Harvesting - how's it going?

moneysaver1978

How's your harvesting this year? What are you growing?

It's our first summer in our new house and we have managed to harvest parsley and sugar snaps!

• pea sugar snaps in a big pot, harvested already and great! Planted more!
• tumbling tomatoes in baskets, lots of flowering with 2-3 tiny tomatoes. Hope to harvest next month or so!

And we MSE-style repurposed an old bird feeder for a vertical herb garden containing pots of:

• flat-leaf parsley (great and snipped a few for refreshing salad!)
• mint (great and snipped a few for mint tea!)
• rosemary (very slow growing so will see what happens otherwise might bite the bullet and consider planting a little one from a garden centre!)

RHemmings

I'm surprised that there are not more replies here. 

I'm gardening for the first time this year, and really don't know what I'm doing. 

The things that are doing best and which I'm harvesting the most - several varieties of radish. I have loads. They aren't strongly flavoured when cooked, and work well as a generic 'vegetable'. 

Oh, and the classic 'too many courgettes'. 

Cucumbers are looking very promising. So does corn, but I suspect the badgers will get it. Not me. 

FreeBear

One apricot (with a bit of brown rot) that should have been a plumcot, a handful of spuds, and a small bowl of cherry plums. In all, a very disappointing year.

sarah1972

It’s been bumper for us. 

So far courgettes, squashes, peas, carrots, potatoes, spinach, celery, beetroot, kohl rabi, raspberries, cabbages, cauli, cucumbers, toms, French beans, runner beans, onions, lettuce, sweetcorn 

twopenny

It's been a very dry, cloudly and cool summer here so harvest is late.

Loads of Dunster plums (it's a good dooer) but many went mouldy because of the weather.

Loads of Raspberries but they didn't ripen properly because of the lack of sun. Still loads for the freezer.

Fighting the squirrels and rats for my eating aples, My one Bramley doen't seem to appeal to them but lots of windfalls from the houses nearby.

Rosepetals for rose water and Lavender for room freshening.

Runner beans got every sort of fly due to the dry but still harvesting some

Weirdest thing is the Purple Sprouting Broccoli one plant is making sprouts to eat in summer. I will leave it to overwinter in the hope it gets a second crop. It can happen.

Tomatoes still to get bigger and ripen. Very late.

Dustyevsky

Did it a few weeks ago. 27 bales, same as usual. No bought-in fertilisers, just muck.....and love! 

moneysaver1978

Thank you all for your updates - looking like strange year for harvesting! Weather has been awful in Kent - so much wind and a bit chilly!

Rosemary slowly expanding.

Loads of little tomatoes but all green! Kept thinking about covering the basket in a clingfilm to create a greenhouse effect...

We love purple sprouting broccoli (and they are dearer at supermarkets now) - will be sure to plant for next year, thanks for the reminder!

RHemmings

Allotment vegetable curry and rice. 

No prizes for guessing why I don't have any carrots in it. 

Slinky

Had a fabulous crop of onions, absolute whoppers, the best we've ever had. All that rain saved watering and the crop was the better for it.  The strawberries gave a very good crop too. Raspberries are just coming along now. Smaller than previous years, it's been dry the last few weeks and we haven't watered as much as we could. Lettuce was a struggle to get any to germinate, then keep the slugs off what did come up. Didn't have any success with later sowings. 

Our espalier apple trees I removed most of the small apples from, we wanted the trees to concentrate on growing rather than producing fruit this year as they are still fairly young. I missed some of the small fruit which have now turned into nice large fruit which I've harvested this evening. Will be going into the fridge as we're on holiday for a couple of weeks. I didn't want them dropping and rotting while we were away.

moneysaver1978

Tomatoes are finally starting to turn orange - not long before they are all red and ripe ready for harvesting!

Katiehound

moneysaver1978 said:

 

• rosemary (very slow growing so will see what happens otherwise might bite the bullet and consider planting a little one from a garden centre!)

rather one from the garden centre look at the price in the supermarket for the potted (for cooking) herbs- not sure if they are in Aldi.

Another way would be to beg some cuttings a bit later in the year and then push them round the edge of a (preferably) clay pot and leave to over winter.  I have grown a few that way as well as baby lavender bushes.
 I seem to do quite well using this method (evergreens) but give up with spring / summer cuttings : they just up & die!!