[Closed] How are the stw vegetable gardens going?

lovely pics

ours is going well. Loads of tomatoes, chillies, runner beans, broad beans, peas, apples, plums and blackberries. Only moved in in Janaury so still sussing out where things grow best/where the light falls etc.

Next year we have plans, oh yes

I've got hundreds and hundreds of green Tomatoes hanging around on the vine waiting to ripen..

The little orange Sungold variety produce a tiny tasty treat every few days but they're few and far between and none of the rest are looking like they're gonna turn any time soon..

Cabbage White butterflies have mullered the Broccolli but we'll still get a couple of measly florets..

The Pumpkin is doing it's thing and has spread to cover most of the garden.. with shoots also climbing up the back of the house and over the fence into the neighbours garden.. finally a couple of the gourds are starting to look healthy and thrive rather than withering after a couple of days..

got a load of onions currrently hung drying out, had loads of potatoes and courgettes. Wondering what to plant now as i've got quite a bit of space free. Reccomendations?

first season in the new veg beds and they were only finished in May so not fully planted this year. But taken the opportunity of piling on the barrows of well-rotted horse muck from next door ready for next rotation.

Love courgettes and our french beans have been coming off well. Lots of CCA spinach, some cooked and frozen, baby leaves in salads.

Tomatoes are just ripening now. Got cracking SSW facing wall so they're coming along nicely. There's no such thing as too much Gardeners Delight tomatoes 🙂

[img] [/img]

EDIT I think we have about 20 pumpkins growing at the bottom of the field. Some for Jr to take to school to massacre, some for Mrs S to make soup for the freezer, the rest for me to make Pumpkin Rum! 🙂

Broad Beans finished
Courgettes still coming
First tomatoes going red
Lots of Chillis on the way
Borlotti and Spanish White beans thickening up nicely.
Lettuce looking tired
Badgers seem to be sharing the potatoes
Tons of chillis on the way
I forgot to sow any leeks 🙁

Good to hear of plenty of other success 🙂

I forgot to sow any leeks

Me too 🙁

Runner beans: epic crop.
Lettuce eaten in the summer, along with some of the rocket; rest went to seed (planted way too much - we only put the beds down in May so it was a rush job of planting)
Courgettes aplenty, some roasted and frozen; though while we were in Paris half of them became marrows (largest one is 5kg IIRC)
Tomatoes not really ripening, but they were just an opportunistic few seeds in a single pot anyway.
Cabbages and cauliflowers all used up.
Fennel went bonkers. Planted too many, they ended up super-tall and unusable.

Time to do the winter crop soon I think.

Lots of courgettes, onions, red onions, spring onions, leaks & carrots.

Lettuce is coming to an end, just finished the last of the spinach.

Had a bumper crop this year, really please with it all, going to do the same next year, but on a much larger scale.

got 20 leeks on the way 😉

Once we get a house with a decent garden I'll be growing vegetables.

What do you do about pests? I once tried to grow runner beans in my parents back garden when I was young but they had little beasties inside.

Still got a few peas left, just picked the last broad beans and mange tout.

French beans doing fab! Have planted batches successionally so I'm hoping they'll last into the autumn.
Just dug up two rows of potatoes. 2 left.
Pulled up all red and white onions and shallots.
Radishes been great this year.
Spinach has been amazing. summer went to see a bit while I was away but the winter spinach is producing great quantities.
Beetroot has done incredibly well. Have so much of it I'm looking at making beetroot cake..hmm.
squashes and pumkins are coming on nicely within a bed of green manure, red clover.
Chard has been great.
As with the rest of you, I'm waiting for toms to ripen.
Planted red cabbage this year and they are looking awesome.

Still growing for autumn / winter - celeriac, swede, parsnips, leeks, late sowing of carrots, kale, late sowing of spinach, green manures.

Courgettes done crap this year.
Climbing french beans got annihilated.
Carrots have fallen victim to white fly.

Fruit wise I got apples and plums coming along, been eating the apples already. Don't know if anyone else has then but I've got double cropping raspberries and the 2nd crop is just starting to ripen. Brambles are being eaten already.

All said its been really dry this year been having to water so much. Been given the veg quite alot of feed - nettles and comfrey.

Looking at planting alot of green manures this year to give the soil some energy back.

Our brambles, nettles and burdock are doing well, along with lots of other weeds:

[url= http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/62vz0n.jp g" target="_blank">http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/62vz0n.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

very well, my plums and apples are rocking - barring bleeding coddling moth ???,appear to be less wasps than last year, jam and chutney ongoing. gfs beds are also doing well spuds, carrots, onions, kale(grrrr), broad beans, have also discovered 3 rides with an abundance of sloes and brambles

It was our first year growing - we definitely learnt a few lessons. Our crops suffered with the dry weather but our season has gone like this:
Rocket: bolted (we got to eat loads still)
Spinach: massively bolted and took over the plot – bees loved it
Pak choi: bolted – only got to eat a few
Lettuce: we planted waaaay too much and wasted lots – need ot get better at succession sowing!
Tomatoes: Did well and are still producing
Onions: slightly disappointing.
Potatoes: utter disaster.
Mange tout: Excellent - we got totally pea’d out – they’re all over
Spring onions: Very tasty but didn’t plant anywhere near enough
Carrots: Forked - learnt not to plant in those little compost pots ever again!
Courgettes: still going amazingly well
Chillies: Producing really well now – I’ll need to pickle loads of them
Peppers – only just started to flower despite being planted in the greenhouse in April – I think they may not work!

I have just put in some purple sprouting, some leeks, some winter lettuce and a load more spring onions as well as spinach and rocket in the hope that I'll get a nice autumn crop...

this post made me think of this tshirt. Ride Bikes Grow Food! reckon I might get one in the near future.

http://www.herbivoreclothing.com/products/Ride-Bikes-Grow-Food-Unisex-Tee.html

Just about to go out and gather some peas, runner beans and dig up some spuds.

Tomatoes are coming along nicely and my cucumbers have been masssssive.

Chilli plant has died a slow death 🙁

Had our first green pepper last night in a home made sweet and sour sauce. yummy.

Few courgettes, loads of chard - rest either failed or never got round to planting.

And wife accidentally "weeded" all my garlic.

I must admit I've been spending my time riding instead though, so it's not all bad.

Only thing that's survived my dab hand at gardening are the chilli plants and the oregano. Lots of chillis, though.

Toms are doing well 🙂

Snails ate my chilli plants 🙁

we have had loads of
spuds
white cabbage
cauliflower.......non spoiled 😀
green beans
peas........bumper crop
broccoli
spring onions
apples
green plums
blackberries

waiting for
green savoys
beetroot
and tommies to ripen.

Just sitting here eating mash potato from, french and runner beans from the veg patch for supper.
Had plum crumble, rhubarb crumble, black berries and apples to come.
Raspberies, strawberries and blueberries.
spinach (bolted a bit)
pak choi (sort of)
courgettes crap
Cucumber excellent
spring onion still going strong (in old tin bath)
Broad, french, runner, dwarf beans
Potatoes going really well few rows left
leaks
sweetcorn
Pumpkin
peas (second batch)
chard
Artichoke
Think thats it, oh still waiting for tomato plants to red up.

Farting like a goodun from all the stuff Mrs BigJohn brings in every day. She was cutting the wheat today (only a few sq metres) because she is "growing a loaf" or something.

She was cutting the wheat today (only a few sq metres) because she is "growing a loaf"

Enough with the euphemisms already!

🙂

My tomato plants have been a dead loss this year. 🙁

My chillis, on the other hand - AWOOOOOOOGA!

My tomato plants have been a dead loss this year.

Ha ha! (Points and laughs in a cruel, mocking, unkind manner)

Mine jolly well have not! 🙂

[img] [/img]

4 small plants on a postage stamp of a balconette. My neighbour downstairs, former gardener, is well jealous. Already had a few pounds of toms so far, few more to come!

Next year my Community Garden plot will be well established, and I should be fully self-sufficient.

Toms progressing nicely. Peppers appear to have been neutered. Forgot to pick most of blackcurrants and raspberries

Had loads of strawberrys and blueberrys, rhubarbs done well, potatoes, onions and leeks done well, sweetcorn is still growing, and the apple tree has gone into overdrive, but the chillies are a lost cause and the builders killed my cherry tree 😈 planted another but it'll take ages to give any more
The tomatoes are slow this year but are starting to ripen now so all in all it's going well, 😀

I'm going to attempt crab apple jelly this weekend. Anyone know of any other uses for lots of crab apples?

I made a big jar of crab apple jelly last year. I still have a big jar of crab apple jelly.

My tomato plants have so far managed to create a couple of green ones, my neighbours are the same so something wrong in this part of Surrey.

Potatoes seem fine but can't go wrong with them. Pakchoi bolted, a few courgettes just starting, a fair amount of peas/mange tout, lettuce poor, the ongoing spinach thing seem OK, rhubarb OK too. Just started picking yellow beans, hope they go on for a while. Raspberries and strawberries rubbish, loadsa blackberries, plum trees are doing well including the victoria one for the 1st time in a few years. Lots of apples ready in a month or so.