Veg plans for 2020

SouthWesterly · 31-07-2020 11:29am

BrownFinger wrote: »

Thats like us with our cabbage except it was 100% into the compost bin.
Annihilated by slugs.
Dont even like cabbage but I got that box of random seeds from suttons and they were in it.

My cabbage was the same. Decimated but my kale is untouched.

Relented last night and put down pellets

CelticRambler · 31-07-2020 11:36am

patnor1011 wrote: »

I fill cup to one third with beer. Leave couple days then I pour it off along with drowned drunkards. Pour fresh beer in. Repeat till most of them drink themselves to death. For some reason they prefer beer when available and leave my veggies alone.

Unfortunately, while it's a great way to catch slugs who fancy drowning themselves in beer, it's really no good for reducing the slug population. There's a video on YouTube somewhere that shows the slug traffic around a beer trap, and half of them look in, but decide to go off and pig out on something else.

Similarly, there are some species of slugs that spend most of their time below the surface, who won't be controlled by beer-traps or pellets.

I'm trying to build up my population of slow-worms as a more pro-active/aggressive approach.

SouthWesterly · 31-07-2020 1:14pm

CelticRambler wrote: »

Unfortunately, while it's a great way to catch slugs who fancy drowning themselves in beer, it's really no good for reducing the slug population. There's a video on YouTube somewhere that shows the slug traffic around a beer trap, and half of them look in, but decide to go off and pig out on something else.

Similarly, there are some species of slugs that spend most of their time below the surface, who won't be controlled by beer-traps or pellets.

I'm trying to build up my population of slow-worms as a more pro-active/aggressive approach.

Where did you get them?

Harry Palmr · 31-07-2020 1:30pm

What kind of beds are you growing crops in?

Living Off The Splash · 31-07-2020 2:05pm

I have lots of frogs living in my flower beds. As a result we do not have a big problem with slugs.

Picked the last of my gooseberries today. Got several kilos out of about 4 bushes. Netting gone now.

Picked most of my peas also. Pods turning brown at this stage. I will keep a few dozen to use as seed next year.

We will pick and freeze our French Beans over the weekend.

Most of our lettuce gone to seed, dumped in compost heap.

Hundreds of ants in the garden getting ready to fly. Hate them.

CelticRambler · 31-07-2020 6:22pm

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Where did you get them?

They just appeared! Unless there's only a couple and they're becoming tame, then I reckon the population has increased quite a bit (and hopefully due to my nature-friendly cultivation practices) as I'm now getting to spot one at the rate of about one a month, compared to one a year a decade ago ... but I do wish they'd learn to run a bit faster when I'm out with the strimmer - they're not easy to spot through a mask!

Legs or no legs, they can skidaddle fast enough when I want to take photos!

Seve OB · 03-08-2020 1:59pm

Planted these spuds back around Paddy’s weekend. They never flowered at all, could be the variety? Sharpes express I think they were.
Would you recommend I leave them in or pull them?

I did have some in pots also which got battered about a month ago with wind and rain so I pulled them as I’d no choice really and got a tiny yield

Harry Palmr · 03-08-2020 2:03pm

Have a look, dig in gently and see what is there.

CelticRambler · 03-08-2020 4:33pm

Dig them if you need them, otherwise leave them until you need the space.

I lifted my Stuttgarter onions today. Jeeeeeeeeeeeez, what an effort. :eek: My clay-rich, now seriously water-deprived, soil did not want to let them go. On the basis of this morning's experience, I have decided that the first job for my new mini-digger (when it arrives at the end of the month) will be to harvest the carrots planted alongside them. And that's not a joke.

Since Saturday, our area has been moved to "crisis" status for water supplies. There's no rain forecast now for the rest of the month, and today's single "light shower" (lasted less than 10 minutes) demonstrated a phenomenon described by a woman on the radio at breakfast: such light precipitation that it evaporates on contact with the ground, contributing nothing at all to the soil.

MacDanger · 06-08-2020 11:05am

How do I know when my carrots are ready? Just pull a couple and see? They were planted a bit late so is there any downside to leaving them longer?

kylith · 06-08-2020 8:55pm

Pulled my white onions because I fancied I could hear the wireworm laughing at me. Every single one had at least one orange arse sticking out of it. Absolutely sickened..., they were bloody huge.

SouthWesterly · 07-08-2020 11:14am

MacDanger wrote: »

How do I know when my carrots are ready? Just pull a couple and see? They were planted a bit late so is there any downside to leaving them longer?

No harm in leaving them. Just pick as you need to thin them out.
Watch out for carrot fly/slugs.

We lifted some of our main crop yesterday. Plants had died. Hit and miss depending on variety.
The 20kg bag of Maris pipers i got for a fiver did really well.
Golden wonders need more time.

Planting swede and turnip today

Harry Palmr · 09-08-2020 4:10pm

Stew tonight - home grown carrots, potatoes, onion, tomatoes (a gift from from a client who's are well ahead of mine) plus mushrooms - and beef, not mine!

The tumbling toms are about 3 days from ready - tried one today and a bit crunchy still. Ailsa Craigs not yet fruiting but not that far away I think, while a Moneymaker sits in a teepee and is completely reliant on a fine Autumn if it's going to yield a crop!

Christmas potatoes are sown as are kale and lettuce, carrots to go in very soon.

SouthWesterly · 09-08-2020 7:53pm

Homegrown chicken for dinner tonight with homegrown salad

CelticRambler · 10-08-2020 1:27am

Found out yesterday that I've been watering my tomatoes wrongly all this time. :mad: I've been following the "water well, not often" mantra ... only it seems that that's not a good strategy for toms, especially in the heat we're having here. And despite years of successful harvests, it's taken me till now to learn that tomatoes don't like heat, and stop ripening when the temperature gets too high.

I've a few kilos of green-ish tomatoes taken off the vines now and incubating with a bunch of bananas to see if that'll turn them red; and I'm taking my chances with the local authorities and from now on watering the plants afternoon and evening to try to cool them down.

But I'm fairly pleased with the cherry toms, which are still mildly blight affected on their lower parts, but producing a decent crop all the same, and with flowers on the new (still disease-free) foliage.

The gerkhins are gone completely mad; fortunately, I discovered that I like them added to a potato salad, so I'm getting to use up last years quite quickly, and I have a houseful of vegetarian Covid refugees this week and next, so I'm sure one or other of them will find a use for anything I can't pickle right away.

Chilis and peppers continue to do well, though still some way off being ready to harvest. Charentais melons (first time) are coming along nicely too. Sweetcorn sown from saved seed last year has surprised me with a decent sized cob on every plant - about sixty; and the beetroot and carrots growing in their shade are looking good too. Green and butter beans are also really prolific - staggered planting did exactly what was expected.

That just leaves the leafy-greens: nothing. Not a single green leaf of any kind. I haven't been able to get anything to germinate since March, and those lettuces bolted faster than I've ever seen.

Worse - because I can always make up a salad with beetroot leaves - the ground I cleared of potatoes, onions, peas and a few other bits and pieces is completely unworkable because of the heat/drought, so I don't know how I can get anything planted for the second half of the year. A major re-think is needed for the future ...

SnowyMuckish · 16-08-2020 8:49pm

Here’s to my late father. This year’s harvest. Not a lot but always a very poignant day. I saved his seed potatoes 4 years ago after his sudden death and have grown them every year since. It’s like reaching out and connecting to our past

Little Miss Fairy · 19-08-2020 1:09pm

Beautiful post Snowy.
Delighted to see my tomatoes finally turning red after an age of wondering had I actually planted tomatoes. Can’t wait to taste them.

Frogeye · 19-08-2020 2:25pm

Little Miss Fairy wrote: »

Beautiful post Snowy.
Delighted to see my tomatoes finally turning red after an age of wondering had I actually planted tomatoes. Can’t wait to taste them.

Same. I sowed Moneymakers on the 25th March and they are only coming ripe now. Still haven't had the first on off the vine yet but they are going red.

I hope my blow away poly tunnel lasts the night and they get the chance to finish ripening!

Had some cherry tomatoes ripen over the last 10 days.

first fruit on my pepper plants only coming now.

Frogeye

patnor1011 · 20-08-2020 12:26am

So I just got a call from my wife that our garden is toast. Storm ellen erased couple months of work

Beans and tomatoes pretty much ripped out of the ground.

beggars_bush · 20-08-2020 8:25am

Sweetcorn, gone
Sunflowers destroyed

Living Off The Splash · 20-08-2020 2:38pm

Sun flowers and hollyhocks lying on the ground. I will try and tie them up tomorrow.

Peeling my turnips yesterday was like peeling a rock.

SouthWesterly · 20-08-2020 3:04pm

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Sun flowers and hollyhocks lying on the ground. I will try and tie them up tomorrow.

Peeling my turnips yesterday was like peeling a rock.

Had turnip last night. A pleasure to eat. Along with own spuds and local beef

20-08-2020 4:11pm

Thats awful ,
Had a glance out the window this morning before leaving and all looked good.
Corns still standing ,greenhouse intact too.

CelticRambler · 20-08-2020 6:35pm

Those of you who have lost stuff this weekend have my sympathies - of all the times to lose a crop, it's gut-wrenching when it's almost at the point of harvest.

Little Miss Fairy wrote: »

Delighted to see my tomatoes finally turning red after an age of wondering had I actually planted tomatoes.

Frogeye wrote: »

I sowed Moneymakers on the 25th March and they are only coming ripe now. Still haven't had the first on off the vine yet but they are going red.

We've had the opposite problem here - too damn hot so the tomatoes won't ripen on the vine. I took about a kilo off last week and threw them in with some bananas, which did get them to turn red, but the flavour wasn't the same.

Still and all, I've just said goodbye to the last of a houseful of guests. There were nine of us altogether, of whom six were vegetarians, and despite the lack of leafy greens, everyone was well fed. Over the course of two weeks, all they bought in the shop were some lemons and a watermelon. Everything else came from the garden - potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, peppers, chilis, gerkhins, green beans, sweetcorn, beetroot, plums, blackberries, strawberries (picked earlier), figs (picked earlier), rhubarb (picked earlier), apples, pears, home-made raisins ...

We had a couple of Belgians who took it upon themselves, as a matter of pride, to make chips for the whole group, for which they first dug up all of my Charlotte potatoes! Absolutely gorgeous, they were!

kylith · 20-08-2020 9:34pm

The tomatoes, my last hope for something this year, are pretty much toast. Flattened and tattered.

Living Off The Splash · 21-08-2020 8:47am

CelticRambler wrote: »

We had a couple of Belgians who took it upon themselves, as a matter of pride, to make chips for the whole group, for which they first dug up all of my Charlotte potatoes! Absolutely gorgeous, they were!

Do you run a B & B or Gite?

CelticRambler · 21-08-2020 9:43am

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Do you run a B & B or Gite?

Nope - just a dancers' refugee camp!

French trad festival friends from around Europe who were desperate for a fix of non-socially distant entertainment and an escape from their urban normalities.

SouthWesterly · 21-08-2020 2:19pm

Fruit Hill farms have preorders for onion and garlic bulbs

patnor1011 · 23-08-2020 2:25am

I came home morning after the storm and spent 2 hours in rain putting more bamboo in my about 60 tomatoes. I used miles of string to try to straighten them up a bit. I can say that I lost about half of what I could have get out of them next few days will show. Tomato is a pest and can survive a lot so there is a hope there.
Sweetcorn survived as I had it tied down really good also only 1 out of my 11 beans took a hit as bamboo broke but I fixed it as much as I could and it looks it will survive too.
Leeks were quite tall and they are still flattened - I hope they survive.
Storm hit us but we will salvage whatever we can. Nothing else we can do about it.

Living Off The Splash · 23-08-2020 9:27am

Do you eat your runner beans, pods and all or just the beans inside? I find them quite tough to eat. Maybe I am leaving them too long before picking.

Bill Hook · 23-08-2020 8:46pm

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Do you eat your runner beans, pods and all or just the beans inside? I find them quite tough to eat. Maybe I am leaving them too long before picking.

Pods and all... had a load of them for supper!

patnor1011 · 23-08-2020 9:14pm

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Do you eat your runner beans, pods and all or just the beans inside? I find them quite tough to eat. Maybe I am leaving them too long before picking.

We leave them till they are semi dry on the plant then we harvest them and leave pods to dry out in the air. We harvest beans and dry them out even more so they are bone dry. That way you can store them for a very long time. When we plan to cook from them (soup or stew) we usually soak them in water for a few hours but only if we want to cook faster. They can be used as they are they rehydrate while cooking. Pretty much like you would use your beans or lentils.
Only french beans and peas when small are used whole with the pod in the house.

countrywoman · 23-08-2020 9:20pm

I'm on the lookout for winter potatoes....the places I've tried are sold out. Any ideas?

1990sman · 23-08-2020 11:57pm

any ideas/links on setting up a coastal homestead? got a tiny patch on the atlantic coast, its baltic and windy but its mine

patnor1011 · 24-08-2020 2:33am

1990sman wrote: »

any ideas/links on setting up a coastal homestead? got a tiny patch on the atlantic coast, its baltic and windy but its mine

Congrats. I would love to live on the coast. I know it is colder and windier but I would swap this for a city like right now. Perhaps one day when kids will finish studying I may get to live my dream. (fishing)

I would probably go for greenhouse or at least some stone walls to break up a wind a little. Also dont forget that being on the coast you got another garden which lies between high and low tide. Some of it is edible while all of it is great fertilizer.

Living Off The Splash · 24-08-2020 10:16am

patnor1011 wrote: »

. Also dont forget that being on the coast you got another garden which lies between high and low tide.

I got my name "Living off the Splash" from this idea. It's a great way to live your life. A bit of this, a bit of that. Mix and match. Make do and mend. Take a bit of whatever blows your way.

SouthWesterly · 24-08-2020 5:57pm

Sowed some late turnips which were coming up nicely.

Went out today and they were gone. slugs got them.

patnor1011 · 25-08-2020 5:43am

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Sowed some late turnips which were coming up nicely.

Went out today and they were gone. slugs got them.

Yeah. Lol week ago when there was bit of nice weather my daughter was happy chasing beautiful butterflies. Like look how many and how they are so cute...

Now I looked at my kohlrabi - hundreds of caterpillars decimating them like you can actually see leaves dissappearing right in front of your eyes. These things are relentless... Caterpillar extinction event is planned for today as I have to go after their food source to save some of that for myself.

SouthWesterly · 25-08-2020 7:41am

patnor1011 wrote: »

Yeah. Lol week ago when there was bit of nice weather my daughter was happy chasing beautiful butterflies. Like look how many and how they are so cute...

Now I looked at my kohlrabi - hundreds of caterpillars decimating them like you can actually see leaves dissappearing right in front of your eyes. These things are relentless... Caterpillar extinction event is planned for today as I have to go after their food source to save some of that for myself.

I learnt early in the summer about scaffold netting.

Slug pellets though are slow to be used on open ground though as the chickens free range

Living Off The Splash · 25-08-2020 8:36am

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Sowed some late turnips which were coming up nicely.

Went out today and they were gone. slugs got them.

We found a slug among our lettuce plants that if you wrapped it in breadcrumbs it would feed a family for a week. It was a monster.

MacDanger · 25-08-2020 1:33pm

Hi

I planted some calabrese, cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli (4 varieties). The calabrese & cauliflower came up fine and was harvested in late Jul / early Aug but I'm getting hardly anything from the sprouting broccoli. The plants seem fine and healthy but from 12 plants, I've literally gotten about 4-6 tiny pieces.

Do I just need to wait a bit longer? Or any idea what's happening?

Thanks

Seve OB · 25-08-2020 6:29pm

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

We found a slug among our lettuce plants that if you wrapped it in breadcrumbs it would feed a family for a week. It was a monster.

Any pics?
Did you deep fry it or stick it in the oven?

SouthWesterly · 26-08-2020 8:30pm

Went into the garden today. My 30 artichokes were flattened by the latest storm

MacDanger · 27-08-2020 1:22pm

MacDanger wrote: »

Hi

I planted some calabrese, cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli (4 varieties). The calabrese & cauliflower came up fine and was harvested in late Jul / early Aug but I'm getting hardly anything from the sprouting broccoli. The plants seem fine and healthy but from 12 plants, I've literally gotten about 4-6 tiny pieces.

Do I just need to wait a bit longer? Or any idea what's happening?

Thanks

Any advice?

27-08-2020 1:28pm

MacDanger wrote: »

Any advice?

i've purple sprout broccoli down too and its going the last week/two .
First time growing it .

Heres a haul from the other day !

patnor1011 · 27-08-2020 3:57pm

Could not resist and check my beans. They got a lot of damage last week but still looks like most of crop can be saved. Some are already good (left) but they still need few weeks (middle and right). Far right are some peas I am saving for seeds.

sTHiMTb

Hmm cant embed my picture for some reason. Link is in a post yet it does not show.

https://ibb.co/xfVKBSH

Bill Hook · 29-08-2020 4:45pm

patnor1011 wrote: »

We leave them till they are semi dry on the plant then we harvest them and leave pods to dry out in the air. We harvest beans and dry them out even more so they are bone dry. That way you can store them for a very long time. When we plan to cook from them (soup or stew) we usually soak them in water for a few hours but only if we want to cook faster. They can be used as they are they rehydrate while cooking. Pretty much like you would use your beans or lentils.
Only french beans and peas when small are used whole with the pod in the house.

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.:(

SouthWesterly · 29-08-2020 5:08pm

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.:(

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

pconn062 · 29-08-2020 5:32pm

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.:(

Recommend borlotti beans. I grow a dwarf variety of them but you can grow a climbing variety too. Let them dry a bit on the plant then shell and dry the beans completely.

Bill Hook · 29-08-2020 6:11pm

pconn062 wrote: »

Recommend borlotti beans. I grow a dwarf variety of them but you can grow a climbing variety too. Let them dry a bit on the plant then shell and dry the beans completely.

I have a bean called Beefy Resilient Grex (dwarf French type) in the garden at the moment, plenty of pods but I can't see them getting big enough or dry enough to store for the winter. Maybe I should be growing them in a tunnel/greenhouse.

http://www.brownenvelopeseeds.com/product-p/beefy-resilient-grex-bean.htm

Veg plans for 2020

Comments