Veg plans for 2021

Harvested my kale, peas, carrots and garlic , all good, but my beetroot were very strange this year.

I planted chioggia var, the striped beetroot. All grew fine, looked good, didn’t bolt. Cooked them (boiled) and they were really horrible to eat. Fibrous, tough, yuck. I don’t know was it a lack of water when growing, or something else but it definitely did not work. I grew that variety before and they were good , love the striped effect when cut, so I don’t know what happened there.

Having been pleased with Seedaholic in the past I had very bad results from their seed this year. No germination at all from some of their seed so I won't be using them again.

Is it this time of the year or is it just me?

I find that in early spring I am out and about preparing, buying, planting, constructing, digging in the garden. Full of energy.

When August comes around....I begin to lose interest.....the freshness is gone from the garden.....the motivation wanes.....

Maybe I am just tired from all the work involved in growing my own......even though I have produce to take in and eat....

I'm glad I'm not the only with the same issues. It's a pity though coz they have a decent selection. And are as local to me as any supplier will be.

Its my first year to grow tomatoes outside. But I'd say it's too early yet. I've two Gardner's delight outside and the two inside are only starting to crop now. The seeds were kind of latish being planted, but the plants were all sowed and transplanted into their final locations at the same time.

I find that this **** weather is really not helping the want to go out in the garden. We've been busy the last couple weeks, including getting bigger projects in the garden done but at the expense of general maintenance. But I had a proper walk around this evening and just have a list of jobs (weeds, weeds, and more weeds) to do. We had a very hit and miss, fairly poor growing year this year so not that much to crop at the moment and certainly nothing to harvest and save for the winter. So kind of don't have those rewarding jobs to get on with either.

I pinch out the top of main stem, when they get to height I want, about 5 or 6 trusses, and I remove lower leaves (and any yellowing leaves) for air circulation, not sure if its the right thing to do, but has worked for me for many years.

The good,bad and the middling.

Good..Grapes in polytunnel.Sowed two plants last year that had great growth with a handful of grapes.Pruned them back to the bare bones.

This year has yielded a huge amounts of grapes.Very pleased.

Raspberries..sowed them this year and am getting a bowl a day for the last few weeks.

Swedes..grew these from seed.Took off well both in and out of the polytunnel.

Cucumber..Bought 2 plants and sowed in May.One died but the other has grown enormous.Must be up to 20 cucumbers on it.In polytunnel.

Lettuce and spring onions..All good here loads of eating.

Bad..Calabrese broccoli.All bolted and went to seed.Not one head was eaten.Maybe I planted too early.

Blueberries..Sowed in pots but not in ericaceous compost.Very little berries.Lesson learned.

Carrots..very poor return from seed.Probably sown too early too.

Apple trees..Two died with the May frosts.Planted Two more and got some fruit from them.

Middling..Strawberries.Got a few around June but will need to plant a lot more to keep the bowl filled.

Blackberries..Sown with the raspberries but little to no berries here.Great plant growth.Hoping for a good return next year.

Tomatoes..Left to their own devices in polytunnel.Didnt sow or prune these.Grew from last years left over tomatoes.

A middling crop with no effort put in.

We have a glut of tomatoes. We want to store/use as many of these as possible after all the hard work put in place to grow them.

I know that I can read stuff online but I would be interested to hear what you do with your red tomatoes. How you store them and also how you use them subsequently?

Also. We have a good crop of runner beans. Do you cook the beans in their little jackets (not outer pod) or do you take their jackets off them and cook the green bean underneath?

We also have way more than we can handle and they keep coming) We cooking sauces or grilling peeled and de-seeded in olive oil for preserving, marinating the same style as gherkins, some I'm planning to oven-dry this weekend and also give bags of toms to neighbors. I cook nowadays mainly tomato dishes, like shakshuka, lasagnas, soups. I know many ppl freeze them as well in portion bags, which I haven't tried yet.

Re my year at the Allotment/Greenhouse:

The good:

Garlic - great crop overall

Tomatoes - fantastic crops both in the glasshouse and outdoors. First time sowing outdoors and grew Gardeners Delight, Crimson Crush and Lizzano - all done pretty well and still a decent crop there [about half have gone red so far]

Courgettes - sowed 3 plants of one ball, and they have done fantastic

Cauliflowers - first time crowing them, and they done pretty well

Leeks - they are still in the ground and growing pretty well right now

Brussel Sprouts - again still in the ground but coming along nicely

Rhubarb - fantastic crop

Strawberries - completely dug up the strawberry beds earlier in the year, planted some runners I had taken and they were fantastic. Mix of main crop and alpine [Mara del Bois] and still picking them

Blackberries - fantastic crop yet again

Chillis - grew one plant and full of lovely red chillis right now ! Need to go pick them

Ok crop:

Onions - spring sowing. They done ok, but yet again the winter onions worked out better for me

Peas - after a fantastic crop last year, this year was much more 'blah'.

Blueberries - ok crop from 4 plants but rarely enough ripen at the same time and have then eaten before I leave the plot !

Gooseberry - small enough crop, but those that did grow were lovely

Apple - had a ok crop off my Discovery tree

Disasters:

Early Potatoes - sowed Red Duke of York in an area I had poor results from before. Absolute disaster and they all died on me. Think there is something in that section of ground that potatoes do not like [grows other crops fine]

Parsnips - first time I had a disaster with them. Only one germinated [growing fine]

Turnips & Swedes - I have to take full responsibility here as I did not stay on top of the weeds in that bed :)

Plum/pear - not a single plum or pear to be seen on the 4 year old trees !

Overall it was a pretty decent year. The work put in earlier in the year when in lockdown made a massive difference I feel. The weather was a bit erratic from time to time, which makes it difficult when the plot is 4km up the road. But happy enough and the freezer is pretty packed right now.

Trying to get myself ready for next year - but agree with the other posters its a tough one to keep the motivation going at this time of year. I think this year might be extra hard as due to lockdown its likely we all started a bit earlier than normal due to lockdown so it makes the season extra long this year !

SW didn't you put in a water feature this year? Did that do anything for your garden (attract birds or frogs or...)

Edit: that was someone else, sorry

At the moment I am reducing my raised bed number from 9 to 6. Next year we will stick to the crops that we enjoy growing and give a worthwhile return. It didn't help matters this year when I was dismantling the frame that I was growing my very successful runner beans on when I saw a false widow spider looking back at me. Anyone having a problem with these?

Has anyone started sowing for 2022 yet?

I saved approx 200 broadbean seeds from this years crop. Have just sowed 80 of them I'm modules and will see how they do over winter. Can always purchase store bought seed if needed in spring.

When do others sow garlic and onion sets? Looking back at last years calendar, I sowed both on 10th October so might get moving on that over the weekend.

Grew enough garlic to be able to have our own supply of bulbs to dow this autumn also.

Plan is to be self sufficient in a number of seeds including garlic, beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, potatoes.