The vegetable garden 2023

Here are my tomatoes again and also the window boxes installed in May/June full of blooming begonias, petunias and gerbera


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Also have some promising courgette and potato plants in pots at the side of the house.

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Tomatoes are looking good Annie but there seems to be a lot of foliage, do you take out the side shoots on the plants or just let them bush? :thinking:

Hi Barry, I don’t really get out onto the roof very often so they are running wild at the moment! :slight_smile:

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Here is the daily haul of runner beans today which have gone absolutely crazy this year, maybe because of the weather I guess but they are also a new variety to me, “White Lady”, and I am well impressed by them… long stringless beans and great flavour…what’s not to like… :blush:

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Well done Barry.

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Sorry Jan but I can’t claim any credit, just the seed variety and the weather conditions did it all I’m thinking, without any input from me… ! :thinking:

Still a good crop.

Mind, I’m chuffed with the six broad beans I have ready to cook later. That was as well as the 3-4 from a week or so ago. They are the actual beans, not pods. I thought the plants were useless and was ready to cut down but noticed the very small pod growing.

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Picked some more blackberries this morning and it looks like being a huge crop this year! I grow “Oregon Thornless”, which are a large variety and being thornless are a pleasure to pick.

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Wow, they look fab, Barry. What’s the plan for eating them? As they are, crumble, pie? Enjoy.

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I always freeze fruit raw, so these are bound for the freezer for future use Jan. We always have a jug of stewed fruit each in the fridge and have that for lunch dessert most days, and some of the blackberries I liquidise first and sieve the pips out (which disagree with Rosemary), before feezing the juice in cupfuls ready for adding to her mixture. Personally I like the texture of blackberries so I save a few unliquidised for my own mixture.

I also picked another three and a half pounds of rhubarb today and cut it up for the freezer, the rain this past month has sent it crackers, never had such a good crop… :grinning:

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Greenhouse almost completed. And today’s harvest.
One turnip was full of wood lice so got chucked. Chuffed they are growing so might sow more seeds. Hoping to finish greenhouse very soon.

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All looking good Jan to say that you’re working alone, and seems you sorted the connector problem, so just got the covering to put on now? I hope you have a helper for that, it’s a bit of a bugger on your own.:thinking:

Turnips looking good too, nice to be able to get something out of the garden this year.

Not much to report here other than pulling the first parsnips as we have visitors for lunch tomorrow so Rosemary’s doing a full roast. Also still picking fruit, mainly blackberries at the moment with just the odd earlybird raspberry from my autumn fruiting canes…

They look fab, Barry. Yes, I might take the cover down and store it in my box till I can get someone. Might ask my neighbour who works in the shop the next time she will be there. Even her partner may be able to help me. He is a decent height, lol. If the chap on the other half, Graham, or lady next plot are there I could ask them.

I don’t mind working alone, Graham often comments to me, why don’t I get a Co worker, and recently I told him firmly I don’t want one, I prefer to have it as my own personal space.

I have found out that my dog has been nibbling the courgette leaves! It’s his little snack in the morning :slight_smile: There is only one courgette now so I know who the culprit is.

Some of the plot is looking bare now, but I do like to leave the beds fallow over winter when the crops have finished. Still to come yet though are more beans on the left, carrots and parsnips in the foreground, celery centre right, just a bunch of parsley centre shot and behind me there are still some spring cabbages still in the ground…


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The blackberries are still fruiting in the fruit garden, and the autumn raspberries are starting to produce on the main stems, although the main month for them is September…


Oh wow, Barry. Hope my fruit canes look like that one day.

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These are really good fruiters Jan, an autumn fruiting variety called “Joan J”. The fruits are large and sweet, but from a growing perspective I like them because they need very little support unless in a really open site, the canes are cut back to the ground after they’ve finished fruiting and they reliably grow new canes and fruit again the following year, so they are nice and tidy over the winter. :blush:

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So, it’s not 2023 but here’s my garden pictures for 2024

My little pumpkin :jack_o_lantern:

Look how much it’s grown

And here’s another little one :jack_o_lantern:

My crop of chillies. Interestingly the plant in the full sun has a lighter colour than the plant that in the shade….

My rosemary plant is thriving :blush:

Looking good! We grew a tromboncino squash last year. Will definitely do this again. Unfortunately still only late winter here - about 6 degrees C at the moment and overcast.

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