As we're coming towards the end of the main growing season (well, here in UK at any rate), we're now taking stock of what went well, or didn't, and thinking about what we may grow next year.
We'll be doing all the mainstay stuff again next year.....carrots, onions, leeks, which have all done very well. We gave red onions a miss this year as they didn't do too well last season, but may try again next year with a different variety, as I do like red onions.
Peas did phenomenally well, especially since it was our first attempt - will grow twice as many next year (and space them out a bit more, was hard to harvest them this year as they were too close and a bit of a tangled mess in places ).
Our yellow French beans, after a VERY slow start, picked up and cropped well. We had a bush variety before (think they may have been called Waxpod) which had a lovely buttery taste, but the ones this year were a climbing variety and just don't taste as nice, so back to the bush ones next season.
We tried a variety of 1st early spuds called Rocket, cropped reasonably well but I wasn't impressed with the taste and they got massively tunnelled and munched (by slugs or eelworm I suspect, who clearly DID like the taste!), which may have been more to do with the fact that they were grown in previously uncultivated ground than the actual variety. Will go back to Charlottes next year. Our maincrop Desirees have done well, probably grow again next time.
Tomatoes.....hmmm. 3 varieties grown this year - a baby yellow plum, which have been quite prolific and are the only ones to have ALL ripened so far. A 'normal' round variety - husband mislaid the label so we don't know what.....quite heavy cropping but only a few have just started to ripen. And Roma - again, heavy cropping but still all firmly green. We don't actually eat that many tomatoes raw, so don't think we'll bother with the baby plums next year (only really grew them as we bought the last 3 plants from a farmers market back in spring as we thought they would be a bit of a novelty). I'd rather have more tomatoes that I can cook with - may either start them off earlier next year, or investigate different varieties. To be fair, we haven't had as much sun this year which is probably why they're taking so long to ripen (the Romas are clearly missing the Italian sunshine!).
Rhubarb did well. Planted 1 blackcurrant and 1 gooseberry this summer - no fruit (obviously) for this year, but the bushes have grown well so high hopes for next season (only one of each as I'm the only one who will eat them - husband doesn't like either). Apples haven't done as well this year as last....however, as well as the lack of sun, the trees themselves are donkeys years old and probably need some TLC.
We're not going to bother with cabbage or sprouts next year....they take up too much space and for the amount we eat of them, it's not worth growing them - would rather use the space for something more useful.
Well, that's us......what about you?
learning to love veg…..except celery :-O
Lots more spinach, one of my great favourites & certainly more peas. I will try to grow a succession of them so I have them for the whole growing season. Certainly more varieties of tomatoes as when one type fails I have others. I bought in my tomatoes this year but I'm going back to growing them from seed (house renovation permitting). I am also going to go back to growing carrots in large tubs at table height (to avoid the dreaded carrot-fly). I will also plant a lot more chard as any surplus or older plants will cheer up the chickens in winter. I will also plant a whole lot of the coloured chard in the front garden as it is so decorative in the winter. Oh & I nearly forgot more artichoke plants....I love the way they look as well as the chokes to eat.....Some of these will also go in the front garden as it has more sun, for most of the day.
"The beautiful is as useful as the useful...perhaps more so."
from Les Miserables
Agree about the carrots Kaye , Not growing Cobra french beans again didn't get 1/3 way up the sticks. Wish I could train Tigerella toms not to keep decorating shirts or attacking nostrils!
Seed catalogues are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than the web and playboy combined . (after Michael Perry)
seth...please explain, I've gotall sorts of pictures going through my head.
Not sure what I'll be doing next year, I always say less tomatoes and less chillis, but then I plant loads of seeds...just in case, and then I can never bring myself to throw any of the seedlings away...
Grown jerusalem artichokes this year and they look good but not harvested yet, would like to do more if they are a success.
More beans I think, I like the sound of the waxpod beans and think I'll look out for them.
More peas, more herbs, more rhubarb.
I'd not heard of this variety before - but now, Sue, with your recommendation, I wouldn't mind trying them next year as I really like French beans.
Thanks a lot !
Terrier said:
seth...please explain, I've gotall sorts of pictures going through my head.
Tigerellas are extremely juicy and thin skinned ! On the action producing an equal and opposite reaction , a bite puts pressure on weakest point result it BURSTS sending seeds and juice down shirt or up nostrils. Did you want some seed ?
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Seed catalogues are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than the web and playboy combined . (after Michael Perry)
Our celeriac has grown very well this year, so will probably try those again, so have the different winter squashes and will wait to see what they taste like before making decisions. We have lots of different sorts of beans, Borlotti beans, should have remembered to trim them back earlier rather than wait for an extremely tall friend to do the job for us, runner beans and climbing beans for picking throughout the summer, and short beans for a fill in crop. I have tried peas this year too and did very well at getting lots of seeds but so did the pea grubs , lost about 80% of one crop to them. Next year I am going to try two different approaches - covering and deterrents with other plants interspersed. We shall see about getting more tomatoes for taste, what we don't eat, we dry or bottle - love tomatoes.
Sunflowers were good this year, but while our self-seeded pumpkins raced away, those I planted myself gave up the ghost . Not be going short of pumpkins, I have spotted about 7 at least of a reasonable size. Our potatoes are tasty but no idea what sort as they are the result of several years of keeping some back from the previous crop, we will select some good ones for next year from this batch. You don't get seed potatoes here but you can get different varieties and Latvian potatoes are yummy anyway.
Think I have waffled enough now.
I had roaring success with vegetable amaranth, and I have let 3 plants go to seed (they are enormously tall now), so that I can save the seed. The first year I grew it, I remember that the birds beat me to the seeds, so I am thinking of putting some kind of bag over the seed heads when they are nearly ready.
My green peppers were great, too. I thought they weren't going to be, as there was bad blosom drop for a month, but then suddenly they started setting fruit. We have a typhoon coming, so yesterday, through a jet-lagged fog -- just back from Chicago) I hurriedly put in taller stakes. When I was in Chicago, I saw these beautiful big, glossy dark green peppers called poblanos. They were like ordinary peppers with just a suggestion of a kick. I'm going to grow those next year.
As usual total failure with tomatoes. I give up. I don't even eat that many, but I always think that homegrown ones will surely taste better, so I have a go every year. I even send seed of a couple of Japanese varieties to my brother in Portsmouth, who manages fine, despite the weather 🙁
I'm thinking about what I can sow now, to be able to harvest in the winter and spring.
Sansho
I'll grow Ferline tomatoes again. I chose them for their resistance to blight but I'm pleased with the flavour - they are big, sweet, and firm. Just a pity one of the plants broke under the weight of the fruit.
I won't bother with Ildi again though. I'll stick with my beloved Sungold.
Lady Balfour potatoes, again chosen for blight resistance have done very well in my sacks so I'll grow those again.
Cobra beans - Seth, I'm surprised they didn't do well for you, mine have been really good, and still cropping heavily. They always do well for me but this year is better than ever. Maybe they like being squashed in with sweet corn and pumpkins. I will try doing that again, but timing is everything. Beans and pumpkins have thrived, and I may still get some sweetcorn if the weather holds out. The one survivor from the first sowing (they didn't like the cold early summer) has romped away but the later sowing were too late to compete and are only now catching up.
Never assume anything - except an occasional air of intelligence.
sanshojapan said:
The first year I grew it, I remember that the birds beat me to the seeds, so I am thinking of putting some kind of bag over the seed heads when they are nearly ready.
Here in latvia people tie agricultural fleece around sunflowers to catch the seed, so maybe that would work with the Amaranth or at least keep the birds off
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