[sclarke624]

easiest has to be me self blanching celery was abundant and everyone germinated.  Salad leaves especially easy and abundant was the "green salad bowl".  Tomatoes amazing and easy mostly gardeners delight.  Radishes, Kohl Rabi (yuk).  Brpless cucumbers (outdoor) dead easy.  Charlottes easy and abundant.  Cape gooseberries so many having to give some away, they are second yearers though so well established.

Hardest this year was the spring onions (last year ead easy).  Carrots small and odd shapes.  Calabrese went to seed to quick, Bulb Fennel still no sign of a decent bulb, beetroot not too bad some not really grown much, Lady Christl tats didn't produce many.  Peppers sweet ones were slow to germinate and when they did it was late in the year so have just four small peppers growing which are still the size of eggs.

Quite a good year really.  Only my second year of veg growing.

[matron]

Sclarke624 how did you find the self blanching celery? Did it do what it says on the tin ie blanche itself? I would like to have a go growing some as the stuff in the supermarket is so green.

[rustygman]

interesting thread this. Never had any problem with peas, beetroot, lettuce and courgettes and that is in different locations over 20+ years. Never have success with spring onions and mixed results with carrots, all calabrese (great when it works though), parsnips and often struggle with tomatoes and spinach. Stubbornly though I live in hope that next year all will succeed!!!

[sclarke624]

Sclarke624 how did you find the self blanching celery? Did it do what it says on the tin ie blanche itself? I would like to have a go growing some as the stuff in the supermarket is so green

Hello Matron
OH doesn't mid green celery.  Most were an apple green or light to mid green some were white.  Mostly light to mid green.  When he and his sister tasted them though they did say ahhh! now thats what celery should taste like.  I hate celery so couldn't tell you myself.

You have to plant in a block, keep well watered someone told me they are a bog plant.  They are in the garden so no problem with watering there and I am heavy handed with the watering anyway.  I did plant lettuce "salad bowl" next to them and planted too many so one side was pretty much blocked of light.  Maybe you could get them whiter with coloured coke bottles, kitchen towel rolls.  I reckon the thickness of the celery is just a little bigger than a coke bottle though.

They were Thomson and Morgan Galaxy Lathom self blanching seeds but I notice you can get a packet from alanromans.com, which with a bit of research he gets of T&M anyway and this packet has same amount of seeds.........some don't.
EDIT and alanromans.com are only 50p

[Veggie Virgin]

I had some wonderful peas this year from "Mummy"  or Prews Peas.  Legend has it that when Lord Caermarthen opened up Tutenkahmen's tomb (spelling?) he found some dried peas.  He gave some to his gardener, Mr. Prews, who grew them and saved seeds and grew them and saved seeds....  I was on a veggies for your kitchen garden course earlier this year and was given a pack of these peas (the nursery couldn't sell them as they are not EC approved).  They grow to about 6ft (so need twiggy supports) and were truly prolific this year.  So I have saved some seed..

Runner beans and French beans easy peasy, as is Swiss Chard which I grew this year.  However, as I don't like spinach, I don't like this Chard much!!
My caulis failed (but not the purple hearted ones), and, oddly enough, my courgettes.  I had hardly any in spite of being told that one plant is plenty for a family of four.  Well, I had four courgettes..

I guess anything is easy to grow if you have prepared the ground, don't have any pigeons pinching stuff, don't have any slugs, but do have lots of sunshine and rain!

[matron]

Thanks for the info Sclarke624. I am looking through the catalogues and will give it a go next year.

[judas25]

most difficult for me this year is parsnips - could not get any seeds to germinate!

Courgettes are easy to grow - with all this rain we are having we are getting too many courgettes now - We made soups and blanched some for the freezer as well as eating them every day for the past month - think we got courgettes growing out of our ears now!  

[Veggie Virgin]

Parsnips.  I was given a tip that if you dampen a piece of kitchen towel, put your parsnip seeds on this and cover with another damp piece of kitchen towel, they will germinate.  The only problem, I found, was remembering to keep the kitchen towel damp!!

The other tip I read somewhere was to put the parsnip seeds in the frig for a couple of days.....

[Eristic]

Parsnips. I was given a tip that if you.........

Much better tip: Stop buying dead seed and save your own.

[Caddi fuller-teabags]

Easiest were mange tout - what a crop of delicious sweet, pods!  Also lettuce did well and the swiss chard grew like a weed - but we found we don't like it, so that was a bit of a loss really. My onions grew, but we made the mistake of bringing them home straight away and then the whole house was so full of flies that we couldn't dry them out.  They went in the fridge to dry.  Spring onions were great too.  My first ever potatoes were great.  Garlic was easy to grow too!


Hardest were parsnips - I grew three rows of them and got 7 parsnips, but they had the flavour of heaven!  I planted a row of oregano seeds that I got free with some other seeds but not one germinated.  The asparagus just did its own thing, but was a bit of a disappointment - great thick bits, and tiny thin ones -no way could you cook them all together.  The worst was the brassicas - I was so looking forward to home made cauli.  I managed to get one two-inch diameter cauli, which carefully  I covered with a leaf, then I saw another three. I was so excited.

Then I injured my back and by the time I got back to the plot (not to do any work, just to look) the ruddy caterpillars had eaten all the caulis, along with the rest of that plant and all the other brassicas on my plot.  There were *millions* of them.  It was like a scene from a nightmare!  They left the red kale until last, and having tried it I can see why.

[Christine]

Will someone tell me about calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli - failed big time with the first and look as if the second will be another compost heap donation. Sowed the radish too close so that's my own fault.

Have had two good years with onions and beetroot. Peas haven't been bad this year and runner beans have been good. Garlic very good. Marrows and courgettes excellent (well I did make a brilliant compost heap). Most things have been middling good to better than good - except for the calabrese and the broccoli. Hmm.

Methinks that a good, heavy dose of compost will need to be applied next year - deep and thick and even as planting goes on.

[Cleo]

Easiest....Peas,potatoes,tomatoes,courgettes


Hardest....carrots grrr

Lots of lovely green foliage but the carrots were little tiddlers.
No root fly though.

[Blue fingers]

This is my first year of trying to grow veg and I've had great climbing beans, leeks and raspberries.

The worst was....well everything else lol!!!  :oops:

[Growbag]

This year only:
Easiest - Runner beans, onions from seed, tomatoes both greenhouse and outdoor (until the blight hit the latter).  Spicy mixed leaves - always quick and reliable in containers.  Banana peppers - much easier and better crop than bell peppers.  Bells have all gone rotten but the bananas have gone bananas.   Jalapeno peppers - good crop all turning red now.  Mokum carrots in deep containers containing cheap compost.

Hardest - Carmen cucumbers in the greenhouse.  Managed a good crop but they needed coaxing through the damp summer.  Cobra French beans in big tubs.  Had great crops previous years but this year was a disappointment.  Was wondering about possible herbicide in garden centre pre-packed manure.    Lettuce in containers - damp weather in the summer rotted quite a few.  Butternut squash - no go due to poor weather.  Water cress - also no go despite being constantly saturated.

I've generally given up on growing melons in my greenhouse.  Last 2 summers have not been right for them.

[lincspoacher]

Growing children in vermiculite was tricky...........