[New shoot]

OK, DD has mentioned the dreaded S word (swede) in a pm to me, so what's your 'I'm going to crack growing .... ' veg this year?

Swede and celeriac are mine.  The celeriac seedlings I have are woeful, so may have fallen at the first hurdle on this    Evil plan B - got some veg packs due in at work however, so will check out the celeriac in this, heh, heh, heh.

Plus, as I have told DD, my swede seeds this year promise miraculous results on the packet, so how can I fail     

[pdblake]

I have had no trouble with swede, but celeriac gives me a horrible rash between my fingers, so I don't grow it even though I can. My bugbear is carrots. This will be my first year growing them on the allotment though, so fingers crossed I can do better there than in the garden.

[compostqueen]

My Achilles heel is Little Gem lettuce. I grew it once out on the plot but every year since then I've signally failed. I can grow everything else but this eludes me.  I have a fresh, fat packet. The gauntlet has been thrown down 

[GrannieAnnie]

Now me, I get lovely carrots, but swede is rubbish!

[Enfield Glen]

I had excellent Swede last year which I had planted in with my carrots. I protect these from root fly using old net curtains. Whenever I have planted Swede out in the open something other than Pigeons seems to eat the leaves.

My Celeriac however was the size of a golf ball despite loads of lovely green leaves. I think the trick is to be quite ruthless and prune the outer leaves quite hard to encourage the root to grow.

[compostqueen]

Have another go Grannie!  I did quite well last year after a rocky start 

[mumofstig]

I have given up trying with my bête noire  Aubergines *sob sob* and I blame that on the weather, not me!

This year I'm aiming for some decent Autumn broccoli/calabrese - rather than the 1inch heads of previous years   

My swedes are good as long as I remember to water, if the sky doesn't! 

[DD.]

Now me, I get lovely carrots, but swede is rubbish!

Ditto!

[compostqueen]

Oh yes aubergines! Another one in "my could do better" category. I have actually got them to germinate but they are sitting there resolutely refusing to grow.  They have every they could possibly need. I threatened them with the compost heap yesterday 

[JayG]

I'm going to have one more go at growing greenhouse cucumbers (Passandra - only 2 seeds left!) and am prepared to plead, beg, stroke magic crystals and semi-precious stones whilst chanting weird incantations, ANYTHING to get them to stay alive long enough to produce even one fruit.

Or..............I might just do what my neighbour does - she plonks them any old how in a planter way earlier than I would dare to, lets them get on with it and subsequently donates any spare cukes to me! 

[surbie100]

I don't know that I qualify for this thread, only having a year's experience....but mine is broccoli. Summer sprouting/spring sprouting. It's my favourite thing, and I cannot get it to grow from seed or plug plants.

I'm trying aubergine and celeriac this year for the first time, and I'm keeping an eye on everyone's threads for pointers and comparisons. So far the celeriac are just about to put forth their first true leaves and the aubergines are on their second and third sets.

Though I'm leaving them to OH's mercies till Tuesday, so they may not look quite as happy when I come back...!

[compostqueen]

I have grown Passandra and it's great but the foliage is quite huge so be prepared to do some tieing in, if they get that far 

I hardly water the darned things as they seemed destined to curl up their toes at the least provocation. Good luck 

[JayG]

Thanks for the encouragement CQ!   

Please re-arrange into a sentence, well-known (but possibly only by me!)

Passandra, leaves, joking, huge, be, joking, must, you. 

[compostqueen]

I tied mine to the staging with raffia tied in lovely little bows    Since the Passandra has such abundant foliage, and my greenhouse tiny, I have switched to the less rampant Cucino 

[JayG]

I tied mine to the staging with raffia tied in lovely little bows   

I am enrolling for classes with the local WI as I speak!