Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi People, long time no post . . . Been a bit tied up, one way and the other.

Triffid towers kitchen garden, is winding down now . . . tomatoes are nearly all harvested, fantastic crop 10's of pounds. Great crop of peppers and the aubergines did better than my wildest dream. Grape vine produced the best ever and I had one melon, the favour was divine. All my brasicers were devastated by cabbage whites!!! Although the Runner beans cropped OK, they went old very quickly!!! Scarlet Emperor. Climbing french beans next year!!! Any one got a recommendation for runners that don't string up so quickly?

Looking to next year, I think? not so well . . .

Learned a lot from my first year. To many aubergine and pepper plants for instance. Wont grow Lillie toms, not a patch on the flavour of Sungold, IMHO Grow beef toms and do a better job on the Melon in the green house with the space I will gain by reducing Aubergine and peppers.

My be able to dig a 10ft square in the top of the lawn? I got 6 bags of horse manure to day, will it keep in the bags until I need it or does it go off? Problem is, I don't have anywhere to put it out at the moment?


CJS

Re: the manure, keep it in the bags.

Stephen wrote:Re: the manure, keep it in the bags.

Thanks Stephen,keeping in bags till I need it will make my life much easier
CJS

Hi CJS. Good to see you back again. I'm glad you've had a good season and grown some good stuff.

Regarding Runner beans...don't give up! I grow Enorma and they are delicious! Even my husband eats them and he says he never liked them before.

The secret is to pick them before the bean starts to become obvious - when the pod is still quite slender with no bean shaped bumps. I have never had stringy beans as I pick them young. If you leave them to become large and with the bean making a bulge, they are almost always tough and need stringing.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.

Thanks for that Elaine, believe it or not we have a second crop!! I picked the first to day, and yes I thought, OK small and young . . . just like me . . . believe that and you will believe anything

Just as well I did not tear them down last weekend! Clean the Green house out Sunday between watching the F1 Grand Prix.

Wont be able to do anything tomorrow, off deep sea fishing after the new season winter cod! Fresh young beans, cauliflower, jacket potato with a knob of butter, straight from the sea grilled cod fillet, fresh ground pepper and cheese sauce . . . mm, mm, mm!

CJS

That sounds wonderful CJS! Yum!

Our runners have produced some more beans too. This time last year I had taken them out as they were going over.