Grow Your Own

I have been thoroughly enjoying
rocket
lettuces
kohlrabi
turnips
turnip greens
swiss chard
rainbow chard
second early potatoes - I had 1 single potato weigh 1.5 lbs!!!
yellow courgettes (green ones are almost ready!)
raddicio
yellow beetroot
beetroot greens
cauliflowers
chili peppers
red, yellow, and orange tomatoes
cabbage
strawberries
baby carrots

I have almost ready/growing steadily for picking soon:
green courgettes
radishes
lettuces
more chard
cucumbers
red/green peppers
main crop potatoes
peas
red spring onions
fennel
onions
sunflowers (for the seeds)

I've got my 'winter' veg growing as well:
Leeks
'neeps (swedes)
more cabbages
broccoli
parsnips
celariac

Soon to be planted-
Spring cabbages
Spinach
winter potatoes

Things I have not had much success with this year:
Beans (green/yellow/purple) of any ilk- they've grown into plants, but not flowered or anything- too cold and wet I think
Most of my pepper/chili plants- I have 3 (2 red/green pepper plants, 1 chili plant) doing really well, another 4 that are really struggling

Now I'm just fighting off potato blight as well to save my crop of tatties and trying to keep the slugs off my cabbages!

Labour of love I say!

How are ya'll doing?? 


 

My herbs are in bloom.

You're really going for the gold PB! 

This week I managed to kill both oregano and purple basil that I was growing from seed.  My black thumb strikes again!    I think I was over watering them.  But the chives seem to be coming along okay...for now.

Our rhubarb got some kind of ick, so that died as well.  The carrots seem to be coming along well, though we need to get out there and thin them out a bit soon.  They're growing quite close so need to relocate some.  The broccoli and leeks seem to be okay as well.

I'm really excited about our fruit trees.  So much pie to be had this autumn, I think. 

Wow PB, that's impressive!  I struggle with just growing tomatoes and peppers here in the States.  My future hubby is renting a house with a greenhouse in the back garden.  So I'll have to learn how to grow things in a greenhouse next year. 

I can't wait to try growing some of the veggies everyone has mentioned. 

Picked my first red peppers today. Gorgeous!

I'm harvesting a TON of tomatoes right now, but my tomatillos are months behind where they were last year (I'm guessing because of the lack of Mexican-esque weather this year). I'm glad Nigel isn't coming this year, or he'd have not much to eat!

Oh and does anyone know when to tell when eggplant/aubergine are ready to harvest? I've got quite a few that look like they might be, but I can't really tell!

Hi fellow gardeners, I am not in the UK yet so nothing to share but when we get there I plan on having an organic garden and I just love this thread!

Anyone up on starting a seed saver exchange? I will not be able to participate for a couple of years but I think it will be a great way to share seeds without having to pay crazy prices for American varieties. I plan on bringing some of my favorites with me

You can harvest eggplant either young or let it mature, the longer it matures the more seeds you have and that sometimes makes it bitter.

Despite the crap weather and even they've been under snow and things- I'm still getting stuff out of the allotment and still happily enjoying the stuff I have put up in storage

I'm still eating my own homegrown:

Tomatoes -they're still doing great on my windowsill
Potatoes
Carrots
Swedes
Turnips
Celeriac
Parsnips
Kohlrabi
Turnip Greens
Beets
Cabbages
Leeks
Purple broccoli
 

Still picking purple brocolli, 'neeps, cabbages, leeks out of the ground!  But! I'm getting antsy for spring! I have been buying/trading seeds and stockpiling pots and tins to grow on the windowsill for propogation.   Going to start these up soon!

Can't wait to go and dig in the earth this weekend, turn over my compost... Get my allotment ready for a new season. Soon I can plant some cold weather seeds (lettuces, rocket, etc).  Whee!   

I'm glad this thread resurfaced.  It's a reminder that I need to get some seeds started indoors.

I'm going for it again this summer--  I'm going to try watermelon.  It actually started to fruit last year, but just ran out of time.  I never started it until late April last year.  It was really slow to start with, but my dad said that's normal, so I figure if I start it indoors now, by the time I'm able to put it out (under it's poly bubble, of course), it should be starting to fruit, and I'll have a better shot at getting something edible.

I'm doing peas again, but I'll just sow them straight in the garden, as they seemed to do just fine.  I think the tomatoes and bell peppers will need to be under plastic, though, and again, I think starting them earlier will help (plus, erm...remembering to water them  )

I'm so jealous of those of you with gardens. Hope you have an abundant growing season this year

Me too...So jealous of all the allotments and vegetable patches!

I can't wait to have a garden - no room for it at the current place in England, aside from a little herb bed with things like thyme, mint, chives, and oregano.
 
Unfortunately the slugs completely demolished my basil and parsley the instant it went into the ground - I woke up the next day after planting the starts and there was nothing but a stub left.

I'm looking forward to finding out what will actually grow there, I'm used to California growing seasons.

Anyone had luck with globe artichokes? I've saved seeds off the ones I used to grow here in the US, they're a few years old now but I hope they'll still sprout. I haven't seen artichokes for sale at any of the stores near me over there, so I guess they arent terribly popular in the UK?

Managed to organise myself during lunch- I've got seeds for the following this year and can't wait to see how I will do! Everything is pretty much heritage seeds and are supposed to be quite hardy for short summers, etc, so we shall see! 

Purple/Red/White Potatoes - first earlies, main crop, and second earlies - heritage varities, but are blight hardy. We had blight last year on the allotment and its "dangerous" now to get non-blight resistant ones  )

Squashes and pumpkins including spaghetti squash, butternut, boston, winter, plus the courgettes/summer summer squashes

Beet root (white and candy cane)

Oca (potato like plants)

Celeriac

Celery- white and red

Tomatoes of many colurs, Tomatilloes

Peppers and chilis of several colours

Cucumbers (pickling, gerghins, and normal)

Cauliflowers

Broccoli

Multi-colured carrots

Leaves and greens- including beet, chard, spinach, lettuce, sorrel, endive, mustard greens, etc

kohlrabi (purple, giant)

Leeks, giant leeks

Onions

Radishes - including black ones

Cabbages

Turnips and 'neeps (sweedes) of many colours

Sunflowers

Peas and beans

Sweetcorn 

Parsnips 

Kale

Good thing I like veg!!!!!

We're thinking about growing some vegetables in containers this year. Nothing too intense because this will be an experiment for me! DH and I were discussing potatoes. Can you harvest potatoes from a single plant more than once (like you would with tomatoes or peas), or do you have to pull up the whole plant to harvest it and it's one and done?