Kitchen Garden Forum

Vegetables have a great desire to grow so whatever you do they will try. The weather probably affects them more than most of what we do. Advice is variable or even conflicting, partly as has been said as different methods suit different places and different soils, but also I think because if you try something and it is a good season and it works you stick with it. In another sense it lacks variation, lots of the books just lazily trot out the same ideas.

My philosophy is to concentrate on getting the soil right, plan, record and learn what works for you.

Tony Hague wrote:It seems to be a problem affecting fora in general. I admin a forum facing a similar struggle to engage new members. People have drifted off to social media; it takes less effort to click "like" or share somebody else's cat photograph than to actually post useful information or a helpful reply to a question.

Kitchen garden guilty as charged. Currently encouraging people to share cat photos on Facebook. their cat doesn't look too chuffed about it all though.

Hi Tony

Saw it, Liked it!

Westi

** sat wondering what an unchuffed cat looks like - sure there will be photos on facebook **

On this thread back in Oct 2014 I suggested "Maybe there should be a section on lessons learned or the worst thing I ever did in the garden! However, that would mean owning up to making mistakes!"

So here are my mistakes from my half plot:
1) Butternut squash - successfully grown 3 fruit on 2 plants only to watch them all drop off.
2) none of the raspberry I planted last year have fruited, even though my neighbor who planted some at the same time had great success (they are only about 4 meters from mine)
3) more or less gave up with celery due to slugs
4) disappointing crop from Malwina strawberrys (planted out this year from cold storage)
5) only got about 4 from 2 x Marketmore cucumber (outdoor type)
6) I think I planted leeks too close to beetroot, so they didn't were overrun with beetroot foliage

Things I'm most pleased with:
a) sweetcorn grown outside: 22 cobs so far (Lark F1)
b) 'pop corn' mini-sweet seemed to crop well despite every website I googled saying they were a no go.
c) pleased with Mara des Bois strawberrys (planted out this year from cold storage)
d) more beetroot than I know what to do with

Observations
- I tried growning Feltham first, Kelvedon wonder, green hurst and meteor, greenshaft peas. Feltham first, Kelvedon wonder were far more reliable and consistent.
- don't even bother trying to sowing peas in the ground!! Something will get them!!
- cherry tom's seem very late this year

I've found it a bit weird this year to be honest.

Mistakes:
* Lots of germination issues - fortunately I'm stubborn & re-sowed. (Oh & re-sowed again & again).
* Very poor salad beds. Usually have loads to give away but all sorts of issues - slow growth, a bit bitter even, poor germination.
* Didn't secure my runner bean canes very well & they blew over pulling the plants out of the ground with them.
* Feeling sorry for the resident bunny - wasn't him the fox got & he's been digging up my onion sets for fun now!
* Letting the cat in the Greenhouse in spring - did her usual thing with throwing the labels on the deck so ended up with a pumpkin in the cucumber bed.
* French Beans - tasted good but low volume.

Positives:
* My Spring cabbages. I had a good crop earlier & did the cross in stump thing which has resulted in loads of new, large & fully hearted pointy cabbages with 2 still to harvest.
* Broad beans. I did 3 sowings & all successful & healthy.
* Sweet Peas. Beautiful this year.

Westi

no where near as many green tomatoes for chutney making as I normally get. I had to pilfer some from a neighbour, with the promise of a jar or two of the finished product.

leeks are tiny, and I sowed them early. they just semed to sit there in the nursery bed all year not getting any bigger. I transplanted them in September, a bit late I know, and they are growing - a bit. So probably won't get any until after Christmas.

apples have been incredible this year, huge and tasty, and the cookers are hanging on the tree for dear life, so we are able to deal with them in our own time, rather that all at once.

A mixed bag, really, due to the very dry mid-summer (yes, I know, most of you had it wet, but we didn't):

* best yields for broad beans, peas, shallots, onions and garlic (huge!), tomatoes and sweet peppers (both in the greenhouse)
* worst yields for dwarf beans, celeriac, beetroot (tiny)
* so-so: all brassicas, runner beans, leeks (quite a few bolted), carrots, parsnips

Same as everyone - mixed bag for different reasons.

The good (sort of)
* potatoes. Charlottes were the best. Blue kestrel and Casablanca also good. The first earlies never flowered (strange) but did produce a crop.
* courgettes - although the gold rush were poor croppers compared to the green varieties (various)
* broad beans (although targeted by the usual black fly, I got to them early enough)
* runner beans - were amazing and cropped well once the seeds finally germinated (3rd attempt)
* yellow carrots (in the raised bed)
* lettuce (in the raised bed)
* cucumber (burp less outdoor variety) not huge numbers but tasted good
* beetroot started in a seed tray - brilliant
* Leeks - started in a pot, a bit like chives. Beechgrove method.
* shallots from set, started in pots -best crop I've ever had
* over wintered chilli plants
* Lemon grass - one of my experiments
* the soil itself - finally easy to dig after 5 yrs of working and adding home made compost
* getting my husband to build the long promised raised bed

Not so good:
* germination of beans (French and runner)
* tomatoes - started well but got blight
* sweet corn - got eaten by mice
* squash - got eaten by rats
* garlic - onion rot I think ( very upset about that one)

And of course I'll try it all again next year!

Paula