The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2024!

alicef

@KajiKita - radish fridge pickles ... my go to solution for radishes as I still have plenty of seed and I hate wasting seed. The fridge pickles are delicious and very pink!  This time round I think I used the online recipe at 'Love & Lemons'. 

We had some tonight alongside marinated lamb w/pitta; home made tzatziki; stuffed vine leaves & greek salad.

KajiKita

alicef said:

@KajiKita - radish fridge pickles ... my go to solution for radishes as I still have plenty of seed and I hate wasting seed. The fridge pickles are delicious and very pink!  This time round I think I used the online recipe at 'Love & Lemons'. 

We had some tonight alongside marinated lamb w/pitta; home made tzatziki; stuffed vine leaves & greek salad.

Wow …they look amazing! 🤩 Heading off to Love and Lemons …. 😊

KK

alicef

It's a bit quiet on the thread - hopefully not due to slug invasion!

The tomatoes are now strung and we have flowers! Some other produce coming through inspite of the weeds and cool weather.  I do need some inspiration on recipes incorporating gooseberries.

goldfinches

Wow, all your plants are much further on than mine. I discovered a raspberry while I was weeding the other day and it has some very faintly pink berries on it so I hope the birds won't get the lot, meanwhile the pigeons made a meal of my calabrese so that's hopefully recovering under a net.

I'm planning to try these gooseberry and elderflower muffins this year and this page from Delia Smith's website has some really gorgeous sounding recipes, the creme fraiche tart sounds amazing as does the jam.

droopsnoot

I have wild strawberry plants now in two places in the garden, unfortunately one place is in the corner where I've been throwing the cat "leavings" when they decide to visit. The plants there now have fruit on them, but they're tiny. I've potted most of the tomatoes into their larger pots now, and yesterday I sowed some spring onion and other onion seeds in the garden, just in case they come up. For the potting, I bought a bag of compost from Aldi, but there's a lot of wood in it so I'm not sure how well they'll go.

Kantankrus_Mare

Ive been back from my Greek holiday for just over a week now and it feels like a distant memory already.
Dad did good watering my tomatoes every day and they have grown much bigger though no flowers yet.

On the plus side I have had about 6/7 punnets of strawberries.

Plot looking very tidy after a couple of afternoon stints.

alicef

Thank you @goldfinches for the gooseberry recipe links - I use Delia's recipe for apricot preserve but as I'm looking at having a rubbish apricot crop this year, I'm going to give the gooseberry & elderflower cordial one a go.  Also very tempted by the ice-cream recipe; I've never made ice-cream, only sorbet, but I think I do have an ice-cream maker buried in a cupboard somewhere.  Good thing I made a couple of litres of elderflower cordial the other week!

@Kantankrus_Mare I miss growing strawberries but we had to net against blackbirds and they always seemed to get in & under the netting; perhaps I'll invest in some runners and dedicate a raised bed to them which would be easier to net.

goldfinches

@alicef - my gooseberries aren't nearly ripe enough to pick so I'm feeling very envious of your crop and will probably be asking you what you recommend I do with mine in about a month from now unless we get a burst of warm weather.

@Kantankrus_Mare - welcome back and I'm totally impressed that you already have strawberries, the pick your own farms around here have only just opened for this year so you're beating the commercial growers too.

I've done yet more weeding at my plot today and have got all the way to the end on the left hand side now and dug it all over so now I have to turn around and weed back towards the middle on the right hand side which I've been avoiding because it's mostly couch grass intermingled with chives that I want to keep and disentangling them will be an absolute nightmare. Once that's done I'm going to sit down and make a proper chart of what's where and have a think about which of the seeds I've started on the windowsill I can plant out and what needs a bit longer in the warm. Do you just use pen and pencil to do a plan or is there an allotment planner online that's good?

kayannie

alicef said:

Thank you @goldfinches for the gooseberry recipe links - I use Delia's recipe for apricot preserve but as I'm looking at having a rubbish apricot crop this year, I'm going to give the gooseberry & elderflower cordial one a go.  Also very tempted by the ice-cream recipe; I've never made ice-cream, only sorbet, but I think I do have an ice-cream maker buried in a cupboard somewhere.  Good thing I made a couple of litres of elderflower cordial the other week!

@Kantankrus_Mare I miss growing strawberries but we had to net against blackbirds and they always seemed to get in & under the netting; perhaps I'll invest in some runners and dedicate a raised bed to them which would be easier to net.

Have you made gooseberry fool? It's delicious!
KA

Kantankrus_Mare

Ive got 4 beds of strawberries mostly grown from runners I have done myself. 
One of the beds has had it though. Going to clear and start a fresh one. I have to net mine but just hold down with bricks. Stops the birds getting in.
Third attempt at french beans. First I think I overwatered and they rotted. 2nd...dad didnt keep up with watering. Just popped to the plot and there are signs of life so fingers crossed!