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

Suffolk_lass

TomandBarbara said:

Hi All
Well I was managing to keep up with all the allotment veg but now my fridge is bulging! Sadly our lettuces have now got too big and the slugs are attacking them so I've now got a huge bag in the fridge of lettuce leaves.   Very time consuming washing them and checking for bugs as they are full of holes! And there is only so much lettuce you can eat so I can't imagine getting through the bag anytime soon!
We also have courgettes, green beans, peas, sugar snap peas (these have done amazing I would definitely recommend them!) and potatoes.  
And still some squash from one of our Crown Prince squashes that was harvested last year, they have kept brilliantly on our bay window!

Hello @TomandBarbara (great forum name, BTW!), my go-to for a lettuce glut is a lettuce and pea soup, or Peas a la Français (braised lettuces cut in half, with a creamy stock sauce, spring onions and peas). The soup can be frozen and revived when reheated with a dollop of greek style yogurt, or a drizzle of cream. Shout if you want the recipe

Farway

kimwp said:

My tomatoes are ripening, but the flesh is quite mushy. I haven't really fed them so it may be that, but is it possible that it's the type of tomato?

It's possible, what variety is it?

Are they in pots, ground, inside or out?

Maybe someone is growing or grown the same and can then say if it is how that variety is

alicef

Getting to the end of the freestone plums - helped by having neighbours round to help themselves and the foxes hoovering up fallen fruit.  The clingstone varieties are ripening now; then gages and finally damsons.

 

@Suffolk_lass I just knew those potatoes were going to be sumptuous; I also agree that the username @TomandBarbara is lovely!  Funny thing about lettuce - I think I'm longing for the time when I don't have to buy bagged lettuce and then when faced with my glut, (some starting to bolt),  I'm sort of 'meh' - but, thank you for the tip, I'll try braising some.  @kimwp let us know the variety and a picture if possible. My tomatoes are just starting to colour - Sungold up first and then it looks like it will be 'Sun Grape'.

alicef

This week harvested and made things with the freestone plums (cake!; fruit leather; more plum sauce); neighbours came round and helped to clear a lot of the remaining crop; the rest are being eaten by the wildlife; harvested other things; watered the polytunnel; picked sweet peas; collected wildflower seed, (a good haul of foxglove seed); thinned some of the apple trees.  The aubergines are starting to flower - they are a forlorn hope as I never get a particularly good crop, but as I still have seed I grow them.  The tomatoes are starting to colour and the pointed peppers are fruiting.   We will get some pumpkins/squashes.

I snuck a 3 pack of 'Grosso' lavender plants into the big L1dl shop, as I want to create a hedge and I think can get a decent number of cuttings from the bought plants.

TomandBarbara

Suffolk_lass said:

TomandBarbara said:

Hi All
Well I was managing to keep up with all the allotment veg but now my fridge is bulging! Sadly our lettuces have now got too big and the slugs are attacking them so I've now got a huge bag in the fridge of lettuce leaves.   Very time consuming washing them and checking for bugs as they are full of holes! And there is only so much lettuce you can eat so I can't imagine getting through the bag anytime soon!
We also have courgettes, green beans, peas, sugar snap peas (these have done amazing I would definitely recommend them!) and potatoes.  
And still some squash from one of our Crown Prince squashes that was harvested last year, they have kept brilliantly on our bay window!

Hello @TomandBarbara (great forum name, BTW!), my go-to for a lettuce glut is a lettuce and pea soup, or Peas a la Français (braised lettuces cut in half, with a creamy stock sauce, spring onions and peas). The soup can be frozen and revived when reheated with a dollop of greek style yogurt, or a drizzle of cream. Shout if you want the recipe

Sorry for the late reply! Unfortunately I had to change my username a long while ago due to some issues I was having with someone who spammed me on Ebay..... Thought we do try and live the good life so the name was fairly apt!
Ah thanks, I've already frozen all our peas now although we do have some shop bought ones lurking in the freezer so that might be an idea.  I have found a recipe online for just lettuce soup.  I made a lot of rocket soup last year which was really nice, so hopefully lettuce soup will be a pleasant surprise!

TomandBarbara

alicef said:

Getting to the end of the freestone plums - helped by having neighbours round to help themselves and the foxes hoovering up fallen fruit.  The clingstone varieties are ripening now; then gages and finally damsons.

 

@Suffolk_lass I just knew those potatoes were going to be sumptuous; I also agree that the username @TomandBarbara is lovely!  Funny thing about lettuce - I think I'm longing for the time when I don't have to buy bagged lettuce and then when faced with my glut, (some starting to bolt),  I'm sort of 'meh' - but, thank you for the tip, I'll try braising some.  @kimwp let us know the variety and a picture if possible. My tomatoes are just starting to colour - Sungold up first and then it looks like it will be 'Sun Grape'.

Ah thanks Yes I know what you mean about the lettuce, its great but sometimes I do wish it was already washed and I didn't have to worry about looking out for little critters!!!!  It can be quite time consuming to prepare!

strawb_shortcake

Just thought I join in, brand new to growing my own. 
It's probably not very MSE but I've joined pot gang, a subscription for seeds, my logic is that it will make me do something every month and I'll grow something different. 
It can all be grown in pots (so far) so good for those with limited space. 

I currently have radishes, lettuce and chantenay carrots growing. Radishes are doing marvellous and should be ready in a couple of weeks, lettuces seem a bit slow. 

This month, I have Thai basil, pak choi, Lemongrass, Japanese rocket and cumin - I don't use a huge amount of fresh herbs and not a fan of pak choi but hoping I'll be able to find a home for it.

FlorayG

Finally have a crop - for weeks and weeks the only thing available was rainbow chard but now I finally have lettuce (had to give up and grow them in a tub raised off the ground after the slugs ate FIVE SOWINGS of seedlings), Green tomatoes finally ripening, loads of cucumbers, french beans, peas were short season but lovely; nearly all gone in a week. Carrots are rubbish, really tiny, anybody suggest why? They're in a raised bed so soil not too hard for them. Cabbages have some slug damage but not too bad. Sweetcorn just starting to show tassels
oh, and I have 12 Brussels sprout plants that were sold to me as cabbage seedlings, so they take up a huge amount of room and it's a good job I like sprouts

Farway

FlorayG said:

 Carrots are rubbish, really tiny, anybody suggest why? They're in a raised bed so soil not too hard for them.

Too close together & need thinning out? Or maybe low in nutrition soil?

droopsnoot

On all my tomato plants, I've got four fruits, and some more flowers. I've got one pepper plant with peppers on it on a plant I bought, none of the ones I grew from seed have any flowers. There are some signs that flowers might be coming on some of them, but by the time they get here I think it'll be too late for them to turn into peppers. I planted spring onions and silverskin onions in a couple of pots so I could keep the garden pests away, they've come up but they seem to have stalled growth now. Bit of a waste of time this year, I think.