Kitchen Garden Forum

oldherbaceous wrote:Morning Shallot Man, my strawberries are carrying a huge crop, but they are just rotting before they can ripen properly, with the constant rain we are getting here....and to add insult to injury, a Squirrel was running off with probably the only good one, when i went over earlier...

I'm glad yours a doing well though.

OH. Seem to be discarding about %20 so far.

I picked a bowl of raspberries today, seems early but having no long days of sunshine to measure by & erratic diary keeping couldn't tell for sure. Large bowl of strawberries also picked but like everyone else, lots are rotted or soft. Large bag of peas & broad beans harvested also. That cleared the pea plot so re-sowed with extra netting due to the pesky birds.

Amazed at the size of my celeriac already, but am going to have to take up the onions as all of them are trying to flower. Growth is dying down on the garlic but they are a disappointing size. My successional sowing of lettuce wasn't successful as both have bolted, but next 2 lots I sowed look fine but too small to harvest. Tripped over & landed in the Okra so only have one plant now but they weren't happy anyway. Took a couple of unblemished carrots but loads of gaps in the row.

My spring cabbages still haven't hearted up fully but I have some beaut summer ones nearly ready. Have 5 wee courgette/squash/pumpkins up, hope they get enough good weather so I know what is what, after the confusion to date.

Westi

Strawberries for tea again

Really pleased with the crop this year. Only a few have rotted as well, which is a bonus

Mildew on all of my gooseberries and shallots, potatoes are all blighted, strawberries rotting before they are ripe and to finish it off, i had a lovely row of broad beans just starting to crop and the deer got in a trashed the whole row. And now it's raining heavily out there at the moment. It could be worse though, and it will save me time having to pick as much.

oldherbaceous wrote:Mildew on all of my gooseberries and shallots, potatoes are all blighted, strawberries rotting before they are ripe and to finish it off, i had a lovely row of broad beans just starting to crop and the deer got in a trashed the whole row. And now it's raining heavily out there at the moment. It could be worse though, and it will save me time having to pick as much.

Good morning OH

Sorry to hear you have a few problems on the plot. It's strange how some years everything conspires against you isn't it.

Mine seems to be quite the opposite, with everything looking good and cropping well. I'm thinking that giving up the plots, and going back to home gardening was a good move for me

Morning PJ, the problems are mainly down to not getting hardly a dry day in the last month. Even on the brighter days, we have had huge downpours at sometime.

Glad your move to home gardening is working out well, must be quite nice for you to be able to step out of your door to tend things.

Ah ha, the sun has just come out...

Morning OH

Your current situation sounds most disheartening.
Hope you are able to salvage something by the time this years season is over.

We seem to be well behind you southerners here in Yorkshire. The strawberries are only just ripening and the raspberries are in full flower so no fruits for a couple of weeks at least.

The brassicas are growing slowly, and have got going with a rise in temperature. The cold nights and dull days seem to have held everything back.

At least it's giving me a bit more time to use up last year's veg from the freezer

Can't complain about many of the crops really this year. Just picked another 4¾ lb Cauliflower Clapton.



The neighbours are now avoiding us when we offer them Calabrese as they have come at the same time as the Cauliflowers, had to leave some at their back door while they were out this weekend! The Strawberries under cover have just about finished and the outdoor ones are starting. To add to the other Brassicas we have Primo Cabbage ready as well as Cobra Beans, early Peas and masses of salad. The main crop Greenshaft Peas are filling and the Masterpiece Green Longpod Broad Beans are well set. The only down side is the usual problem of persuading Tomatoes to ripen, I've stopped my early plants at 5 or 6 trusses but still they won't ripen. Strange as we are picking Chillis (had a family party at the weekend and the Salsa caught a few by surprise) and nearly picking Sweet Peppers and Aubergines. The polytunnel Potatoes have been ridiculously productive so haven't touched the outdoor ones, I think I'll give up the cloched outdoor ones next year as I think we could move straight from polytunnel earlies to outdoor Charlotte. Nearly forgot, plenty of Courgettes.

Yesterday was my first really good day's cropping this season. For our evening meal we had peas, broad bean tops, calabrese, and new potatoes, followed by a few strawberries and raspberries. Times like that and the previous hard work seems really worthwhile.

Now there's blackfly on my broad beans.....

Geoff

That cauli looks damn good. Sounds as if you are having OH's share of success as well as your own.

How could you forget courgettes !!!

Sorry to hear about your problems, OH, and I hope some or all will resolve themselves - gardening is never straight forward, predictable or boring, is it?

We have at least had some decent rain which is filling the peas and broad beans nicely (the latter also have greenfly, OH, but I have chopped the tops off!). I think slugs are playing havoc with the carrots and beetroot.

But we have had the first courgette!!!!

Oh well OH, looks like we are having a similar year! Not to worry will still be enough I'm sure.

Glad to see others successes, Geoff that is a nice looking cauli, shame I'm not your neighbour!

Westi

Well we get good years and we get bad years.....

Just had a funny sight, i looked out of our front window to see a bloke half kneeling, half laying in front of our fence. So i shot out there, only to find he was a photographer taking some close up pictures of the flowers in the border. I made him jump out of his skin, when i spoke. He said he had drove past and noticed my garden and just had to get some photographs.