Next year, I'll definitely try......

[Colin_M]

...a few of these.

Guess we all have our favourites that we grow from year to year. Thanks to advice from people on the KG site, I've tried the following this year and have been pleasantly surprised:

- Land Cress
- Mooli
- Telegraph peas (ie tall climbing)
- Swedes (sorry, I'm a slow starter with some veg)
- Cauliflowers (ditto)

Slight warning - I guess that some (like the Land Cress) benefitted from the cooler wetter conditions & might not do as well under different conditions.

Has anyone else been pleasantly surprised in trying something for the first time this year?

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Colin_M, apart from yourself it looks as if we have all been totally boring and stuck with what we normally grow.

I suppose this makes you rather unique.

[alan refail]

Hello O H on this fine sunny Sunday

I hope we're not all boring. I've finally got round to growing watercress according to the the late Allan Day's advice. Rooted sprigs from a single bunch bought at the greengrocers (£1.59 ) have been planted in polystyrene fish boxes at monthly intervals (new plantings from rooted pieces from the previous box) and have produced beautiful crops and a massive saving

I'll certainly do the same next year.

Colin,
It's a lot nicer than landcress, which I have always had great difficulty growing.

[Parsons Jack]

Hi Alan,

I also grew watercress for the first time this year, with great success. I also grew "Big Boy" tomatoes for the first time this year, and will certainly do so again next year.

[alia]

since i'm just starting out, just about every crop i'm going to try next year is new.

the biggest change is i hope to try growing some things from seed, rather than seedlings.

come february/march, i expect to inundate the forum with questions.

[alan refail]

alia

you said "come february/march, i expect to inundate the forum with questions."

Please do I'm sure we'll enjoy finding answers.

[oldherbaceous]

And Alans will be helpful and useful, and mine, well, they will just be mine.

[Doctor Deb]

I grew sweetcorn for the first time-and it worked really well!
Refused to be beaten by brassicas- grew all my own from seed with fair success. Still can't get a decent cauliflower though.....
Sweet potatoes- won't be wasting any more money on those!
I'm looking for tall peas and will only do climbing beans too- I just can't get on with dwarf ones!
Oh, and of course next year I am going to grow rice, as my plot has been waterlogged so much it resembles a paddy field.

[Catherine]

We grew cabbages this year, we have club root so we planted in a large hole with compost in the hole and we tried some hard cabbage rings but they were no good so next year, if we carry on, we will use something bigger and softer. The cabbages have eventually been brilliant, but we did lose some to the cabbage root fly, but they were weak plants so I was not suprised.

Next year, I will start them under cover straight away without letting them harden off out in the open. Then we should not have any problem with caterpillars.

Our beans both borlotti and canellini beans have done really well as have our dwarf runner beans Hestia which are still flowering and have produced pounds of beans. Until we got fed up of them and have been giving them away. We shall see what happens next year. But it does make you think about what you wish to plant next year.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've grown on the small potato tubers that my micro plants produced last year and the Salad blue are lovely. I did them roast in their jackets and when you cut them in half they are an amazing navy blue and taste great too.

The other micro plant was Highland Burgundy Red and that produced a small number of pretty red potatoes which have pinky red flesh which makes nice pink mash with a slightly sweet flavour.

I've also tried Kalibos autumn red cabbage and although I haven't picked one yet they are huge and hearting up nicely.

[Colin_M]

Good to see everyone's responses. I was pretty sure we had some adventurous gardeners here. To be honest there's so many plants available that sometimes just swapping to another variety can open up something different.

Morning Colin_M, ....
I suppose this makes you rather unique.

Now you've got me worried OH. All I'll say is that when I started my allotment back in 2002, the other "traditional" gardeners all came up to say how healthy my leeks looked. They pulled some puzzled faces when I explained that they were actually garlic.

Wind on 6 years and many of the same people who used to just grow beans/spuds/carrots/cabbage etc are now trying things like sweetcorn, squashes & globe artichokes. I can't claim credit for any of this either - it was probably people like KG and others.

[alia]

Oh, and of course next year I am going to grow rice, as my plot has been waterlogged so much it resembles a paddy field.

if vaguely serious, this site might be of interest: http://www.amberwaves.org/mediaPages/gr ... ation.html

(it's someone's adventures growing rice in a child's paddling pool)

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Colin_M, theres nothing better than to see someone actually growing something new, it encourages one to want to do the same.
And this has to be a good thing.

So it does maker you a leader of people.

[Colin_M]

[snooky]

This year I cleared a neglected site & planted it up with soft & top fruit.Snag is the "pear" tree turned out to be an apple tree even though it was labelled up as a pear tree!
My project for this winter is to definitely plant a pear tree!

Cheers
snooky