Have you harvested any fruit or veg yet?

r3nu4l

It's early in the season but over the past couple of weeks we've begun to get some fruit and veg from our garden. So far we've had a good few strawberries, rhubarb, peas and potatoes. We have over 50 tomatoes growing with at least another hundred on the way.

There's loads more fruit and veg planted and stuff for later in the season but so far so good

So how is everyone else doing? Any great harvests yet?

siochain

so far strawberries, spring onion, iceberg lettuce and lots of broccoli. Have to say the broccoli is very good, kids have been munching on it for the last two weeks.

arse..biscuits

Spuds, tomatoes, peas.

Minder

I have spuds in 40 ltr buckets - hit and miss - put too many plants in some buckets and the potatoes were small as a result. Blueberry bushes are producing even though they are only in this year. Loads of cos lettuce and rocket. Tonnes of herbs, particularly sage. Strawberries in hanging baskets were a disappointment, not much fruit and the birds always seem to get at them. Found a hard damson on the grass the other day, but can't see many in the trees. Waiting for tomatoes to ripen and will start picking cucumbers this weekend. My neighbour has a huge pear tree than overhangs our garden - lots of fruit there, but none ripe enough to fall - yet.

arse..biscuits

I gave a tomatoe plant to a friend a while back. I asked her if she had any tomatoes yet. She said "Yeah but they aren't nice, they're all green".

NextSteps

Swiss chard, courgettes, runner beans, French beans, lots of herbs, lettuce and rocket, artichokes, watercress (great soup), rhubarb. I think everything's peaking at the same time. Just waiting for the tomatoes now, but they're getting bigger every day.

magicbastarder

rhubarb - far more than i can use; spuds; garlic, onions.

The Sweeper

Herbs, chilis. Broad beans and peas are both coming along nicely (teh beans more quickly than the peas).

Avns1s

Spuds for the past 6 weeks, Lettuce by the truckload (pity everything else didn't grow as well!) Cabbage. Carrots almost ready.

lucylu

yip, spuds, radishes, lettuce, carrots sown in the greenhouse, snowball turnip, spinach, spring onions, courgettes, broccoli,beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, sugar snap peas and a handful of tomatoes.
Its very hard to decide what to have for dinner everyday ..terrible to see veg go to seed ( Radishes bolted very quickly)


The only veg we buy are peppers and onions ( peppers and melons are coming along nicely in the greenhouse)

Pak choi should be ready to devour in the next week or two!

r3nu4l

Was in the garden this weekend (very hot over here) and got a pleasant surprise. Our chillis are almost ready for harvesting and our cucumber plants have really taken off, with small cucumbers appearing (seemingly overnight!) and we have about 10 growing now. We've been harvesting lettuce for a while now, something I didn't mention in the OP, simply because it's become routine.

Our raspberry plants are coming along with lots of small new berries appearing, we've staked the plant up to expose the berries a bit more.

Honey-ec

Seeing as you're all obviously having great success with your "edible gardens", can I ask if anyone has any tips on keeping the dreaded bugs away from my herbs???

I've been growing basil, mint, oregano & thyme in window boxes for a while, but now that our garden is finally finished, I'm hoping to plant them in our new raised beds. Now, I now about acclimatising them to being outdoors, etc., but I am worried about them being attacked by various bugs when I do plant them out. How do you all keep your herbs/veg bug-free but still safe to eat???

Thanks in advance!

r3nu4l

To be honest, we are about 90% organic so I try not to use any chemicals unless necessary (tomato feed is great stuff ).

Last year I grew chives in a window box and planted them out without acclimatising at all! They grew brilliantly and the bugs didn't touch them at all.

However, this year I put some back in the window box and it was covered in greenfly 6 weeks later (thousands of greenfly - no exaggeration!).

You could try to plant it out and cover in a netted frame? I've not tried this myself but I have seen people do it. It'll keep snails off, not sure about greenfly unless the mesh is really fine.

I'd be interested to know if you find a solution

10-10-20

Just had the first plum of the season this afternoon.
It was just great. Nice and sweet. 10 times better than what you find in the shops which haven't even seen sunlight.

Dockfive

r3nu4l wrote: »

We have over 50 tomatoes growing with at least another hundred on the way.

I'm think of starting a veg garden and forgive my naivety but can tomatoes be grown easily in Ireland?

r3nu4l

Dockfive wrote: »

I'm think of starting a veg garden and forgive my naivety but can tomatoes be grown easily in Ireland?

It's best if you grow them in a greenhouse
I live in the East of England these days but I know people who grow them in Ireland too.

oblivious

My hops are nearly done

Aeneas

Dockfive wrote: »

I'm think of starting a veg garden and forgive my naivety but can tomatoes be grown easily in Ireland?

Growing tomatoes in Ireland is relatively easy in a glass house or polytunnel. I sow mine in late Feb or early March in pots. Germinate them in my hotpress. Grow them on on a sunny windowsill. And plant them in my polytunnel in early May. After that they need watering every few days, feeding once a week after the first trusses (little yellow flowers) form, and regular nipping out of side shoots to encourage fruiting on the main plant. If you pick your varieties carefully you will get bumper crops - I recommend Alicante (Thompson and Morgan) for a tasty table tomato, costoluto fiorentino (Fothergills seeds) for a beefsteak tomato, and both Sungold and Gardener's Delight (most seed producers) for prolific cherry tomatoes. But I am sure there are plenty of others that can be grown equally successfully. I have tried growing them outdoors but this has been less successful - our cool, damp weather is not conducive to healthy tomatoes out of doors and they are susceptible to blight.

r3nu4l

I should have said that as an experiment this year we have grown tomatoes outdoors and while the varieties we have fruit amazingly well in the greenhouse, they haven't done well outdoors (only about 7-9 tomatoes per plant!).

Aeneas, how tall is your polytunnel?? :eek: My tomato plants are over 6 ft tall.

r3nu4l

oblivious wrote: »

My hops are nearly done

So will they be going towards any particularly tasty beverages then?

oblivious

r3nu4l wrote: »

oblivious wrote: »

My hops are nearly done

So will they be going towards any particularly tasty beverages then?

Yep, a fresh hop English bitter with Ringwood brewery yeast:)

I might invest in a food dehydrator next year to dry them myself

telecaster

Pea plants are dying off now having given us 2 - 3 months of lovely sweet peas. Carrots are just about perfect, I'd been thinning them out and enjoying baby carrots over recent weeks but the ones I've picked the last few days are pretty much full size.

The courgettes are as prolific as they are delicious, looks like there's plenty more to come also.

Lettuce is well on its way to bolting as its growing quicker than I can eat it.

Purple broccoli was enjoyed in the spring, it has now produced lots of seed pods, I guess I should take this in and plant the seeds.

Anybody planting anything now for a winter harvest????