At last we have started to reap some of the rewards in the fruit and veg garden. Although we are having a very poor year compared with previous seasons due to the very cold Spring, we are now starting to pick and eat some crops.
Our gooseberries have been a triumph this year with around 21lbs from four bushes. The rhubarb is doing well as usual, which we have at least once a week and with 5lbs already in the freezer. We have had lettuce and radish a plenty but no other salad stuff as yet. I am about to pick the first of the mange tout which we are having for lunch and some broad beans will hopefully be ready from next week(ish). I am picking blackcurrants every couple of days as they ripen but we’ve no strawberries ripened yet…
Things are doing well in my garden Barry but I’ve only had rhubarb out of it so far. I’ve stopped growing lettuce as I was growing it for the birds not ourselves.
I have had about 2lb from my young gooseberry bush ,
The black current bush has some fruit yet to ripen but I lost a branch and fruit in the wind and rain,
The 3 year old strawberries are covered in fruit …all green
One of my sage bushes is dying, not sure why but disappointing because I dry a lot for use in the winter and the other bush is only tiny,
The rhubarb is miserable…
The garlic is a triumph and the bulbs thickening up nicely now
The tomato bush is looking good,
The runner beans have reached the top of the canes and I have taken the top growth shoot out. They are developing a nice lot of flowers
It’s true about the strawberries that they’re so late. We are usually scoffing them two weeks before Wimbledon but here we are in the middle of the first week and they are struggling to even turn pink. The irony is though that we are going to Dorset for a few days next week and we’ve asked our neighbour to water for us, in return for picking anything ripe at the time…:shock:
We’ve harvested our 1st Earlies - very low yield this year from our Rocket but some cheapo ones I got in Poundstretcher, just to try-out, produced 2 kilos from 6 seed potatoes that I took into work!
Our salad leaf bolted very early so we’re just waiting for all the other salad stuff now - Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Spring Onions.
Red Onions are still doing OK - not great,just OK!
Can’t be bothered with Lettuce or more Salad leaf now as the stuff we bought from Lidl is cut and come again and it’s producing all we need at the moment!
Cabbages and Broccoli are coming on well and so is the Beetroot and I’ve just noticed the first ripening Strawberry!
Looking at the Tomatoes we might just have a good crop this year although we weren’t exactly short last year! stevmk2
Its all new to me growing vegetables so a learning curb for me , i was late getting them in :roll: , but planted up some Butternut Squash plants , some potatoes , broad beans & runner beans … but always grown Tomatoes in the green house for yrs …
sounds like your all far more experienced than i am , so i hope to learn a lot from you all .
Mid July now and still mixed results in the veg garden, with the weather being so wet there doesn’t seem to be enough insects to pollinate things such as my bush tomatoes and beans, so I’m running a brush over them and the runner and french bean flowers, to try to get them all to set…:shock:
I’ve cut down all of my summer fruiting raspberries, sacrificed the fruit and burnt the canes to prevent the spread of mildew to my autumn fruiting canes, which are looking OK at the moment and aren’t due to fruit until September, so we stand a chance there if the sun ever decides to appear.
On the upside though we seem to have new spuds a plenty (International Kidney), and the loganberries and blackcurrants are still producing well. The blueberries are now starting to turn, and we could be looking at around 5lb from our four bushes, so we shouldn’t totally starve over the winter…
I Have picked 2lb of fruit off my one blackcurrant bush,there are a few more to come,
The rhubarb is still misreable,
I am delighted with the garlic, 21 big plump heads, well worth growing,
Runner beans won’t be a bumper crop , very sparse low down on the plants but I already have quite a few little beans and a couple 6 inches long
There are 6 tomatoes on my one plant so far.
The strawberry plants which I cut back to the crown a few weeks ago have already grown a good crop of leaves, I am hoping for some late fruit.
The bottom leaves of my Toms are very yellow, they are out doors in tubs, do you think it is caused by so much rain? My peas, first year I’ve grown them, have done really well and are delicious.
In general things are VG this year. Best crop of rhubarb I’ve ever had, likewise with onions, broadbeans are heavily laden and almost ready for picking, leeks and savoy cabbages going great guns, potatoes have a heavy crop, raspberries are in their first year so crop is light , summer brassicas are a bit slow growing this year as are the courgettes, blackberries look like being a heavy crop as do the tomatoes, but they will be a bit later than normal. All in all it looks like being a good year. Oh, just one failure, there’s hardly any gooseberries. I forgot to add that I have an excellent crop of apples and pears but few plums.
My brother in Derbyshire has had 60lb of goosberries :shock: and about the same of black currents. Also lots of raspberries, such a shame I don’t live nearer :-(. I believe he gives some to local restaurants.
My courgette have all died, Not enough sun for them. Corns looking miserable. Onions are doing ok, but a few have gone rotten with the rain. Turnips have turned out fine. cabbage is not to bad.
I have given up this year on a lot of my planting.
Maybe next year will be better.
So far I’ve lost all my Harbinger Tomatoes to blight; my 1st Earlies were a let down, 2nd Earlies teeny; Cabbages are HUGE but Broccoli still not showing any nice heads; Beetroot taking FOREVER; 2nd sowing of lettuce raided by green / white / blackfly so badly they’ve died; red onions still small and not actually growing; strawberries so-so but not many; spring onions 22 inches tall and as fat as Onions; bush tomatoes doing - well - OK; Crystal Apple Cucumbers just waking up and flowering and parsnips a no-show at all!
Not a good year so I’m dreading October for my Main Crop spuds - probably sod-all under there!! stevmk2
My first and second early crops of spuds have been good, but I dug up a root of my main crop (Roosters) out of curiosity yesterday and found nine tubers but all very small. Hopefully they will fill out over the next couple of months.
My beans are finally starting to produce and we are hoping to have our first pickings this week sometime with plenty to come afterwards by the looks of it. I have just about given up on salad veg this year and all my carrots have carrot fly infestation. My beetroot haven’t developed any root and are starting to bolt, so I’m going to give up on them and dump them on the compost heap …
mine are too so I removed them to prevent rot.
