Grow Your Own

Potatoes will actually give you a fair crop from only a few plants.  But they are essentially a 'one time use' kind of crop -

If you're growing in containers, make sure you top up the compost periodically,to ensure your potatoes don't turn green.  

If you would like staggered potatoes, you can grow a combination of earlies, main crop, and second earlies- and do staggered sowing- i..e for Christmas potates (but you do need an area to keep the potatoes frost free for that)

You can also store potatoes quite easily and leave them in the bags until you're ready to pick them.
Don't be scared, tatties are on of the best things for beginners to have a go at!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_potatoes1.shtml

http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/potato/potato-harvest-store.php

Also, If you have a local agricultural extension in Maryland, be sure to look them up to see what potatoes grow the best in your area!

love the advice here, we just moved house and the garden has some awesome veggie patches.  Going to give it a go!  Hopefully get some seeds and plants this weekend.

Also, Did you know that you can grow another complete celery stalk from the bottom piece that you cut off and throw away? This is new to me!! I'm going to give it a go

cut the end off first then put the rest into the refrigerator.
set the bottom piece on a saucer of warm water overnight to get it started. this gives it a head start. take that piece and plant it just like it is, in the vegetable garden with the stalk side up. Just dig a small hole, fill it with water and set the end in the hole, then cover it up with an inch or so of soil. Water thoroughly.
It will grow a brand new top to be cut and used. After re-growing celery, you can cut and plant the bottom again for more new growth from the top.

Will let ya know if it works

Potatoes will actually give you a fair crop from only a few plants.  But they are essentially a 'one time use' kind of crop -

If you're growing in containers, make sure you top up the compost periodically,to ensure your potatoes don't turn green.  

If you would like staggered potatoes, you can grow a combination of earlies, main crop, and second earlies- and do staggered sowing- i..e for Christmas potates (but you do need an area to keep the potatoes frost free for that)

You can also store potatoes quite easily and leave them in the bags until you're ready to pick them.
Don't be scared, tatties are on of the best things for beginners to have a go at!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_potatoes1.shtml

http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/potato/potato-harvest-store.php

Also, If you have a local agricultural extension in Maryland, be sure to look them up to see what potatoes grow the best in your area!

Thanks for the advice!

I've got my act together early this year, and have already started growing my banana peppers, jalapeños, and tomatillos indoors in a propagator. I really want to do some pickling and canning, but have no experience with that sort of thing.

Seems like the simplest method of canning is boiling water with a canning rack.
Has anyone bought one over here in the UK? There are a few available online, but with overpriced shipping.

Hi across, here's a great thread on that very subject

Hi across, here's a great thread on that very subject

Ah, should have known there would be. cheers

Tatties and Oca are popping through. Beets and turnips peeking through. Chard and lettuces looking great. Radishes popping up, kale and broccoli doing great.  Over wintered cabbages are turning into lovely just about ready early summer cabbages.  Yay summer!! 

This rubbish weather has just been terrible for the allotment. The cold has meant stuff is very far behind (though not too cold the last few days) and the rain, blah.
Anyone else having trouble this year? 

I'm using the greenhouse this year and things are coming along nicely! Lots of tomatoes,, poblanos and aubergines are starting to flower. Hopefully I'll have a good harvest!

This rubbish weather has just been terrible for the allotment. The cold has meant stuff is very far behind (though not too cold the last few days) and the rain, blah.
Anyone else having trouble this year? 

Yeah, my hot weather plants are super tiny this year (tomatillos, tomatoes, and peppers). But luckily I've got other stuff to take up the slack that's thriving in the cooler, wet weather.

I've had bumper strawberry, radish, salad, spinach, and rainbow chard crops, and my kohl rabi have gone huge in the past week, so I finally got to harvest and eat my first one last night. The blueberries are coming along nicely, and the carrots and french beans will be ready to eat in a few weeks, too.

This rubbish weather has just been terrible for the allotment. The cold has meant stuff is very far behind (though not too cold the last few days) and the rain, blah.
Anyone else having trouble this year? 

My vegetable container garden is coming along in fits and starts right now, what with all the wet weather. My tomato plants are HUGE, but no blossoms yet (I live near Newcastle, so we're pretty far north). My salad greens have done wonderfully, but my cukes look like they're about to give up the ghost.

I had a freebie packet of Pak Choi, so I tossed that into a spare container and it's probably a foot tall now. Not a huge amount of "meat" on the stalks yet, but I'm not real familiar with how to grow those types of plants. Right now I'm harvesting from it to supplement my salad greens. The small leaves work great!

Oh, and high winds have nearly destroyed my basil plants, darnit. It's my all-time favorite plant and I have it tucked everywhere. For some reason it's taken a real beating this summer. I was looking forward to much pesto, but I doubt I'll get enough for that now

There's nothing like your own homegrown strawberries. Mmm. Despite the rubbish weather this summer-  I'm getting a great crop right now!

Struggling with potato blackleg and blight though 

Sowed a few seeds yesterday- winter radishes, japanese cooking radishes, fennel, mustard greens, some more spinach and chard, watercress, rocket, few more turnips, kale -
Winter potatoes will go in in a few days- but I need more fleece to protect them from the blight/blackleg. 

Despite not being able to grow things that require hot weather here (except for inside my flat- though aiming for a polytunnel next year!!!) - I actually really love that you can grow all kinds of things well into the autumn and over the winter here- cabbages, kale, sprouts, leeks, onions, etc-  It never gets so cold (even in the north pole, lol) that everything dies off or gets coated in (too much) snow.   A benefit!

Right now I'm harvesting:

• Peaches!! The first crop off my dwarf tree, like 6 of them!
• Carrots
• Tomatillos! The first of many.
• Tomatoes
• Rainbow chard. I can't believe it's still going strong...

We always do tomatoes and 2 out of the 4 plants we put in have done really well.  Some tiny orange sweet cherry tomatoes and some small red ones.  We tried a lemon boy this year, but they all turned out with bottom rot.  It's been a bad summer with no rain for most of the summer here.

We have a bunch of pumpkin vines going, but looks like we're going to end up with a whopping total of 3

My biggest disappointment this year has been my rhubarb.  We have/had a well established rhubarb when we moved in and it was always lovely and sweet and produced tons all summer.  We had a virtual squirrel nursery this year with about 8 baby squirrels running around and I guess they thought the rhubarb made the perfect place to play.  They destroyed it all.  It hasn't come back since.  I'm hoping there is enough of the plant left underground that it will come back next spring.

In addition to the rhubarb, the little buggers ate pretty much every strawberry our oldest daughter was growing.  We have had a few peppers and some cucumbers, but not much of anything did well.  Hopefully next summer will be better.

Great stuff growers!!!!!!!!!  

I've been harvesting:
Gigantic cabbages
Purple top and yellow turnips
Candy cane beets
Potatoes (blue, red, white, pink)
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Swiss chard/golden chard
Courgettes
Strawberries
Carrots (Yellow, Purple, Red, Orange)
Lettuce
Tree cabbage
Chinese broccoli
Broccoli raab
Yellow mangetout
Peas
Some small tomatoes (growing in my house)
Purple Kohlrabi
Mustard greens

Up and coming:
Tomtatoes
Tamatillos (in my house)
Peppers (in my house)
Cucumbers
Boston Squashes
Fennel
Winter radishes
'Neeps
Celeriac
Brussel Sprouts
Water cress
Parsnips
Leeks
Spinach
Red beets
Yellow beets
Oca
Sweet potatoes (hopefully my experiment worked)
Radishes
Kale
Red cabbage
Winter cabbage
Winter potatoes
 
Not been an overly impressive year though - crops have been hit by slugs a lot- too much rain, small potatoes, blight, cold summer, so things like corn, spaghetti squash, butternut squashes, etc haven't done well at all.
Looking to get a polytunnel though, so I hope that will help next year.

Growing in the north of Scotland is an adventure!!!