months. 

Can someone help me too? I have a few questions 
1.  I am trying to figure out what to do with the compost I had grown the potatoes in.......am I right in thinking I cant put more spuds or anything else into it or am I better setting it aside for a bit to add some nutrients back into it. They were grown in a bag so not a bed. 
I have a few more bags and boxes with spuds in as well

I put mine back into the compost heap - however,  don't see any reason you couldn't reuse it for spuds - I've grown them in leaf litter with no problem at all - they'll pretty much grow in anything!! 

2. I would like to grow a few more bits and hopefully over winter. I have read that I can plant things now like winter salad leaves, spinach, radishes are all fairly quick growing and I can over winter things like broad beans and peas. 
Apparently if I plant turnip seeds now too they would be golf ball sized by Christmas and could make the dinner table. Is there anything else? I do have a plastic greenhouse I can grow in as well so wouldn't have to be sown outside. 

Salad leaves (winter salad), cauliflowers (for a late spring/early summer crop), carrots and beetroot (under cover) can all be done at this time of year- depends on where you are/what the climate is to how successful you'll be...my theory is chuck it in and be grateful for what works!! 😂 I  use a cold frame type set up (very successfully) for this type of veg in the autumn/winter

3. What do I store pulled potatoes in? Someone suggested a potato bag and somewhere dark? but what on earth is a potato bag and what is it made of?

Mine are grown and then kept in hessian sacks - anything made from something breathable will work -  so a cotton pillow case would be fine, or a cotton 'carrier bag' from a variety of places😉 the dark is necessary to prevent the potatoes from going green from exposure to light (makes them poisonous)

Also forgot to add I managed another small haul today too. I was busy tidying up the garden and enjoying some sunshine and noticed an area that needed weeding, well I must of just chucked some spare seeds in or spilt compost that was seeded because I pulled up a little crop of small carrots! So tea tonight was chicken in white sauce with a shortcrust lid, carrots and potatoes followed by leftover shortcrust pastry with a blackberry jam filling and custard. 

And to then add to the jam stash - husband had a lady approach him in work asking about a stack of pallets they had outside, he jokingly asked what she had to trade with - and before he could ask her how many pallets she wanted so he could put them in her car - she'd gone back to her car and came back with two jars of jam - one blueberry and one rhubarb and ginger. Sounds like a good trade to me! 

Well done on the carrots and the jam!! 😁

sammy_kaye18

Thank you so much for the reply @leftatthetrafficlights

I have a tub in my greenhouse which is leftover old compost that I have had no where else to keep it so maybe Ill add to that and use it as and when I need to. 

I'm down in South Wales so not too bad temperature wise but I do have a greenhouse to save them from the elements a bit. I'm thinking maybe as and when I pull things out (mainly spuds) I will then plant up things like winter salad, turnips, beetroot and carrots and like you said if it works, it works. If not then I tried at least. 

I actually had a clear out of bedding the other day and came across a few sets so I might pinch a few of the pillow cases for vegetable storage in that case. 

leftatthetrafficlights

sammy_kaye18 said:

Thank you so much for the reply @leftatthetrafficlights

I have a tub in my greenhouse which is leftover old compost that I have had no where else to keep it so maybe Ill add to that and use it as and when I need to. 

I'm down in South Wales so not too bad temperature wise but I do have a greenhouse to save them from the elements a bit. I'm thinking maybe as and when I pull things out (mainly spuds) I will then plant up things like winter salad, turnips, beetroot and carrots and like you said if it works, it works. If not then I tried at least. 

I actually had a clear out of bedding the other day and came across a few sets so I might pinch a few of the pillow cases for vegetable storage in that case. 

Potatoes do need protection from frost so if you do them in bags, pop them in the greenhouse towards the end of autumn/once the temperatures start to fall...if you do them in a bed/normal ground, I'd suggest covering them with hay/straw during the colder months to protect them 😉

Suffolk_lass

I disagree about reusing compost that has had potatoes or tomatoes to plant either in again. They are part of the same family (genus) and both are prone to blight.

That does not mean scrap it, just be careful where you put it. You could use the classic four crop rotation that is roots after potatoes - so carrots and parsnips in particular, really benefit from the soft crumbly soil that potatoes leave, with a reduced chance of wonky angles in these if they follow potatoes. They also go well in sacks.

The other two traditional crops are brassicas (cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli) after roots then legumes (beans, peas) after brassicas. Here we grow onions between beans and potatoes to avoid onion white rot and we grow only chard, spinach and kale instead of the traditional brassicas. They are so cheap in East Anglia, and I have never yet grown a successful cabbage or cauliflower due to pest nibbling.

Your haul looks very impressive though @sammy_kaye18 - well done!

The hessian sacks thing has never worked too well for me but I think it's because I got the more open weave ones that are for leaves. If you can be a**** to collect the leaves, they make a fantastic top dressing after two years rotting down. My Mum just puts the leaves in old compost bags and to be honest, they make leaf-mould just as well. These days my potatoes go in a brown paper bag, in a brown paper carrier, with a scrunched up brown paper bag covering them. So far no sprouts or green bits

Suffolk_lass

When I harvested the onions and shallots, several really small onion pips had not really grown so I plan to re-plant these when we get back from Scotland (start of October) and I have just ordered some garlic from Kings Seeds for October delivery. I have no idea what will work well but I have gone for a soft neck variety, as I choose to buy these over the hard neck ones in the SM. 

Oh and I ordered some sweet pea seeds to get them going next month too.

droopsnoot

^ I picked all my onions a few weeks back, none had grown very large, though it seems that I missed some as there are now five more shoots coming up which certainly weren't there before. Perhaps they have more breathing space now.

I have wild sweet peas everywhere, to the extent that I'm trying to remove the seed pods to try to reduce how much further they spread. It doesn't help that they're pretty much the same shape as the leaves. 

Glittering_M

Squirrels have eaten all the sweet corn 😭😭😡