Most liked posts in thread: The Vegetable Patch

Thought I would share this picture of my first beefsteak tomato of the year. Not huge but a decent size.
I chose it because of the name. Mr. Novak.
So far doing better than our number 9.

 

Definitely. Mind you, I think that applies to pretty much any home grown vegetable. There again, I would say that, veg growing being one of my hobbies. Homegrown parsnips, carrots, tomatoes, sweetcorn and peas have the biggest improvements on shop bought stuff.

 

Maybe you and @Allotment Bantam should swap notes and recipes ?.

 

You could set up your own on-line dating agency, mate and call it 'Plenty of Veg'.

 

Very easy to grow and full of antioxidants very good for your health
But attracts too many insects that destroy my other crops

 

Threw loads away this summer
Will save you some next year

 

Late wife was a vegetarian could grow enough to keep her in veg for at least 6 months

 

I have to net mine but to keep the pigeons off. I grow cavolo nero - it is fantastic boiled, then drained and fried in olive oil with garlic and fennel seeds. Scrummy.

 

Roasted some this evening, bit of salt, sugar and cinnamon. Worked well.

 

Strange that, it's making me feel distinctly queasy.

 

Oops.

 

We have had quite a few Turnips on the pitch this season

 

Traditional Boxing Day bubble.
You can take the boy out of Essex ..

 

Great thread!

Surprised no one has mentioned Courgettes. Very versatile. You can put them in anything, curry, pizza, chilli, spaghetti Bol, roasted in salads.

Haven’t grown any this year but always got some in the fridge.

 

Come on Dave
You followed City away mid 70s to mid 80s
Some of the "welcoming" crews who greeted us
made Popeye look like a pussy cat !!!

 

I'm cheered by that news but I would like a specific category for knobbly carrots that look like a meat and 2 veg to be quite honest with you.

Maybe. Possibly. Probably.

Didn't put any research into it to be clear.

 

I think this is good advice here.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=339

 

All round Allotments on 31st October?

 

Victoria is self-pollinating. As far as pruning goes, the link provided by @Allotment Bantam says mostly what I was going to say; my source is the 1988 book "Home Grown" by Denys De Saulles (London: MacMillan) -- it is a very useful book for anyone growing one's own fruits and veggies. Plums are different in that pruning is spring and summer, not winter (as for, say, pears).

I'd add that for fertilising, the easiest option is fertiliser spikes formulated for fruit trees. (I put a ring of them around the drip line of my pear tree every year, and it seems to be very happy with the treatment.) De Saulles adds that fertilising a plum is not necessary until it begins to bear fruit; he recommends three separate fertilisers: potash sulphate in late winter at 15g/square m., sulphate of ammonia in the spring at the same rate, every two or three years superphosphate at 70g per square m. Personally, I'd go with the spikes!

RCB

 

I was thinking it was time to bring this thread back to life!

Thumbs up to the plums, pears, and cherries. But yes, the birds will devour your cherries in the blink of an eye, and depending on the bird, may well do the same for your pears. Someone down the street from me has a pair of cherry trees, and he does hang streamers and other shiny things in his trees. It seems to work for him.

As for the apples, you may know this already but if not, they tend to be alternate-year bearing at the best of times, and even more noticeably so after a very good bearing year. A good excuse to get another apple tree, on the opposite cycle to the current one!

My pear tree got a good pruning back in February, and seems rather happy with it. It looks like a good crop coming. The blackcurrent, raspberries, and strawberries -- now moved into a fenced patch to protect them from the rabbits -- also look to be set for good years. The gooseberry is too new for anything more than a few berries this year. Welsh onions were, as always, the first garden produce ready, closely followed by the rhubarb, chives, and some herbs. The first sowing of radishes has been eaten; the second is about to be. Lettuces are also just about ready. Carrots are coming on, the beans have sprouted, and the parsnips are, as ever, taking their own sweet time about things. That leaves one more item to plant: every year I try at least one new/wacky edible; this year it's peanuts. The weather is finally warm enough now to get them into the ground.

RCB