Show Us Your Veg Patch - You Know You Want To!! (Merged Thread)

nodwah

hathor wrote: »

Help please, Nodwah!

I'd finally made up my mind that blueberry Top Hat was the one for me (on account of its compact height/spread habit, and my only having a balcony, not a garden) and now you say it's one to avoid!

What has put you off it, and if it's really useless, what do you recommend I should go for instead? Now I'm back to square one.

To think I nearly ordered it this morning, too...

Oh sorry!

it's just that we found the fruits tiny and pretty tasteless.

I know it's small and for pots and the other types are pretty huge bushes. I didn't realise you were growing on a balcony!
Could you cope with something 3 foot high and a big big pot? You can prune them to keep them smallish.

Oh dear - just get the top hat then.

Purpleroses

evening. hope you don't mind me posting here. i'm a lurker on this part of the boards but i just had to post and say how fab it is! this is the first year we've grown veg we've not done bad i dont think! only a wee plot with lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, turnip, carrots, sweetcorn, peas (and others i can't remember now). though i'd post a few pics too:
















quite proud of our wee plot altho our carrots haven't turned out as planned :rotfl:

connacher

the one in the middle looks like 2 wee fingers i love them. lol well done

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

I'm sure the one in the middle was in Take That!

juliemay_3

quite proud of our wee plot altho our carrots haven't turned out as planned :rotfl:
[ Hi Ciara 2712. My dad used to make quite big carrot shaped holes witha dibber(??) and fill it with really fine sieved soil. His carrots were normal shaped but not as interesting as yours.

Many thanks to those who gave me advice about blueberries and my raised bed (Spinach crop planned) . As I'm relatively new to posting (a serial lurker for many years) I don't know how to post thanks to invividual posts. I will when I find out.
Cherio

Juliemay

Primrose

Juliemay - you can be proud of your carrots. The EU have been trying ban irregular shaped vegetables for years so it's good to see the real things, and I bet they taste lovely. My attempts at growing carrots usually end up like yours. We have very stoney soil so root crops usually fork at some point. I started off my parsnips this year in toilet rolls packed with compost so will be interested to see if their roots turn out nice and straight. Incidentally, to thank an individual for their specific advice or post, just lick on the blue "thanks" button in the bottom right hand corner of their posting and a little note will come up saying that you have thanked the individual.

jtb2412

Tip for carrots if you prefer the 'straight' variety (although the nobbly mis-shaped ones are lots of fun !) ........ see if you can get some big buckets and sow your carrots in those. The coloured toy buckets with the rope handles are excellent (don't forget drainage holes though!). We managed to pick up two of them at a car boot for £1 each ! Just put in a load of compost (admittedly we've had to buy it - our first year!) and ours have been lovely and straight. Also keeps the dreaded carrot fly away too (too high for them to fly).

HTH - happy gardening !

yorkshirecath

I'm just in the process of revamping my garden.
Do you think it's too late to start a patch now? Should i wait til next yr???

Primrose

yorkshirecath - I'd start it now. It will give you a chance to get your plot dug over really well and hopefully some manure added which will get you off to to a good start next Spring. If you sow in the next couple of weeks while the soil is still warm enough, you'll be able to grow some spinach or Swiss Chard if you like it and possibly a few lettuces if you cover them over with the large 1.5 litre mineral water bottles with the bottoms cut off, to use as individual cloches. I find that endive (curly type lettuce) is also quite hard hardy and will survive all winter if covered over in this way.

mandylew

we have an allotment and have just bagged £58 cash prize money at the local horticultural show, and £44 of that was what the kids won in novelty classes like a tray garden, face made of vegetables! There is big prize money for giant onions, leeks etc (like £100 first prize) but we just grow for fun and to supplement our weekly shopping. If you have a local show its worth getting the schedule and looking what you have to offer.