Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: New shoot on January 01, 2023, 09:09
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Let’s hope for a better growing year and more abundant crops in 2023. Post your pictures here of your crops :)
Link to 2022 thread:
https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=135920.0
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Todays harvest 2 parsnips & 3eggs from yesterday & today as I didn’t get back to the girls yesterday afternoon
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I brought back 6 spindly leeks and what I thought were leeks but might well be elephant garlic I'd overlooked - leek tops but bulbous bottoms
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Last of the parsnips today, plus 1kg of leeks, which are starting to look sad, so I'll have the rest up soon to sweat down & freeze for summer soups.
200g of mixed rocket, mizuna, mustard, spinach & grenoble red salad leaves from the greenhouse.
Oh & I found the cutworm which was stealing rocket...💀
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One small patch of leeks looking scrawny so lifted 4. Another small patch has chubbier ones for later.
Cavalo Nero not been as much of an asset as I'd hoped. Only 6 of em but 4 have gone into terminal decline so brought the remaining 2 back. Their companion cabbage didn't flourish either and been brunch for slugs. They were under net so pigeons didn't get them. Maybe more muck and chicken pellets plus picking earlier next time.
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A small serving of tatsoi leaves from the tunnel,to add to a stir fry.
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Last of the brussels out today & last of the leeks.
Rocket, mustard & spinach in the greenhouse showing faster growth & gave me over 200g for salad leaves.
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Yesterday got the rest of the leeks up & a couple of days ago tge last 1/2 or so parsnips
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Lettuce and tatsoi for a dinner salad.
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Some today and some yesterday, but this weekend I have harvested rhubarb, kale and perpetual spinach from the plot, plus handfuls of garlic chives and fresh new lovage leaves for a rice pilaf to go with leftover chicken :)
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Tadaa
And more to come
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just seen price of asparagus in Waitrose. OOer
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just seen price of asparagus in Waitrose. OOer
How much was it please? I saw rhubarb the other day I think it was 5/6 sticks for £2.70. I’d just given about 30 sticks away ! :ohmy:
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I'll have another look at asparagus price today but last time I had to sit down.
Picked some corn salad; it survived the winter and has picked up quickly but fiddly to pick so doubt I'll bother again.
Got a meal off last years chard and added it to some wild garlic; very tasty
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Just harvested 7 asparagus spears probably £3 plus in Waitrose HH
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Lots of salad leaves and herbs.
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Monday I picked another load of asparagus, perhaps just as well some plants don’t seem to have made it through the winter :unsure:, I know 6of the 18 were a later variety but I’d have thought there would be signs of it by now
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A day or two before a daily harvest: the first of my courgettes for the year (yellow crookneck).
Zucchini are not far behind.
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Another picking of asparagus.
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Combined efforts of plot and raised beds at home.
A mix of greens and herbs - asparagus, sea kale, kale, lovage, garlic chives and Greek oregano.
More greens - chard and spinach
Rhubarb - forgot to take a photo before I chopped it up, so this is the cooked results :D
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First courgettes harvested.
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More asparagus spears last night.
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Disclaimer: this is not my harvest.
My oldest son now works on an organic farm. Today, he is travelling early in the morning to go to a farmers market in Atlanta.
Weekly, he brings us beautiful produce from the farm that they cannot sell. Given away to the farm workers! These are some tomatoes and a cucumber that he brought to us yesterday. The largest tomato weighs more than a pound.
Not pictured here, but a week ago, he brought us a huge (1 pound, 11.7 ounce) lumpy and nearly black tomato that was a deep garnet color inside, flecked with green. It fed four of us and was the best tomato I have ever eaten.
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Harvested yellow grape tomatoes, crookneck squash, snow peas and rhubarb.
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More crookneck, plus zucchini.
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Thursday…… drum roll
Strawberries :lol: :lol:
The first ones this year if you ignore thr 4 hubby “stole” the night before when I left him in charge of the watering & chickens and below is the evidence :lol:
Not many but shared equally (Mr S if you’re listening!) each berry cut in half & we each had 1 half :D
Oh and more asparagus with the purple coming into play now, just 2 spears but since I thought I’d lost that row of 6 plants it’s a start
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Had my first few sugar snap peas
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First of a dozen cabbages I bought, planted 6 in the tunnel & 6 outside on the same day
Can you tell which of them I’ve harvested today :lol:
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Huge bag of spinach, plus the first few mangetout and some herbs. The spinach is determined to bolt and I am determined to keep it down by picking it really hard. So far I have won, but it is only a matter of time now :lol:
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Still harvesting a load of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, as well as the last of the snow peas. The snow peas will likely continue but decline in quality this week as the weather gets warmer. The first of the Stupice tomatoes have been harvested, and still getting yellow grape tomatoes daily.
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Picked and ate some strawberries that were warmed by the sun and very sweet
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Yesterday, more broad beans from the tunnel & about the last of the tunnel strawberries , also I think the last of the asparagus for this year, it’s trying to shoot for the sky , could be the heat or I think now is the time to stop picking?
Today, broad beans from outside
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Just back from holiday to find lots of crops have raced ahead following the weekend rain.
Picked peas,broad beans,lettuce, beetroot and asparagus. My daughter says she harvested some raspberries too as a reward for watering whilst we were away.
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Strawberries coming thick & fast from outside bed plus a fair few from the hanging baskets in the fruit cage, picked another cabbage to give away, but didn’t get a photo but again it weighed 2 1/2lbs once stripped of outside leaves, thought they were greyhound but they’re actually Hispi from bought seedlings. Also 1st cucumber of the year that my grandson devoured lol
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Summer sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, courgette, sugar snap peas and mange tout, chillis, bolting onions and garlic
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Asparagus, broad beans , radish, strawberries, raspberries
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1st courgette of the year, a yellow one, might be a few more as somehow out of 6 plants I look to have planted 4 yellow :wacko:
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Broad beans, lettuce e and herbs out of my ears, peas, sugarsnaps, mange tout, cauliflower, beetroot, garlic from the gh, potatoes, courgettes, chillis from overwintered plants.
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Another large cabbage, lettuce leaves from the little gems & 2 punnets of strawberries from the hanging baskets
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Another large cabbage, loads of strawberries-5 punnets, a few raspberries and tadaa, the 1st harvest of potatoes- rocket
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Giving raspberries away now we've got that many. Gave family some courgettes, lettuce and the last strawbs.
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My first cauliflower and i pulled an onion that looked free of alium leaf miner
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The last hispi cabbage from the poly tunnel, (still 5 outside for continuity :)). Peas, raspberries & cucumbers.
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Most things have been slow to grow away or bulk up but picked broad beans and chard. I had 6 elephant garlic until recently but 2 have just disappeared over a week so pulled one to check - looks OK and cloves developed nicely.
Dug up a welsh onion. A bit coarse but makes a change. Will leave rest of half row in.
Proper onions starting to flop so lifted a couple just to have a nosey.
Loganberries - there don't seem to be fully ripe ones when I'm there; birds I suppose. Dunno if the memsahb and I are all that keen on the flavour ( or lack of ).
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Plot goodies today are potatoes (pink are Sarpo Una that I lifted to see if ready, rest - who knows. They were volunteers in my way that had to go), chard and perpetual spinach, the first Poona Keera cuke, a few mangetout and the first french beans, plus the obligatory courgette. Amongst the beans are Mennonite beans from the seed circle, although quite a few got munched by plot neighbours trying them. Guess I need a bigger seed crop than anticipated as they were deemed sweet and tender and yes please to some seeds :D
The first couple of aubergines from the greenhouse and possibly the last. I am pretty sure the plants have red spider mite, so have dumped them outside to see if that helps clear them :unsure:
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4 more small onions, cauliflower and 2 pointy cabbage, 1 given away
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1 cauli, 5 courgettes :nowink:..spinach, french beans, the last of the broad beans, a few toms and loads of blackcurrants :)
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No more broad beans but rainbow veg: some chard leaves, a yellow courgette and a handful each of runners, yellow French, green french and purple French
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:ohmy: 11!!! Cucumbers
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Onions and french beans
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:ohmy: 11!!! Cucumbers
That was in the morning &in the afternoon 2 more cucumbers, 6 yellow courgettes, a few tomatoes & loads of green & yellow French beans & a few runners
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How to hide poorly [photo]
3 Hawaiian pineapple
1 Stupice
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The first 2 figs from my tree. There are loads more on the way as well :D
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The first 2 figs from my tree. There are loads more on the way as well :D
SO jealous...mine are not looking great this year and very poor quanitity compared to recent years :(
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Ooh lovely NS, must check mine then but last week they’d not dropped down, so nowhere near I reckon
Today & yesterday lots of green & yellow French beans, today a boiling of runners given to Trevor who was mightily pleased. He also got some of the French beans & a cucumber. A lovely vase full of glorious dahlias for me
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The first 2 figs from my tree. There are loads more on the way as well :D
SO jealous...mine are not looking great this year and very poor quanitity compared to recent years :(
Sorry Goose :(
If it makes you feel better, I got a poor crop last year.
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Yay - just what I needed to brighten a dreary grey day :D
First greenhouse tomatoes :D
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2 cauli's, 2 courgette's and some green beans
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1/2 a punnet of tomatoes, 3 of the largest cucumbers & a huge trug full of mixed French beans
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At last I've managed to pick some cherry toms and a couple of small sized cucumbers :)
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1/2 a punnet of tomatoes, 3 of the largest cucumbers & a huge trug full of mixed French beans
Turned out to be 5 1/2 lbs of French beans & that was just the tunnel ones, still need another harvest from the outside ones :lol:
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No toms yet - they're St Pierre and in the greenhouse. Maybe being French they need special treatment: a drop of absinthe in a foliar spray rather than Epsom salts.
French beans are thriving though.
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Another Cauli and pointy cabbage today and a few onions that escaped the leaf miner
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This morning I managed to clear the glut of cucumbers by giving them away. Just back from a tunnel visit with ……….
8 cucumbers :wacko:
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Decided to get up a couple of roots of Charlotte’s weighed in at 3.8kg. Went back this evening & got the rest of the Charlotte’s up, not weighed them yet but some were enormous, some very odd shapes though.
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Last year i got probs 2 courgettes and 1 feed of beans. This year, the beans have gone into overdrive: runnners and 3 colours of French. Courgettes not quite so productive - they're yellow ones and heard that's the way they are.
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A couple of yellow courgettes, peas and a cauli. Also dug up a King Edward potato plant to see what they were like since most of the foliage has died back. Around 15 useable tatties off it
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Last night I collected some runner beans and french beans from the plot.
Picked tomatoes at home too.
It’s pouring now so think I will hide indoors.
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Picking this afternoon for garden clubs show tomorrow so
Beetroot, more than I need but got 2x 3 usable for the show out of them
Tomatoes by the 100 but as above
Cucumbers almost as above
Peppers , 3 for the show couple to eat now
Blueberries,most I’ve ever harvested this year ver the last 2 weeks
Longest runner bean
2 x gladioli for members only new class, 2 entries
Forgot the French beans >:(
Tray of courgettes but managed 2 for show
Loads of runner beans but not putting them in, need to check what our show growers enter
Few dahlias, but broke a couple of stems so not going to enter any, plus I ran out of steam by 9 pm as I’ll be there from 7:30 a.m til gone 9 p.m. tomorrow :D
A large melon :D polish my halo
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Kentucky Wonder Wax beans.
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Harvested my first sweetcorn yesterday and dug up another potato plant
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Lifted our onions from the plot and picked a silly amount of broadbeans, picked some sweet corn, courgette black beauty, ron di nice, peas and beetroot, next week we have a gala day so up to tidy around the edge, donate some produce to the food barrow,the BBQ and the local foodbank who we supply with fresh organic fruit and veg
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Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...
Well, it's really just a bowl of peppers, not a peck. And they aren't pickled, not yet. They are Biquinho peppers, and I will pickle them, to make "sweety drops".
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Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...
Well, it's really just a bowl of peppers, not a peck. And they aren't pickled, not yet. They are Biquinho peppers, and I will pickle them, to make "sweety drops".
They look great! How spicy are they?
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Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...
Well, it's really just a bowl of peppers, not a peck. And they aren't pickled, not yet. They are Biquinho peppers, and I will pickle them, to make "sweety drops".
They look great! How spicy are they?
They are very mild, though they do have a barely noticeable degree of heat. They are at the very lowest category of the Scoville index. I only notice a hint of heat when I actually concentrate while eating one of the Biquinho peppers raw. I first ate these as a sweet pickled pepper (sweety drop, in a salad) and didn't notice any heat at all.
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Picked another armful of runner beans, they seem to be slowing down with the cooler nights we've had lately.
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Yesterday, I dug up a carrot net bag full of my last 'first earlies' - Rocket, they have been brilliant! Last ones are very big, but still hardly any eelworm holes and no slug damage! Tried my second earlies 'Wilja', not as nice (I don't think) as the Rocket, but still great for roasting. I gathered 6 big rainbow chard leaves to have stir fried with some salmon steaks, and a handful of silverskin onions 'De Paris' which grow really well but are really strong! I'm thinking of pickling those, but used these few for a tomato salad with 'Tigrella' toms. I forgot to take a picture though - will remember on my next visit to the plot! :D
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Just home from Plot 13 - harvested some rainbow chard to go into a chicken broth for lunch, some sweetcorn (Before the rats get them all) some apples and a couple of pears to ripen on the windowsill.
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Collected some sweetcorn from the plot and gave some to my daughter who was jealous.
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Quick trip to Plot 13 to water seedlings, chard and celeriac and gather the remaining sweetcorn - only 6 left! The rats have stripped the rest. Socks over the cobs didnt work, but the 2ltr Milk bottles seem to have protected the cobs except one (Which may have fallen off by accident as I didnt secure them, just slipped them over the top of the cobs - so I plan to attach the milk bottle under each cob next year with a twist of wire through the bottle handle and around the cob stalk.
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pulled a summer cabbage - nice and solid. Plus a few courgettes, chard and squash
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Corno di Toro peppers
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We’ve had a great crop of potatoes this year. Charlotte, Picasso and PFA. Enought to keep us fat until March time., How’s this for a PFA ?
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Got a nice string of onions, patch still producing carrots and beetroot, leeks on the way.
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Harvested 3 courgettes and 2 marrows plus a few peas.
Courgettes and peas used for a curry one marrow for my daughter.
Just as well I harvested them before the current downpour.
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Harvested all but 1 of the bigger pumpkins
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Harvested the rest of the squash, the trombonchino caused me much hilarity & my plot neighbour. 2 lovely aubergine, a variety of coloured peppers, lots of tomatoes!red & green because the trusses were snapped or the plants we’re giving up. A few cucumbers and what must be the last potatoes that were hiding under a sunflower that I removed
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Harvested the final 2 Polar Bear squashes today plus a small Red Baron onion that had been hiding. I counted up that out of 12 winter squash plants, I have harvested 6 Polar Bears from 3 seeds, 8 Crown Prince from 4 seeds and 21 Red Kuri from 5 seeds. For my first year 'allotmenteering' I'm chuffed to bits!
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Over the last couple of weeks I've harvested all the remaining french and runner beans to pod, all the chillis, a couple of mammoth fennel, the first swede of the year, mooli, salads.
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Bit of a muddy plot visit sorting out the spreading of more hm compost and covering the area with weed membrane.
There was some compensation in a harvest of cabbage, leeks, turnips and chard :)
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First parsnip of the year, April sown I think.
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The last of the tunnel tomatoes, 1 small aubergine, sadly the other was rotting, a few green peppers & a lovely red 1, and 1 parsnip to be roasted for dinner.
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Pulled one pak choi but too wet to do owt else
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Picked about 3 gallons of peppers on Tuesday, mostly Corno di Toro, but also Sweet Banana, jalapeno, and Biquinho peppers as well.
It was close to freezing that night, and at freezing on Wednesday night, so it was time for the last harvest (except for a few sheltered plants)
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Swede, salad leaves, daikon radish and some nice big leeks
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Green peppers about 8, pruned off still healthy looking plants in the tunnel mainly by mistake :wacko.
Cleared the beetroot from the tunnel too, got given a large celeriac :):
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Just one red tom in GH plus 4 mild chillis. Very wet elsewhere but managed to reach over from paths to get good bunch of chard, a tiny cabbage and 2 khol rabi
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Tomatoes picked today from plants outdoors, sheltered with polythene sheet against the side of the house. There is a clothes dryer vent there, but they have made it through several freezing nights without help from that. I do put an old comforter over them on the coldest nights.
We have had nights as low as -4 C, the plants are sheltered well enough apparently!
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Been to the plot today for Christmas veg :)
Who says no dig doesn’t work, only thing is it was hard work getting it up out of the ground without digging, slid the spade in & tried to lever it out but still broke the root off ! Think we might only need the one Mrs Wembley :mad: Even the smaller one right next to it was long.
Also pulled carrots & picked Brussels. I love growing veg
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Christmas day, and still getting a few tomatoes from the garden!
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Been to the plot today for Christmas veg :)
Who says no dig doesn’t work, only thing is it was hard work getting it up out of the ground without digging, slid the spade in & tried to lever it out but still broke the root off ! Think we might only need the one Mrs Wembley :mad: Even the smaller one right next to it was long.
Also pulled carrots & picked Brussels. I love growing veg
It was a delicious parsnip, not woody at all, although we only used the bottom half as only 2 out of the 4 of us eat it :D more for me I say, although I forgot to take it to our daughter’s with us & had to come back for it :wub: good job she’s only 5 minutes away :D
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Christmas day, and still getting a few tomatoes from the garden!
Wow that’s fabulous, I sorted through my last remaining ones in the conservatory and there was still a few useable ones so I had a couple with a salad on Friday. Not as flavoursome as earlier but on a par with shop bought. A first for me to have homegrown tommies this late.
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Christmas day, and still getting a few tomatoes from the garden!
Wow that’s fabulous, I sorted through my last remaining ones in the conservatory and there was still a few useable ones so I had a couple with a salad on Friday. Not as flavoursome as earlier but on a par with shop bought. A first for me to have homegrown tommies this late.
Fantastic that you are still getting toms from your conservatory! Every day with home-grown produce is a blessing.
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Christmas day, and still getting a few tomatoes from the garden!
Wow that’s fabulous, I sorted through my last remaining ones in the conservatory and there was still a few useable ones so I had a couple with a salad on Friday. Not as flavoursome as earlier but on a par with shop bought. A first for me to have homegrown tommies this late.
Fantastic that you are still getting toms from your conservatory! Every day with home-grown produce is a blessing.
Sorry I may have misled you, they were the picked green ones leftover from the poly tunnel stored in trays in the conservatory. But still home grown
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Went up the plot yesterday and brought back a couple of small celeriac ( they haven't bulked up as much as I'd hoped ) plus 6 scrawny leeks - by the time I'd trimmed them and stripped the outer layers the mite had got at, there wasn't much left. Not much on the cavalo this year either