Veg plans for 2020

s1ippy

Summer garden is in full swing now. Got a great haul of beetroot this year. Blanched the chard I didn't use and pickled about half the beet, six small containers.

Tomatoes are flying at the moment so long as the wind doesn't rip the greenhouse out of the ground and them with it. We should have a steady supply from a fortnight's time onwards as I planted in succession.

Loads of leaves, baby gem, kale and perpetual spinach being the most prominent. We use them as we go because we've a pet rabbit who loves to nibble them as soon as they're ready so we can never have enough, continuously planting them. I like to use wild plants like dandelion and herb robert that grow abundantly in the garden in most salads. If you can't beat em, eat em.

A tonne of leeks, onions, chives coming up right now as well as pak choi that I'm growing from ends of nice organic plants we ate.

Potatoes just grow all over the place here so there's always some to be had.

Courgette plants are starting to bear very nice flowers now and there are a few small courgettes developing. Never grown them before but they're gorgeous and look delicious, it's going to take some discipline to wait.

Carrots just set the other day, forgot about them. That was a lot of work! I hope they're good because the last ones I managed were ravaged by carrot fly, but that was in a different garden.

8 strawberry plants, 3 flowering and the rest with a bit of catching up to do. Can't wait for them to be ready, lovely jam and daquiri abound with fresh mint from the herb garden

We've dill, coriander and basil inside and parsley, thyme and marjoram outside. Also lemon balm and lavender for their scent and they go great in tea.

Jostaberries are ripening at the moment, though the cat isn't outside to chase away the birds this year so we're going to have to be fast off the mark to get them. Although because the neighbours all but killed the hedge, there aren't as many nests in the hedges this year unfortunately.

I'm really looking forward to the blackberries and raspberries as well, especially when the trees are absolutely teeming with buds just waiting to grow into lovely sweet apples.

Peas and beans galore the whole time as well, although I've been out with the torch the last few nights to murder the slimy bastards that eat them. Growing up sunflowers with reasonable success, but a few grew too quickly and I've had to scaffold them. Put down a load of Borage too.

Inside we have aloe plants which are great to make creams with and a calamondin trees absolutely teeming with citrus fruits, to name only the practical plants. I think I have an addiction to growing stuff.

I just love this time of the year. I'm organising the autumn work at the moment so that we'll be stocked for the rest of the year. I'd love to hear what people are doing to prepare for next season as I've only gotten things properly set up here this year.

scarepanda

Impressive!

beggars_bush

Very strong winds here seem to have destroyed some pumpkin plants just snapping them along the stem and the broccoli might be shot too

SouthWesterly

I've not looked in the garden. Tomorrow will do

beggars_bush

s1ippy wrote: »

Summer garden is in full swing now. Got a great haul of beetroot this year. Blanched the chard I didn't use and pickled about half the beet, six small containers.

Tomatoes are flying at the moment so long as the wind doesn't rip the greenhouse out of the ground and them with it. We should have a steady supply from a fortnight's time onwards as I planted in succession.

Loads of leaves, baby gem, kale and perpetual spinach being the most prominent. We use them as we go because we've a pet rabbit who loves to nibble them as soon as they're ready so we can never have enough, continuously planting them. I like to use wild plants like dandelion and herb robert that grow abundantly in the garden in most salads. If you can't beat em, eat em.

A tonne of leeks, onions, chives coming up right now as well as pak choi that I'm growing from ends of nice organic plants we ate.

Potatoes just grow all over the place here so there's always some to be had.

Courgette plants are starting to bear very nice flowers now and there are a few small courgettes developing. Never grown them before but they're gorgeous and look delicious, it's going to take some discipline to wait.

Carrots just set the other day, forgot about them. That was a lot of work! I hope they're good because the last ones I managed were ravaged by carrot fly, but that was in a different garden.

8 strawberry plants, 3 flowering and the rest with a bit of catching up to do. Can't wait for them to be ready, lovely jam and daquiri abound with fresh mint from the herb garden

We've dill, coriander and basil inside and parsley, thyme and marjoram outside. Also lemon balm and lavender for their scent and they go great in tea.

Jostaberries are ripening at the moment, though the cat isn't outside to chase away the birds this year so we're going to have to be fast off the mark to get them. Although because the neighbours all but killed the hedge, there aren't as many nests in the hedges this year unfortunately.

I'm really looking forward to the blackberries and raspberries as well, especially when the trees are absolutely teeming with buds just waiting to grow into lovely sweet apples.

Peas and beans galore the whole time as well, although I've been out with the torch the last few nights to murder the slimy bastards that eat them. Growing up sunflowers with reasonable success, but a few grew too quickly and I've had to scaffold them. Put down a load of Borage too.

Inside we have aloe plants which are great to make creams with and a calamondin trees absolutely teeming with citrus fruits, to name only the practical plants. I think I have an addiction to growing stuff.

I just love this time of the year. I'm organising the autumn work at the moment so that we'll be stocked for the rest of the year. I'd love to hear what people are doing to prepare for next season as I've only gotten things properly set up here this year.

Very impressive. Have you a heated glasshouse?
Don't touch the carrots if you can
Carrot fly love the smell of foliage being thinned out

pconn062

Just visited the scene of the crime, about 25% lost. Runners beans destroyed, about 30% of potatoes destroyed, a lovely cloche I made smashed which in turn ruined half my brassicas. Several tears in the polytunnel, leeks transplanted the other day ruined too. Very frustrating, worst storm we've had in years.

SnowyMuckish

pconn062 wrote: »

Just visited the scene of the crime, about 25% lost. Runners beans destroyed, about 30% of potatoes destroyed, a lovely cloche I made smashed which in turn ruined half my brassicas. Several tears in the polytunnel, leeks transplanted the other day ruined too. Very frustrating, worst storm we've had in years.

Sounds awful! I lost my favorite cherry tree, split in half in the garden this afternoon but hopefully there’s no more damage. We seem to always get a bad doing here in the NW of Donegal!

kylith

Carrots and onions seem to be ok. The peas took a bit of a battering but are mostly ok. The mini greenhouse, however, is a write-off. Luckily the few tomatoes that managed to germinate seem to have survived, surviving the baby and the storm - they must be immortal. The corn hasn't quite broken through the soil so they seem to have been ok too. No idea what I'll do with them now I have no greenhouse, but I'll have to come up with something.

SnowyMuckish

Checked my spuds before it got dark. Some stems are damaged, can you just prune them off and let them regrow?does it damage that crop?

beggars_bush

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Checked my spuds before it got dark. Some stems are damaged, can you just prune them off and let them regrow?does it damage that crop?

Spuds are very resilient. They'll just send up new stems.
Earlies or main crop?
My next door neighbour had just finished putting a roof on a new fancy timber glasshouse he was building.
It's now down our field.

Harry Palmr

Excuse the terrible framing! I rushed out with a bunch of poles and other sticks and put them in best I could and got a bed cover on it's side poles hammed into the ground. Seems to have worked, it looks bedraggled but only a few stems broken. Was I noticed was that the proximity to the fence created extra buffeting. Anyway, note to self make up a three/four metre roll up barrier for later in year.

scarepanda

My glass house is taped together with duct tape today.

I went out last night and there was a pane of glass cracked and the handle for the window was outside. There was a pane of glass/perspex missing at the front when we moved in. I have perspex to install but haven't gotten around to cutting it to fit yet, so it's been shoved up against the glasshouse. It kept blowing down yesterday and i reckon a gust of wind knocked it down and lifted the window from the inside (the twisty bit wouldn't twist to allow the window to be locked) and it slammed down and did the damage. Fun!

I also spent the day picking up my fruit bushes. They are all currently in buckets.

Zapperzy

Lost 2 out of 4 sunflowers which were a good 2ft tall and strong. Potatoes and strawberries in tatters and loads of small bedding plants gone. Trellis went flying ripping up all the climbers attached and rose Bush is bald and shook looking. Not to mention a bbq cover nowhere to be seen. Still another few hours at least of this left to go. Pretty devastated as everything was shaping up pretty good

krissovo

I have lost most of my beetroot to the wind the leaves have curled up and gone very pale similar story which pumpkin. My veg trug herbs took a beating last night which has ripped off the cover and frame so had to duck tape it altogether this morning. Basil is so wilted it has all but disappeared, thyme does not look healthy either.

My peas are ok though which is always the main event in our garden once they start to ripen

Harry Palmr

You'd be surprised at how much will recover with a few weeks of benign weather - which happily we look like getting plus you can go again for some stuff in May.

https://www.wetterzentrale.de/en/topkarten.php?map=1&model=ecm&var=1&time=288&run=0&lid=OP&h=0&tr=24&mv=0

beggars_bush

Harry Palmr wrote: »

You'd be surprised at how much will recover with a few weeks of benign weather - which happily we look like getting plus you can go again for some stuff in May.

https://www.wetterzentrale.de/en/topkarten.php?map=1&model=ecm&var=1&time=288&run=0&lid=OP&h=0&tr=24&mv=0

We have had no benign weather this spring/summer though
Sun with severe dry east breeze all through March and April.
Freezing temps at night in April & May
Now storm force wind in late May

Harry Palmr

I suppose it's pot luck as to location and the nature of the site, I've been flying but maybe I've been lucky to a degree - pretty sheltered (until yesterday!), no frosts

CelticRambler

Having been through something similar back at the start of the year, I feel for ye all ...

The worst my veg have suffered after two weeks of neglect is a lack of growth.

Oh, and my apple trees are absolutely covered in caterpillars - worst I've ever seen in 15 years. :mad: Where are all the natural predators? They ought to know by now that my garden offers them the best supply of organic beasties they'll find in this part of the world.

Finding 2kg of strawberries ready for harvest helped soften that blow.

stiofan85

My first year trying more than a few radish and lettuce seeds, with 3 big raised beds and spuds in containers. Everything was going so well! Spuds are in bits now. Managed to put up a wind break we use on the beach to protect one of the beds. It worked quite well so thinking I might figure out a way to put it up quickly as we live near the coast and it's always windy tbh.

Had a little cold frame with module trays that was tossed across the garden. Salvaged about 1/3 of the plugs but most of the next sewings are goosed sadly.

Live and learn. Hopefully some will recover

Harry Palmr

Sowed four Moneymaker tomato seeds a week ago (I had the packet since March but completely forgot about them) coming through now so I'll cultivate the four until end of June then pick the best two of them and put them in the big pots and hope for a long summer with a mild autumn! Must get some kale seeds for the main bed and start sowing.

Also transplanted three Honesty wildflowers to the top of garden 'semi wild' zone they tend to spread by themselves quite readily so I'll leave them to it for further propagation.

Living Off The Splash

Everything growing well now. Peas, Mange Touts, Broad Beans putting out their tendrils. French Beans still slow. Some mixed variety lettuces very slow to grow also. Watering daily. Using Beetroot leaves in salads. Celeriac....nothing.

Frogeye

I had a cheap small polytunnel. It got wacked Friday morning. The cover was blown off exposing all my tomato plants to the wind. I had a few in pots which I brought in when I got home Friday night and I put up a wind breaker around the rest. It was Sunday before the wind was calm enough to put the cover back on. It wasn’t too badly damaged but the tomato plants have a lot of shrivel dried leaves and branches on them. I watered and fed them , hopefully they will recover because I don’t think the garden centres around me have any tomato plants in stock….

Hopefully that is the end of the wind and frost!

Frogeye

beggars_bush

Frogeye wrote: »

I had a cheap small polytunnel. It got wacked Friday morning. The cover was blown off exposing all my tomato plants to the wind. I had a few in pots which I brought in when I got home Friday night and I put up a wind breaker around the rest. It was Sunday before the wind was calm enough to put the cover back on. It wasn’t too badly damaged but the tomato plants have a lot of shrivel dried leaves and branches on them. I watered and fed them , hopefully they will recover because I don’t think the garden centres around me have any tomato plants in stock….

Hopefully that is the end of the wind and frost!

Frogeye

Unlucky
Most garden centres will have tomatoes or can get them in.
Bit of potash to help them along

Seve OB

About time I threw up a few pics. So the spuds in the pots came up first a good few weeks ago now but the ones in the bed really only took off about a week ago. How does one know when they are ready to harvest? I know it says something like 12 weeks but is that from when they shoot up or when you stick them in the ground. I suppose I’ll be alright taking one up at a time (pots anyway, maybe not the ones in the bed).

Then the beetroot, three of them there doing ok and one more if you can make it out which just showed yesterday. Did I read something above about chard? Is that the leaves and stalks? What can I do with that? Actually same re the spuds or do you just chuck them in the composter?

Then the poor little pots with the seeds for sunflowers and beans still showing nothing at all. I keep firing water on them in hope.

You can also see I like to take a few clippings from my hedge. My dad has a full hedge in his garden from my precious clippings, so hoping I can get even half of these to take and sort him out with another one. I find it can be hit and miss. Other clippings there are roses and climbing geraniums which I snipped out of my grandads garden a few weeks ago. He was a fantastic gardener and I suppose I learnt pretty much most I know about gardening from him. Gone almost 11 years so it’s nice to have a memory of him in my garden.

Seve OB

Lastly is a little patch which came free a few weeks back when we shifted the kids playhouse. I happened to be in B&Q last week and in the queue for the till they were selling off onions, garlic and spuds for a euro each so I picked up a selection. Wrong time of year I know to be growing them, but sure worst thing that can happen is that they don’t grow. Mind you, perhaps you can see that they are indeed starting to grow already.

I didn’t use them all, does anyone know if they keep or do they die off if not used?

Seve OB

Speaking of my grandad, a few years back in high stormy winds a couple of sizeable branches snapped off a standard rose that he had growing. The rose took a right battering and was blown over but I managed to get it back in place and save it for my Nana........ well for a few years anyway. It’s since gone along with her alas.

But the branches that fell off that time came home with me and thanks to a bit of rooting powder and a pot of compost they don my front and back garden so a nice reminder of them when the summer comes along and they start to bloom.





Sorry, pics won’t load right way up!

CelticRambler

Seve OB wrote: »

onions, garlic and spuds for a euro each so I picked up a selection. ...

I didn’t use them all, does anyone know if they keep or do they die off if not used?

They will do their best to die off! You can throw them in the salad drawer of the fridge and that might hold them in their current state for several months; alternatively, put them in a box of damp sand/soil in the coolest part of the house/garden where they can grow slowly. Onion sets are already on their way to the finish line when you buy them, so it can be tricky to stop them running to seed; but they're also contrary yokes and (in my garden, at least) seem to grow as and when the mood takes them!

If you can keep the potatoes on hold, you could consider planting them later in the summer, fairly close together in a bed that's become free. You won't be able to feed the family off the crop, but you should get enough seed potatoes for next year (leave them in the ground till as late as possible)

Depending on how much garlic you've got (or want), the same applies: put each bulb into a small pot (e.g. yoghurt-sized), let it germinate, water it a bit but not too much, and let it "die" in the autumn. Every bulb will give you half a dozen cloves or more from which to start next year's crop.

CelticRambler

My veg plans are being re-written in the light of new weather predictions - another heat-wave, and probable drought - forecast for my part of France. We're not even into June and my 1000l reserve of rainwater is gone with no immediate prospect of the butts being re-filled. Temperatures of around 27°C every day this week, so my lettuce is growing too fast and tastes bitter, a few of the onions grown from sets have bolted already, whereas those grown from seed are still miserable weedy things :mad: and the peas are flowering and running to seed before almost as soon as they've germinated! :eek:

The tomatoes seem happy though - planted out 36 of a standard-sized variety this week, to join 20 cherries. Carrots and green beans are doing ok too, as are the assortment of melons, squashes and other cucurbits.

And the sun has sent the slugs off to greener, damper pastures, leaving my strawberries in peace! Ten pots of jam made this week.

beggars_bush

Onions leaves are all turning yellow.
Oh dear.

pconn062

beggars_bush wrote: »

Onions leaves are all turning yellow.
Oh dear.

My onions are a complete disaster. 90% have bolted before making any size. Must be the funny weather, a very wet winter then near drought like conditions where I am for the last two months. Planted them last October but not going to bother overwintering again, they got too beaten up over the winter. Luckily I have some spring sown sets that look much happier and healthier.