A Homemade Life
Welcome to Homemade Life.

To take full advantage of everything offered by our forum, please log in if you are already a member or join our community if not ....

Chilli-head
A Homemade Life
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.
Who is online?
In total there is 1 user online :: 0 Registered, 0 Hidden and 1 Guest

None

Most users ever online was 112 on 8th October 2020, 7:09 am
Latest topics
» Hungry Birds
by Dirick55 7th December 2023, 6:04 am

» PRESENTATION
by Chilli-head 23rd November 2023, 2:55 pm

» New Kiva loan
by Chilli-head 21st July 2023, 12:35 pm

» A peat-free compost is top in UK Which? magazine trial
by Dandelion 25th April 2023, 9:42 pm

» New gardening year 2023
by Chilli-head 5th March 2023, 10:15 pm

» What have I done in the workshop today?
by Dandelion 2nd December 2022, 1:12 pm

» What are you harvesting today?
by Dandelion 2nd December 2022, 1:12 pm

» Wartime marrow casserole
by Dandelion 18th October 2022, 4:42 pm

» Late sowings in August ... beans ?
by Ploshkin 11th August 2022, 9:29 am

» Come August, come night in the garden
by Chilli-head 4th August 2022, 3:29 pm

» Welcome guest
by Ploshkin 31st July 2022, 9:16 am

» The Jolly July Garden
by Ploshkin 19th July 2022, 11:38 am

» More mead ...
by Chilli-head 13th July 2022, 12:52 pm

» The June garden thread
by Dandelion 25th June 2022, 9:55 pm

» Plastic bags
by Dandelion 5th June 2022, 7:28 pm

» The merry May garden
by Dandelion 31st May 2022, 10:04 pm

» Fooling around in the April garden
by freebird 1st May 2022, 8:33 am

» March into the garden
by Dandelion 1st April 2022, 7:26 pm

» Mow Suggestions
by freebird 29th March 2022, 5:48 pm

» Some thoughts on resilience
by Ploshkin 12th March 2022, 2:23 pm

Statistics
We have 270 registered users
The newest registered user is Lloyd

Our users have posted a total of 48045 messages in 2416 subjects
Pages we like:

Reflections on the season, 2012 Hca_button


Reflections on the season, 2012

+2
Adrian
Chilli-head
6 posters

Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Chilli-head 1st November 2012, 10:29 am

Well, it's that time of year. Most crops have done all they are going to. It has been ... a "difficult" year - we seem to get a lot of those these days.

So what has done well for you despite the odds, and have you learned any new tricks ?

For me, there have been a few sucesses.

Celeriac had done well, and is tasty - from Seeds of Italy.
My Fagiolo di Spagna Giant beans, also Seeds of Italy, are really HUGE and a reasonable yield.
I have a great pumpkin Conneticut field haunting the dining room table. Maybe 18" across, too heavy for the kitchen scales. Still annoyed about the low life who stole the other ...
Judging by the freezer contents, petit pois type peas Linnet and Waverex, and sweetcorn Lark did OK. Overwintered broad beans Super Aquadulche (SOI again) did OK too.
Strawberries and fruit in general did well - 7 jars of strawberry jam !
Tomato San Marzano Redorta F1 from SOI is the best plum type I've yet found. Little blossom end rot troubles.

Not so successful were Spring sown onions (tiny compared to the autumn planted sets), Fennel (vanished without trace at the seedling stage), French bean Lamon - rotted on the plant, butternut squach (some, but tiny), Leeks (minature), potatoes (fair number, but full of slug holes)

So, favourite varieties discovered 2012:

Tomato San Marzano Redorta F1
Giant beans Fagiolo di Spagna
Celeriac Del Veneto
Chilli Datil - hot and prolific.
Chilli-head
Chilli-head
Admin and Boss man

Posts : 3305
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Adrian 1st November 2012, 11:19 am

I've had a great year for garlic, chillies and spuds, everything else was a disaster
Adrian
Adrian
Founder and crotchety old git who wanders around in a threadbare dressing gown muttering

Posts : 2944
Join date : 2009-11-06
Age : 54
Location : Paradise, Nova Scotia

http://www.paradisepapercraft.ca

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by freebird 1st November 2012, 12:12 pm

Resounding success, surprisingly, were courgettes. If I had covered them with fleece, they'd still be cropping now. Melons also very good (greenhouse), sugar snap peas, parsnips. The strange Latah tomatoes also in the greenhouse seem to ignore any prevailing conditions and just do their own thing - and are still doing it now. And a nice crop of raspberries from my fairly new canes.

Had to work hard to get any worthwhile crops off the broad beans, runner beans and tall peas. All the brassicas are magnificent by my standards, and mediocre by anyone elses. Historically plagued with clubroot in this garden, this year I don't seem to have lost any crops to it, though not yet uprooted anything to be sure.

Peppers stunted and strange, chillies not as prolific as last year and onions (sets) hopelessly small.

Unmitigated disaster was sweetcorn (I underplant with courgettes, which were so huge that they prevented the sweetcorn pollinating), carrots (my fault), garlic, outdoor potatoes (blight), tomatoes (blight) and strawberries.

Both my cooking apple trees have been fairly prolific this year, but only one eating apple cordon, Redsleeves, an early non-keeping variety, did well. The four other cordons and the big Maidstone Favourite had virtually nothing.

But next year's garlic planted, compost sorted and I'm clearing vegetable plots, with that undiminished hope common to gardeners, that next year is going to be better.
freebird
freebird

Posts : 2244
Join date : 2011-10-19
Age : 67
Location : Powys

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by polgara 1st November 2012, 9:17 pm

OHs runner beans did really well, but most of the rest was a failure, either due to my problems or the rain.
Did get some pots, but not as many as last year. hope that next year I will up to getting a good garden going again.
polgara
polgara

Posts : 3028
Join date : 2009-11-16
Age : 77
Location : Sunshine Isle

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Dandelion 1st November 2012, 9:25 pm

Apples were a disaster (all varieties are a similar pollination group so all got frost damage), plums were scabby, strawberries rotted but rhubarb and autumn rasps were magnificent.
On the vegetable front I grew my first two cauliflowers which I was very proud of. Squashes and courgettes were minimal, only one parsnip germinated, but we had loads of 'Mr Fearns purple flowering' climbing French beans, which were juicy (and as heritage seeds were one in the eye for the EU and its regulations!!) I also grew my first carrots - in a bucket, as our soil isn't great for carrots.
Dandelion
Dandelion
Admin

Posts : 5416
Join date : 2010-01-17
Age : 67
Location : Ledbury, Herefordshire

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Dandelion 2nd November 2012, 5:34 pm

Didn't bother to mention the tomatoes - they were a complete dead loss!
Dandelion
Dandelion
Admin

Posts : 5416
Join date : 2010-01-17
Age : 67
Location : Ledbury, Herefordshire

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Mike 3rd November 2012, 12:56 pm

Poor year for garlic (smallish) as we had a month of no rain at just the wrong time. First good year for peppers having moved where they were being grown. Being a much higher value crop for us this bed where previously growing parsnips and a few carrots will now be the pepper area.
Mike
Mike

Posts : 484
Join date : 2009-11-08
Age : 79
Location : Step by Step Farm, Berkshire Mtns, Massachusetts, USA

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Dandelion 3rd November 2012, 3:22 pm

Having just been outside to pick the meagre crop of Winter Greening apples, I find that I'm mistaken about them being a disaster - there were far more than I had been able to see. The tree is very upright and hasn't borne much fruit, so last year I tried 'festooning' the branches - pulling down some of the long whippy upright branches, and tying them to the trunk so they look a bit like a circle. Interestingly this has done what it's supposed to do - where the branches bent round, there has been a lot more fruit production. I couldn't see the apples because of all the leaves!
The fruit is hard and mainly green (as it's meant to be) - there is a rumour that they keep so well that you can store them for two years. Will have to get started with the apple pies!
Dandelion
Dandelion
Admin

Posts : 5416
Join date : 2010-01-17
Age : 67
Location : Ledbury, Herefordshire

Back to top Go down

Reflections on the season, 2012 Empty Re: Reflections on the season, 2012

Post by Sponsored content


Sponsored content


Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum