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

alicef

I've come in for a tea break, (potting on & stringing up cucumbers).  @kayannie I haven't made gooseberry fool for years, though it is delicious, (there is a Delia recipe on the link that @goldfinches posted made with yoghurt).  

I don't often make a pudding as I never plan them into meals; also by the time I've prepped and cooked the main dish, I've had enough. Occasionally I make a crumble (on Sunday), because I have the ingredients to hand, otherwise the offering is ice-cream/sorbet!  Having said that I do poach pears in a spice & saffron syrup and freeze them. However, I've checked the Delia recipe and as it uses yoghurt rather than cream and as we invariably have yoghurt in I have no excuse!  Just need some more sun to ripen the gooseberries.

alicef

rain, rain and more rain...Today I hid in the potting shed and potted on chilli plants.  Harvested lettuce and broadbeans.  The cavolo nero has been eaten by pigeons; my rosemary has turned into a triffid.  I extracted one of my pot grown garlics to check on progress - I'm not sure that the head is much bigger than the original clove I planted; I'm hoping they will get bigger!

alicef

Today I shall, definitely maybe, plant out the squashes; sweetcorn and sunflowers - just after I've had a cup of tea, or 2.  Yesterday I potted on the melons and looked at my veg. patch - the weeding wasn't enticing enough so I wandered off to look at the fruit trees. 

alicef

Another week has gone by and I still haven't planted out all the squashes.  I blame the weather - it was too hot.  Although that didn't stop the slugs from emerging and devouring some of the plants.  Hopefully I will have some squashes left.   Instead of the planting, I lolled around and deadheaded roses.  I did water in the polytunnel. The grapes need another prune and de-leafing,  I decided to pick all the sweetpeas instead, (which need tying in), to keep the flowers coming.

alicef

Not much done this week on the fruit/veg front, apart from some harvesting.  Although I've started to harvest wildflower seed from around the holding as the seed ripens, (at the moment dog violet & red campion), which I then redistribute.  I've an upcoming collecting session of yellow rattle seed at a local wildflower meadow next week, but looking at the weather forecast, it might be rescheduled. 

kimwp

alicef said:

Not much done this week on the fruit/veg front, apart from some harvesting.  Although I've started to harvest wildflower seed from around the holding as the seed ripens, (at the moment dog violet & red campion), which I then redistribute.  I've an upcoming collecting session of yellow rattle seed at a local wildflower meadow next week, but looking at the weather forecast, it might be rescheduled. 

Beautiful!!

Suffolk_lass

@alicef I freeze gooseberries having topped and tailed them, and we have them stewed as a breakfast topping in winter (on porridge) and as a ready-made dessert, simply stewed with custard (and the leftovers of this get whizzed into poor-man's g-fool, with or without a little cream, depending if we have any). Also as a compote, jam or butter (the butter is great in a sandwich cake as a variation on a Vic sponge) and also added to savoury dishes like a curry for a bit of something interesting and unexpected (and less sweet than mango). I also bottle them in a light syrup and make trifle with them at Christmas.

I'm a bit of a fan to be honest (can you tell?!) - they are nutritionally so good for you they are unsung heroes of the garden. I have two new Leveller (dessert) gooseberries ready to go in my fruit cage once the courgettes finish.

In my garden news, I have been really quiet, partly beekeeping takes over, and partly an injury. However,  the lack of germination of my squashes this year is a real worry. I ended up buying three cucumbers (one for the greenhouse, two outdoor, one of which has been eaten), some butternuts, pumpkin (crown prince) and courgettes and they all look minute and struggling. Similar with beans, I have had to buy them. I am going to move where I store seed back indoors in case this is the reason.

If the more permanent planting the pigeons found the netted gooseberries (hence the fruit cage move) blackcurrants are plentiful but sour because of insufficient sun, raspberries are not going yet, loads of apples, hardly any plums, gages or damsons, lots of lovely strawberries are just finishing, the asparagus has been rubbish. Rhubarb has been some and some. You know there are issues when it goes to seed in late May!

Our garlic has been fantastic (bought from Kings Seeds, locally, planted in October, fed with one lot of garlic food, after six weeks) and I'm sure I will end up preserving some as we have more garlic than onions (also rubbish). Half the normal number of tomatoes but chillies and peppers are looking good in the greenhouse with the one and only cucumber, has produced one with more to come. Finally, potatoes (2nd earlies) and salad crops are doing well in the double height, half width, raised beds. We grow these for flavour rather than as a money saver. I might have to buy some seasonal veg to put in my produce freezer.

A good reminder about harvesting and moving seed - we will move the spent foxgloves to the back of borders and leave them to do their thing, having tolerated a 3m high clump in the re-wilded lawn this year. Lots of other tall plants have migrated to the fronts of borders and need some guidance too. Enough, I need to do bee things again before the rain that is forecast...

TracyS66

Picked a ton of blackcurrants this weekend in between the rain!" hopefully enough to make maybe 3 jars of jam/compote. Harvested the 1st tub of potatoes too, had about 20 so that will keep me going for about 2 weeks. 
I love reading all the posts and also picking up some good ideas along the way, thanks all 

alicef

@Suffolk_lass ahhh thank you for the gooseberry reminder. Your culinary uses for them sound divine!

I've looked at our soft fruit in the fruit cage.  I have got some, (not quite ripe), gooseberries left, and a couple of redcurrant bushes still ripening but I'll have to keep an eye on them if I want to harvest any, as we had removed the top netting last time we had snow and it hasn't gone back on - the birds are stripping the ripe fruit.   Back up plan to redcurrant jelly may  have to be quince, rowan or crab apple.  Our asparagus was rubbish this year as well.  The garlic, I planted in pots, (cloves from last year's harvested heads), are hopeless.  I must remember to get a prompt order in for garlic.  

I'm seriously considering not growing veg. plants for the village charity plant sale next year, as it is such a lot of work early in the year, and decent seed compost is getting expensive.  My ornamental beds need an overhaul so come autumn I'll lift and split the perennials and then pot on plants for the sale. 

@TracyS66 we do have blackcurrants!  I might make cordial or a fruit vinegar with them. 

Finished my cup of tea so I better go and finish planting the sunflowers!

Suffolk_lass

@alicef, I understand that seed compost is the least nutritious compost, so if you have grown garlic in pots, you could sieve that and use it as seed compost for everything except onions or garlic. The same with spent grow bags you might have grown tomatoes or more likely (because tomato roots take up so much space), peppers, chillies or cucumbers. More important than the nutrients is the loose structure, so sieving achieves this, and saves pots (pun intended) of money.

We have never had more than six redcurrants in ten years - same reason, under netting too, so it is coming out this year.

Blackcurrant cordial is divine. We use the same method as making jelly but I don't boil it to a set, and if you want to keep it, you could add two crushed campden tablets to stop it fermenting (home-brew beer-making suppliers such as bigger Boots sell these). I also add it to spirit such as vodka and leave it for a couple of years to make the wrong spirit base cassis (still lovely with prosecco top, as is the cordial)