[uptown]

To follow on from the food thread.
Ok, so there are loads of good reasons to grow your own fruit and veggies - they taste better, they're cheap, you cut down on food miles etc. This is my first year trying, and having knocked up some raised beds from scaffolding boards and planted some seed, I'm beginning to see the rewards: todays spud harvest.


Do any other ukb'ers tend the land? Post advice, pictures and stuff here - Earth is the new Brown...

[slackline]

That looks like a nice crop of tatty's you got there.

I've been getting loads of courgettes this year.  Beans are doing okay, not great, but enough for a meal once or twice a week.  All my onion seedlings disappeared over two nights, and only one of my sweetcorn plants has grown more than 60cm (but I didn't plant them in a square which is recommended so that they cross-polinate).  Pick a bit of lettuce here and there too, and the strawberries are coming through okay (although I need to weed the bed).  Got some brussel sprouts that are looking very healthy so should have some nice winter veg come October too.

Eagerly awaiting fruit from a Scotch Bonnet and a Habanero plant that are both very healthy with >30 flower/flower buds on to start doing their thing.

An older thread on the same topic from last year Is Gardening the new Climbing?.

[Dolly]

Good effort on first attempt at pots. How is the flavour compared to shop bought ? I always think that the difference is really noticeable - more so than with other veg for some reason

Broad beans are good at the moment. Succulent and very juicy, but not a massive crop
We've also got a courgette glut at the moment - this is one of my fave courgette recipes http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=519&catid=4

Our beans are not going great as well, same for toms, even tho' they're in the greenhouse

Garlic harvested and drying out in the garden.

Raspberries and redcurrants also dropping off the branches and into a summer pudding

[robertostallioni]

Our lass does the Penelope Keith bit, although she seems best at cultivating slugs and snails. Your courgette status update is upsetting as I know we have them in our raised beds but apart from kale we have little to harvest thus far. Kale sandwich anyone? Kale and chips? Kale and Spam?

[underground]

Been a bit mixed for us, but I suspect it's more to do with the enormous decking that previous covered the half of the garden that now contains my 3 raised beds (made from the deck)and the other bit that isn't raised, and since I didn't really dig it, isn't technically a seedbed either - plus I got round to it all so late, that it's just a load of compacted nutrient lacking soil underneath....

Still, garlic is all plaited up and drying, spuds have done nicely, although could have done with more earthing up - 'Windsor' first earlies and they are nice, but need shorter cooking time than i'd have expected or they get a bit mushy. Think they're a bit old now.

Had some summer squash in a carbonara tonight which were fantastic, thought the wind had done 'em in but they're the strongest crops in the garden ATM. The only surviving winter squash plant is doing well now. Sweetcorn is a bit stunted and doing nowt thus far, and the peas are fat pods with titchy little peas inside. I'd like to try the native american way of growing corn, for the beans / peas to climb up, and squash to cover the ground and supress weeds next year.

Broad and runner beans = pure shite, think a combination of poor soil and not enough water has done them, akthough the flowers and if they grew the pods on the broadies went black and died.

All the beetroot were like marbles and a bit tough too.

Kale is doing OK for later in the year but could do with being spaced further apart. Bumper crop of radishes, rocket, lettuces, corn salad, chard and perpetual spinach, that we keep sowing as it gets used or bolts...

It's been aninteresting start - learnt a lot, and found that this year the weather has been unconducive to going outside and doing the stuff that needs doing; plus the time factor, especially with 2 littlies to look after, is a hard one - no wonder a lot of gardeners are retired folk!

[slackline]

I'd like to try the native american way of growing corn, for the beans / peas to climb up, and squash to cover the ground and supress weeds next year.

Was meaning to try this myself, but didn't get round to it.

Its actually a "trinity" with sweetcorn, beans and squash.  The squashes cover the ground and prevent weeds, the corn provides support for the beans, and the beans (being legumes) fix nitrogen and enriches the soil.

[SA Chris]

This is our first year of vegging too, and started a bit late in the Summer. However, Rocket is going mental, growing faster than we can eat it, but rest of the lettuce isn't doing so well. Tomatoes are coming on slowly, as are respberries. Strawberries picked first last night.

Having a go at growing mushroom too, but not exactly yielding a bumper crop (got half a dozen or so).

[uptown]

I do like the trinity idea - might try that next season.
Any tips on how to stop radishes bolting?
Also any organic methods to get shot of the colony of slugs in my compost bin? I make a slug kebab every few days, but the contents are being eaten quicker than I can fill it. 
The pots taste is in a different league to the supermarkets'; very waxy - best boiled whole with a toss of mint, or thinly sliced and shallow fried.

[slackline]

Also any organic methods to get shot of the colony of slugs in my compost bin? I make a slug kebab every few days, but the contents are being eaten quicker than I can fill it. 

Grab a few cans of cheap own-brand beer from a supermarket and make some beer traps (old juice/pop bottles can be used to improvise these).  The pain is having to empty them out every so often as they get full of rain, and if your lucky slugs.

If you've got stuff in pots then copper strips around the outside will keep them out but its quite expensive (the slugs essentially get an electric shock when they try and crawl over the strip, the stuff I bought from Wilkinsons is about 1-1.5cm wide).

[butters]

Been a bit mixed but it has been my first year so a steep learning curve is being negotiated.

Runner beans are going great guns at the minute - we will be living off runner beans for weeks soon as there are loads of little baby runner beans about 2 inches long at the minute. Tomato plants are looking a very good bet at the minute as I planted them against a wall that gets the sun all day - no baby tomatoes at the minute but lots of flowers. The first crop of lettuces was a success but the subsequent plantings have been very indifferent as was the spinach but still and improvement on the spring onions which never got going at all and neither did the basil. Courgettes\cucumbers\squash\aubergines keep raising my hopes only to dash them but that is down to planting them in the wrong place - they will be planted somewhere to get maximum sunlight next year and hopefully that will help matters a bit. Other than that - mint has been a success as has parsley but coriander just keeps going to seed so if anyone can recommend a way of stopping that speak up.

Just a pity you can't eat sunflowers - the red sort are just starting to flower now whereas the giant yellow ones are over 6 feet now and no sign of stopping - it is getting to the stage where I am going to have to ask Dave to come round and tie them to the canes... 

bluebrad

[underground]

I'm not 100% sure if it's the best course of action, specially if stuff is bolting too early, but stuff definitely wouldn't go to seed if the flowers were removed. Using it quicker will obviously be an option - coriander gets really perfumy if left too long anyway. As for the radishes, don't wait for them to get bit as the slugs have them and they get tough, just eat them small and do successive sowings.

bradley, with the sunflowers - if they go to seed you can eat them, or if you leave the heads out in the garden they'll be good food for the birds, so not all is wasted...

Alot of stuff really benefits form plenty of water - like the beans, they need it to get big and juicy, otherwise they'll end up like my peas.

Did you take the side shoots of the tomatoes?

[SA Chris]

Aye, leave sunflower heads to dry, and the seeds will fall out. Nice snack, if a little challenging to eat.

[uptown]

Having a go at growing mushroom too, but not exactly yielding a bumper crop (got half a dozen or so).

How are you growing them - indoors or out?
We tried a kit indoors and got about 20 - works out at 25pence each, fun but not worthy.

[SA Chris]

Indoors - one of those kits too. Keeping it in the back of the garage - dark, and the coolest place i can find in the house, but I think still a little too warm. Were given the kit as a present, so not really out of pocket.

[andy_e]

Excellent work! All that hard work digging instead of climbing has paid off then! Did the bottle tops keep the pigeons away for long enough then?

[butters]

Did you take the side shoots of the tomatoes?

I did - tomatoes are one thing that I do know how to grow and look after unlike the rest of the things I am growing. Had forgotten that you could eat sunflower seeds - suspect that if all the sunflowers flower then the birds and me will be sharing them!!

bluebrad

[erm, sam]

So far this season I have eaten 5 home grown courgettes and 1 runner bean. Everything was hastily planted a bit late after we moved into the new house in May so its all the plants are a bit late and small..
The neighbours are doing a load of garden reworking so have been giving us loads of flower type plants which we have been sticking in willy nilly. Interested to see what it all looks like when it flowers: The famous perenial borders at Wisley spring to mind (not).

[SA Chris]

Did the bottle tops keep the pigeons away for long enough then?

No pigeons where we are. Shitehawks scare them away.

[uptown]

Vege's are really coming good now - runners, dwarf frenchies, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli and cabbage. Even the mushrooms are flushing again. Hasn't been a day in this month where homegrown hasn't featured on the evening menu! Now all we need are the Chooks!

[galpinos]

Does anyone have any beta on growing tomatos or chilis?

Are tomatos all have black bottom rot. Thought ti was just a couple but this whole batch seem to have got it. We're trying to water them regularly have have added Settlers Tum to the soil. Any other ideas?

We've got a dwarf apache chili. There's a few chilis on it but they're still green. From googling, the fruit is mean to be red. How long does the fruit take to ripen and will they go red in time or have I got a dodgy plant?

The missus tried one yesterday and seemed to think it was quite hot. She also touched her eye afterwards so has fallen out of love with the little apache.

Any info greatly received.

[SA Chris]

Are you overwatering toms? Possibly the cause of it.

Chilis, like all peppers, start out green then go red as they ripen. Patience paduan.



On a side note, our onions are starting to flower. Anyone know, is it best to cut off flower heads or just leave them.

And do beer traps actually work for slugs?

[slackline]

We've got a dwarf apache chili. There's a few chilis on it but they're still green. From googling, the fruit is mean to be red. How long does the fruit take to ripen and will they go red in time or have I got a dodgy plant?

The missus tried one yesterday and seemed to think it was quite hot. She also touched her eye afterwards so has fallen out of love with the little apache.

Any info greatly received.

I'm growing various different chillis at the moment (11x habanero; 4 x unknown fairly standard; 1 x Naga Moricho).  Drastically battling against spider mites at the moment (although a change to a different and slightly stronger mix of soapy water has seen away a lot of them yesterday).  Put some details in here.



To aid in their development I've been using some Chilli Focus and it really seems to help them a lot.

Only the miscellaneous ones have fruit on them at the moment (although there are a few teeny Habanero's coming through), and up until about two days ago they've all been green, but two have suddenly changed to red.  Last year I grew habanerro's and scotch bonnets and they seemed to ripen at their own pace too.  If you want to pick them early then encourage them to ripen its my understanding that placing them next to ripe tomatoes will facilitate this since ripening is induced by small amounts of gas that is given off by maturing fruit (mainly ethylene), and placing unripened fruit next to ripe will help facilitate this.  Some disinformation on ripening

Chillis Galore has lots of useful information and tips on growing as does South Devon Chilli Farm, in particular this advice seems pertinent (from the later)...

Picking
Different varieties are picked at different stages of their development. Fruits that start yellow or green generally ripen to red, though green chillies will sometimes ripen to orange or yellow, it all depends on the variety. Usually, and regardless of the colour, once they have filled out and become firm crisp and glossy they can be picked. Experiment by picking one to see if it has all it's heat and flavour. The sooner you pick the more the plant will produce so even if you don't need them at the time you should pick them and keep them in the freezer until you do.

No idea about black root rot in tomatoes I'm afraid, but perhaps its a symptom of lac of calcium (not sure watering with milk would help though!)

[SA Chris]

Wonder if eggshells in compost might help? I do know you shouldn't overwater toms once they get riper as they then split, as we found out two years ago and lost most of crop.

[uptown]

Our onions are starting to flower. Anyone know, is it best to cut off flower heads or just leave them.

Our bible (The veg expert by Dr Hessayon) suggests breaking any flower stems off which appear. We have done just that although Mrs utg muttered that they should be left on as they're so pretty.

[SA Chris]

Cool, will hack away tonight. Vegetables aren't meant to be pretty, we have flowers in the garden for that.