Veg plans for 2020

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Planted these recently for an autumn harvest
https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable-Seeds/Popular-Vegetable-Seeds/Broad-Bean-Seeds/Bean-Broad-Bean-Seeds---Luz-de-Otono_194118.htm

They look interesting... have you tried them before? My broad beans were disappointing (I grew Aquadulce, Monica and Crimson Flowered).

Bill Hook wrote: »

I'd love to be able to get some dry beans for the winter. What variety do you grow and how do you dry them? My efforts with broad beans ended in a soggy mess; I hung them up in a shed with plenty of space and air but they all went mouldy.:(

Sorry for the late reply. The variety on the picture is Red flowered scarlet runner. I do grow there for long time storage as when dry they are good for a couple of years. You do not need to dry whole pods, that can be done only in dry warm climate due to mould. I just harvest pods when they start yellowing and going sort of soggy or soft. Then I pop them open and harvest individual beans. I put them on homemade drying rack which I left on top of furniture or simply somewhere out of the way. Preferably on the sun but since there is not much of it just somewhere where there is air circulation and they dry in a few days. I use homemade drying racks I made from some wood and window netting from B&Q. These can be put on top of the radiator.

Dried beans can be used in stews or soups, the best way is to soak them for few hours or overnight in water before you plan to cook something with them.

Some beans I harvested today. I already got 2 times more and estimate to have about 5-6x more from just 10 plants. There would be more but they got battered pretty bad in last storm.



I can send seeds to anyone who will want some (seeds will be free, I only kindly ask you to cover postage and envelope).

patnor1011 wrote: »

Sorry for the late reply. The variety on the picture is Red flowered scarlet runner.

They look lovely. I have 3 types of runner bean producing loads of pods - Yardstick, Black Magic and Desiree - so I will let some of then mature (hopefully) and have a go at drying them. I need a bigger house: there are trays of seeds all over the place, chilli plants taking up half the kitchen table, etc.

Bill Hook wrote: »

They look interesting... have you tried them before? My broad beans were disappointing (I grew Aquadulce, Monica and Crimson Flowered).

First time growing them. They seem to be doing well. Not growing very tall but in flower now

Drop a banana or two in with them to speed up the ripening process.

CelticRambler wrote: »

Drop a banana or two in with them to speed up the ripening process.

Have something else in mind for them
Green tomato chutney. I made about 10 bottles of it last year. Good to eat in itself with bread or crackers or as a side with sausages or puddings. It also can spice up your sauce or stew. Sterilized in jars so it last longer.

patnor1011 wrote: »

Since it is pretty late and I do not have glasshouse I am going to keep growing them in the house. I am going to use led grow lights just to see if I can grow successfully something which does have africa in the name.

Careful you don't attract the wrong kind of attention with the grow-lights... :pac:

But let us know how you get on. Amongst my batch of 29ct seeds from Lidl this year were some jalapeños which were hot enough to have my African nephew dousing his throat with fromage blanc (my Dutch visitor got to the yoghurt first!) but we were rapidly desensitised so I have some cayenne peppers on standby for next year - as well as seed saved from this year's jalapeños. I will try to get some of them started quite early, as it'd be nice to have them available to use with the veg harvested in July, or even June.

I'm lucky in that our long dark evenings here (at latitude 46.4°N) aren't particularly long compared to Ireland, so I don't really need supplementary light ... except that the only rooms in the house that are convenient for laying out seed trays and a propagator are those on the north side of the house with small windows. Great for keeping cool in the height of summer, but not very practical for starting off seeds in January. My greenhouse is too far away from the main house to run power to, but I'm hoping to rig up a solar panel and an inverter so that I can put the propagator up there this winter. Longer term, part of my "sunken garden" project will involve the creation of a sort of conservatory-orangerie-pergola structure in the sunniest part of the garden - a greenhouse for the winter and a sitting area for the summer.

In the meantime, I'll settle for buying some under-bed storage boxes to use for early sowings, which I'll take with me (in my campervan!) while I'm away in the early part of the year. Hopefully that'll allow me to overcome the problems I've had in recent years with sudden changes of weather killing off my newly germinated seedlings while I'm not there, and not being able to do anything about it (like planting more) until I get home a fortnight or three weeks later. But that's "Veg plans for 2021" now, isn't it? Off topic for this thread ...

Every year we get some unplanned tomatoes growing among our raised beds.

We picked some yesterday that had grown and turned red outdoors.......just before the weather is about to turn.

A nice surprise gift.

Does anyone know where I might get 30 bags of well rotted manure delivered to my home in South Dublin coast?

I saw Monty recommend that a piece of the stem/stalk should be left on the squash to stop the actual vegetable going soft.

Bought some Egyptian walking onions this evening from incredible vegetables in the UK.

Also got delivery of taunton deane kale cuttings.

Harvested the last of my spring-sown potatoes this week (Desirée) and what a difference a metre (or two) makes! I had five drills, planted in the shade of a large gable wall. From the two drills furthest from the wall, i.e. experiencing the best/worst of the summer weather/drought, I got barely enough to fill the two crates back left and centre, and they were mostly marbles ; from the two drills closes to the wall, though, I had more enough to more than fill the three crates at the front, and there's a fair few half-kilo monsters in there too!



Quite a lot of slug damage at one end of each drill, though not as bad as what's happening over where my winter greens are supposed to be growing. Almost all of my spinach has disappeared after a very satisfying germination rate. :mad: The silver lining on that particular cloud was finding (and not accidentally killing :pac: ) a fat and beautiful fire salamander. I hope he (or she) was wide awake and feasting on the slugs and not trying to hibernate!

Got delivery of my walking onions today

Are any of you worried about the brexit situation? If no deal is made, we won't be able to buy imported uk seeds. I've checked the websites but most haven't got any stock on offer and there aren't many Irish seed suppliers. the only one I know opf is Brown envelope seeds in Bantry .

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Bought seeds last month from premier seeds direct and tamar organic.

Thanks for premier seeds direct. I've just put my order in. Lovely variety and choice. I can look forward to spring now.