What are you harvesting today?

Glad to hear things are coming together at last Freebird.

I've got a few things ready for eating - cucumbers still, tomatoes, chillies (green only yet), a few new potatoes, some mangetout, some lettuce. Seems that's hoe it is going to pan out this year; a little of most things, but not a great yield.

Mind you, I'm tentatively pleased with my carrots. The carrot cage is a big success; the carrots Ulysses under there are about 1" across the "shoulder", though I haven't pulled any to know how long they are. The rest of the carrots which were not protected are either gone altogether, or looking miserable.

Protected against carrot fly?
Thanks for the hint about feeding tomatoes. (Whoops, sorry - that was in another thread.) I've sprinkled a bit of Blood Fish and Bone round them. (My lovely daughters call it Blood Cr*p and Guts. That Finishing School was worth every penny!!)
Picked a biggish Primo cabbage tonight (and had to evict three small slugs. Still, with the current slug population boom I suppose three isn't bad.)
It sounds as if we're all managing to get something to eat from the garden...

Seeing this thread active has reminded me I must go out and pick some more strawberries. They've done really well in the rain!

Picked more Tutenkhamun peas - they are large, but tender and sweet, so I'm hoping to save some to grow next year. (I can't really believe that they did come from ancient Egypt, but they probably did come from Lord Carnarvon's estate!)

First runner beans today! Handful of courgettes and a few more broad beans from outside, a goodly portion of french beans and plenty of tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Sounds as if you came back from your time away to find something worth eating this time FB!!

Forgot to say, I harvested my first red chilli on Monday. Today, more potatoes, a few broad beans, runner beans, courgettes, greenhouse tomatoes. Leaving the rest of the first crop of sugarsnap peas now to use as seed for next year, but a second crop are just starting to come into flower.

Started to pick a few toms, also some runner beans.. Still got several pots of potatoes to empty.

The climbing French beans are proving to be quite prolific. They are Mr Fearn's purple climbing beans (from the heritage seed library.) I am hoping to dry some pods in the autumn for using next year, so ask if you would like some. There have been enough to freeze as well as eat, but the runners are not so good.

Hmm. My climbing French beans Cobra are doing well now, and the runners Painted Lady (C-H jnr's choice) are also showing promise. I am still concerned as to whether there will be enough season left to get good dried beans though.

I've cut some cabbage today - what looked set to be a bumper harvest is marred by slugs - my theory is that the wet weather bred loads, and the dry conditions now have sent them tunneling into anywhere tasty, cool and moist ...

Fist signs of tomato blight today - one plant decimated so out it comes hopefully to halt the spread of the blight. I have been watching out for it as the weather's been warm and damp but took my eye off the ball/the tomatoes for a day or two

I returned home yesterday to an abundance of vegetables. Well, as near to an abundance as the weather this year will allow.

I picked French beans, Runner beans, calabrese, peas, courgettes, tomatoes, greenhouse and
outdoor cucumbers, sweet peppers, and my first sweetcorn.

Some creature has beaten me to the first rock melon though

Was your calabrese caterpillar free? And if so, how????

Dandelion wrote:Was your calabrese caterpillar free? And if so, how????

Yes ! Environmesh (extra large size), blue water pipe hoops and a few bricks. If only it stopped slugs too though ! Actually, it is the best calabrese I've grown to date - proper heads like bought ones rather than tennis balls that open up into flower before ever getting any bigger.

Interestingly, on the subject of pests, the slugs have made a right old mess of my cabbage hispi, but left primo more or less alone. I wonder why ?

I grew April cabbages in the spring, and Greyhound. April is very similar to Hispi, and the slugs went for that rather than the Greyhound. I think that those little pointed cabbages are probably sweeter and also the leaves are less tough making them more of a target.

Last night I picked my first yellow Datil chillies. A useful sort of chilli - the nice fruity heat of Capsicum Chinense, but without being searingly hot. And it seems to set fruit without hand pollination, unlike many Chinense.

I used it to make my old favourite Kari Sayur again, with garlic, onion, coriander, potato, carrot, french beans, calabrese and red pepper all from the garden/allotment

Toamtoes & runner beans, but not much else.

Melons! And calabrese (with added protein), tomatoes, courgettes just keep coming, runner beans, chillies, apples and autumn raspberries. Used first onions in the kitchen this evening.

Ok, can you tell me how you grew your melons Freebird ? Mine - grown in a cold frame - have just sulked this year. What variety are you growing ?

I've got the odd cabbage, calabrese, peas, runner beans, carrots, tomatoes and chillies. I'm optimistic that I'll have a halloween pumpkin too, plus a spare.

Chilli-head wrote:Ok, can you tell me how you grew your melons Freebird ? Mine - grown in a cold frame - have just sulked this year. What variety are you growing ?

I have grown Sweetheart F1. I try to avoid hybrids as I like to collect seed for next year, but a couple of years ago, I tried some non-F1 seeds from Real Seeds and they were hopeless. Plants were good but no female flowers except about 2, both of which I tried hand pollinating and neither produced fruit.

Started this year's plants in the propagator on 22nd April and planted them into their final pots on 1st June, all in an unheated greenhouse. I've used New Horizons peat free compost. Two plants are in the Easy2Grow pots, which are watered at the base on a gravity feed from a reservoir. Two more plants are in ordinary pots on the bench, on capillary matting, with a constant drip watering system. Both pairs of plants seem to have grown equally well. I've been a bit lax with feeding the drip-watered plants, but used the diluted liquid from my wormery for all the greenhouse feeding. All the plants are trained up vertical canes until they reach the netting spread across the roof of the greenhouse, then they scramble about. Each plant has produced 2 or 3 melons.

Thanks for that. Mine were the rock melons from Real Seeds. One melon set, but was eaten by something. I suspect they may need a hotter climate. Perhaps I'll try Sweetheart next year.

Tomatos, lots of them. The only real success this year thanks to my probs, also OHs runner beans.

Chilli-head wrote:Thanks for that. Mine were the rock melons from Real Seeds. One melon set, but was eaten by something. I suspect they may need a hotter climate. Perhaps I'll try Sweetheart next year.

I seem to remember reading that Real Seeds only supply seeds that work well for them in Wales, and can therefore generally be considered suitable for our climate. I've had less than stunning results with all my Real Seeds purchases. I really like the idea of them, but in practise I have found them quite disappointing.

I have to say I mostly agree. Their broccoli did not make a great quality head, but made up for it by a lot of good secondary spears over a fair period. Their Cherokee Trail of Tears beans grew well, and had a nice beany flavour. Other things were unremarkable, or widely available anyway.

I harvested my parsnip today. OK, I only got one out of a whole packet of seed, but it is quite large!

Some surprise potatoes. I lost all my later sown crop to blight, but a single specimen had grown in the pathway between the potato and brassica plots - I think it was one that didn't get dug up last year, so a different variety. Anyway, it didn't succumb to blight and I have a nice crop of potatoes from that one plant. I think it is 2nd early Nicola, as that is what I planted last year.

And spurred on by Dandelion's parsnip, I dug the first of mine. Leaves were quite manky, and the parsnip isn't as magnificent as D's, but good enough, and I have high hopes for those that remain.