[AdsaM]

Thought i would start this thread so everyone can give thier thoughts on how things are going on the plot so far this year....

For myself, I am loving being out there growing my own veg, We are having our last Hispi together with carrots, Broccoli and spuds for lunch today.

Varieties...
Spuds - with try Pj's next year and forget Rocket.
Cabbage
Minicole, Hispi and Savoy - All great.
Cauli's Clapton - Great be ready soon still a little small.
Peas - Kelvedon Wonder grown to 5 n half feet so forum members think i been given wrong variety but still fantastic crops.
Brussels - Bedford Fillbasket - coming along nicely.
Broccoli Can't remember variety but too much for us so giving lots away.
Shallots - Great soon be ready for pulling.
White Onions - Great.
Red Onions - not all that good but will try again next year.
Silverskins, White Lisbon and red Holland - doing fine but not great.
Tomatoes - Sweet Million couldn't wish for better.
Tomatoes Hundreds and Thousands in baskets - Fantastic.
Strawberries Anton - Picked loads and second harvest soon be ready.
Cucumbers Burpless - Absolutely brilliant, have four in the fridge and still growing like mad.
Overall am well pleased with my first season.

how about the rest of you? any thoughts.

Steve

[AdsaM]

Oops forgot about carrots and Leeks......

Carrots F1 Maestro grown in buckets in greenhouse, just finished first bucket they grow to about 8" and very plump. Very Nice. got anoth two buckets at different stages and also planted some out side in pots.

Leeks - Mussleborough doing great, planted the backups out now so got about 50 in the garden.

Think thats it. 

Steve

[MoreWhisky]

I agree with your rocket idea! got free seeds so grew some EHH.. horrible stuff.

[matron]

I agree with your rocket idea! got free seeds so grew some EHH.. horrible stuff.

I think the potatoes are the variety 'rocket' 

Why won't you be doing them again AdsaM? We have grown them this year. We have only harvested 3 plants so far with another 25 to go! We have been pleased with them.

Our tomatoes so far are doing well although haven't ripened yet.
We are waiting for our first courgette.
Cabbages and cauli only went in last week end.
Carrots growing well in their tubs.
Beans (french and runner) are just starting with their flowers.
Red and white onions doing well.
Shallots almost ready to harvest.
Cucumbers have fruit on them.
Celery looking good (not grown it before)
Sweetcorn looking healthy but don't usually have much luck with it.
Just about to pot my peppers on (sweet and chilli) - a little late with these this year but they have flowers on so I have hope.
Lettuces are coming out of our ears even though I only sow 10 at a time.
We have loooooooads of strawberries in the fridge.
And the flowers all look gorgeous.
All in all a better year than last I think. 

[SalJ1980]

Hmmm, let's think....

Tomatoes - vine ones in plastic greenhouses doing well and flowering now so won't be long until they start to fruit. Bush ones in tubs and trailing ones in hanging baskets also flowering, though I'm wondering if some of the seed packets had been labelled incorrectly, as the ones that specifically said they were good for hanging baskets are nearly  foot high and are showing no signs of trailing over the edge, so I'm going to look a bit of  plonker if my baskets end up with vine toms in them! Hoping for tonnes of toms though as we have 15 plants this year, compared with 3 last year!

Shallots - looking healthy and nearly ready to lift.

Onions - red onions look OK but I have a sneaking suspicion that they are not bulbing up very much as they are not lifting themselves to the surface like the white onions are, which are looking very nice and fat. Have already lifted a couple of white ones for pizza topping as I was impatient!

Runner beans - have reached the tops of their poles and have been flowering for a few weeks so I'm waiting for the beans to start shortly.

French beans - forgot to sow them until last week, but they germinated overnight and are now 6-7 inches tall and looking very string after just 8 days!

Aubergines - no flowers yet but the leaves are HUGE. Not sure if it's too late for anything much to happen now but fingers crossed!

Strawberries - only have 2 plants and currently have 2 lovely nearly-ripe strawbs and lots of smaller ones well on the way - it won't be a huge crop but they are throwing off runners already so I'll pot those and hopefully next year we'll have a few more!

Broad beans - have all been eaten now, and very tasty they were too! Only had 2 plants (started with 6 but the rest got snailed!) so there weren't many but hey-ho!

Courgettes - same as the aubergines.

Chillies - OH's domain as I'm allergic to them! He was very unlucky this year as none of the seeds he sowed germinated (the pack was only from last year but it must have been old then, IYSWIM) so he bought a couple of plants from the garden centre, which are looking nice and bushy now and are starting to flower.

Lettuce - just have one tub of mixed lettuce as we don't eat a lot of it, but it's ready to eat now and is earmarked for a salad tomorrow night!

Potatoes - have started to harvest the earlies and by gum they are tasty!

Garlic - as with the red onions looks very healthy above ground but not sure whether they are bulbing up or not - don't know if they 'lift' themselves like onions do?

Sweetcorn - growing well, plants are almost 2 foot high now. Last year I didn't sow them until June and though they grew well and have plenty of cobs they didn't ripen, so hoping I will have better luck this year.

Pumpkins - planted them out about a month ago and they seemed to get smaller rather than grow, but they've taken off nicely now!

Peas - have had quite a few harvests of peas & mangetout (I didn't learn from last year's mistake of growing the two so close together I couldn't work out which were which once they started to grow, so once again we're picking them all young and eating them as mangetout, and any we miss are left to fatten up as peas!). Can't work out why the plants are so tall - some are nearly 7ft!!! (Not kidding, OH is 6'2" and they are way taller then he is!). They keep collapsing under their own weight so are now tied up with all sorts of string and bamboo contraptions!

OH has finally got the growing bug - last year he wasn't so fussed and made all sorts of excuses not to accompany me to the lottie, now he's dead keen! Wuhey!

[Ice]

I'm in year five of my veg growing education.  Mid season I am very happy indeed.  Got a good idea of what to plant and what not to bother with. What varieties do well in raised beds and worked out the spacings.  Got the hang of successional sowing.  Don't grow more than I have room for and have made lovely compost.

10 pounds of BBs in freezer
White onions good, red poor.
Kale good
Garlic rubbish
Cabbage good
Lettuce rampant
Herb bed rampant
Carrots Nantes Frubund and Chantenay all doing very well
Runners up and running
Dwarf french beans finally look as if they want to live
Squash, marrow and courgettes very healthy
Outdoor toms finally stopped sulking
Chinese cabbage very easy to grow
Boltardy beetroot hasn't bolted (surprisingly)
Apple tree decimated by codling moth, never had it before
Pear tree not much on it.
Victoria plum tree laden to the hilt.
Rhubarb does it's own thing
Fartichokes almost 5 foot tall
Greenhouse toms very healthy, best year ever

Blimey, I need a cup of tea after that.

[gillie]

The Sutton broad beans doing excellently, Stereo not so good. 

Mange tout peas steaming along.  Podding peas rubbish.

The first round of cut and come again lettuce (Bergamo) grown by Charles Dowding's method are finally bolting.  Second round not ready to take over (my fault).
Lettuce Rouge Grenobloise were huge, excellent and held for weeks.  Must sow some more.

Early Nantes carrots started under cloches seem a bit slow.
Main crop carrots look happy under their environmesh

Beetroot Action, started under cloches seem a bit slow.

Courgettes (Sutton's Green Bush) just starting to crop.  Stand back!

First planing of 'Dwarf' french beans (Delinel) now over 2 feet high (?) and setting.  Later plantings of Safari and Borlotti look good, must sow final crop in rootrainers.

Greenhouse tomatoes starting to crop.  OH asks whether they actually have skins, they are so tender.  However there are problems with dry set on later trusses.  This has not happened before.  Outdoor tomatoes look good except for a bit of dry set.

Aubergines just starting to flower, but not setting.

Jalapeno chilis setting, others coming along.

Autumn calabrese has not bolted (yet)!
Autumn  cabbage look good

Pak choi bolted (serves me right), will re-sow now the hot spell seems to have finished.

Cavolo nero and psb still in rootrainers.

Fartichokes have been  banished to outer reaches and are sulking.  Gooseberry bush now recovering from being sat on by 10 ft. Farties last year.

Raspberries, which were given up for dead cropping everywhere.  Blackcurrants which had not cropped for several years laden (I think they need a cold winter).  Red currants carrying heavy crop as usual, but birds are getting into the fruit cage and taking some (as usual).  I want to plant a white currant

Pears are looking excellent, apples fine but probably should be thinned, young morello cherry OK for the first time (if I can keep the birds off them).  Seven sweet cherries on dwarf tree in the fruit cage  (this is a record).  Plums are not good. The old tree is dying and its replacements have not yet settled into cropping.

So, now the weather has cooled a little, it is time to sow on!

Cheers,

Gillie

[Rangerkris]

Brocolli has gone to seed
Pak Choi gone to seed
started to lose some toms i think will check tomorrow eve if anymore have started going. 

Other than that its been very good for all the other stuff.

[Lardman]

Spuds
International Kidney - Scabbed to death and not particularly nice anyway.
Pentland Javelin - Some badly scabbed some hardly at all  :blink:

Beans
Broads : Bunyards - VERY poor yield (1 meal so far)
Broads : Suttons  - Still waiting looks to be better though.
Climbing : Cobra/bluelake - SO slow to start climbing - perhaps 2ft if that up the canes now.
Runners : White Lady - A little yellow, but flowering nicely.

Peas
Meteor - Nice enough, but gone in 2 meals.
Jaguar - Much sweeter but still not really ready.

Alliums
Garlic - lost 60% to leaf miner. Whats left is *very* nice and very smelly.
Onions - Not really ready but I've lifted a few - leaf miner damn 
Shallots - seem to have escaped most of the pest  :blink:

Toms / Peppers
intermediate - Slow start but setting fruit now.
determinate - Not looking to good. 1 or 2 marble sized fruit.
Basket - still about 6 inches, no flowers even.
Nagas - 4 inches high at best 
Hot Lemon - Just flowering.
Rocotto - Not a happy plant at all.
Cape Gooseberries - Violet/Mayen Green/Pineapple all doing very well.

Brassicas
cabbage : Hispi - Really nice, eating 3 a week.
cabbage : Red Cap - So Slow
cabbage : Fuego - Even Slower
cabbage : Savoy - Planted out this morning.
Sprouts : Lots to the chickens
Cauli - Avalanche No heads as yet.
Cauli - All Year Round - Growing nicely.
Swede - Very bad White Fly, waiting to see if they recover.

Squash
BNS : Avalon - Just sitting there.
Pumpkin : Jack-lo lantern - Slug damage Just recovering now.
Courgettes : Black forest - VERY poor germination, pinched 2 seedlings off a mate. - Only had 4 decent fruit.

Other
Sweetcorn. Sweet bounty - 1ft tall.
Beetroot : Bolthardy very poor germination.
Chard : Bright Lights - Poor germination and they're all red.
Lettuce : Little gem / tom thumb - the chickens seem to like them.
Parsnips : Dagger / tender & true - poor germination. 1 or 2 may make it to the pot.
Strawbs : nothing bigger than my little finger nail - the chicken like them.
Radish - Chery Belle : Snack food init  Even I can grow them.
Rhubarb - Taking over the garden 

Thats a rather long list...... it doesn't look that much in the garden !  Honest.

[Christine]

There was a discussion down the plot last week as the daughter placed her order for weekend's fresh vegetables.  We came to conclusion that we (Me) would grow the more expensive crops next year.

We're doing well with rhubarb, lettuce, spring onions, carrots, salad turnips, strawberries, raspberries, tayberries and fresh herbs. Have lifted a lot of the few potatoes as new. We like new spuds. The courgettes and peas are just coming on stream and the marrows are catching up. It looks as if we are going to have a glut of parsnips too.

Onions are not very expensive to buy but leeks are very much so - therefore leeks next year along with the shallots and garlic. Calabrese, purple sprouting broccoli and cauliflowers will be included if we can get them right this year (well we didn't last year). Fennel is in with a shout as well. We'll have a go with dwarf beans if I can get the hang of them this year.

The sweet corn looks to be this year's failure and the red cabbages to be this year's runaway success.

Sigh - I would much rather grow flowers. But I've got all next years vegetable seeds in the sales so it won't be flowers.

[maxie]

After a slow start up in cumbria due to it being dry and windy we finally got some good rainfall and a bit of heat and stuffs shot up these last two weeks.
The carrots are doing great under the enviromesh(who invented that stuff deserves a medal)
Peas are okay but i have to net them from jackdaws, and they started on them early this year and i lost half my first row 
broad beans doing well.
Sweetcorn is growing like crazy 
Taties are hit and miss,some poor some really good ?
Climbing french beans are going well after a slow start,i like to grow yellow and green ones,purple didnt have much taste to me.
Runners are as rampant as ever,i prefer french to eat though.
Cabbages (greyhound are good and tasty) few green caterpillars but they dont do too much damage if i catch them early.
Onions and shallots have done great.I used to grow red onions as well but they didnt crop as well as sturon and tasted no different to me anyways so i dont bother now.
I grow a lot of salad stuff in tubs as im plagued with flea beetle and its all done well.
Ive even managed a cucumber plant which is a first for me  as they usually snuff it.
All in all a good year so far,conditions wise its been great lately and things are looking good.

[SG6]

Leeks: Comming along nicely.
Tomatoes: Slow and the upright variety seems to have become a bush variety.
Peppers: Slow, don't think they will get anywhere (again).
Brocolli: Leaves but not  a lot of brocolli.
Cauli: As per brocolli.
Cereriac: Looking good.
Onions: Wish I knew what they were, neither look like what I planted
Pototoes: When I dig down I expect a fair supply (grown in pots)
Garlic: After buying proper garlic varieties they have produced less then the Tesco one I planted 2 years ago. Guess what goes in next time.
Carrots: Still seem quite small, but I have carrots.

[Highfield]

Red onions - doing really well - bulking up nicely now
Carrots - erratic germination but pulled first three today to have for dinner with the
Mangetouts of which we have loads - and made pea pod soup out of the excess, and the
Potatoes are doing very well - I dug up the one that went yellow and got enough for dinner tonight!
Radish - had loads and learnt not to sow so many = though nice in stir fries!
Turnips - did really well - at least 5kg in the freezer already
Spinach - got the knack of successional sowing now and timing better - I prefer in salads but OH loves it cooked on its own - got some cooked in the freezer - great in chicken curry
Broad beans - bumper crop but not sure when to harvest them!  About 6 " long and lumpy
Beetroot  - been cooking and freezing all weekend!  It has done so well and we been eating it for ages too - more to come  mmmmmmm
American Land Cress - very very strong for my taste adn you cant keep the stuff down  - thinking of mowing it .... grew way way too much ...
Shallots - singles from seed doing well - from sets much better so will stick to them next year
Lettuce - cut n come again red frilly type -  tons of it
Spring onions - a bit erratic germination but lovely !!!!
Leeks - from about 1" diameter down now - will be planting more 
Chard - romping away
Parsnips - after disastrous start we got some really nice plants now - some from paper pots and some direct.  LOVE parsnips ...
Dwarf beans - planted a bit late and not all germinated - will try filling the gaps this week
Runner beans - some at tops of strings on old frame and some just starting on the Munty
Brassicas - calabrese, brussels, PSB and Kale all a bit late in but establishing now under debris netting.
Celery - my little miracle plants - not doing too much but still green so have not given up hope yet!
Courgettes - climbers in pots  - just starting to put out curlies
Pumpkins - taking over their bed and threatening the corn field next door ...

Lots to plant still now weather a bit cooler ... -here's hoping for a late first frost!

[tessiesplot]

Mid season going well,
broccoli has bolted, so has spinach & rocket,
had loads of sunday roasts with cabbage, cauli, spuds, baby carrots, but dont know what to do with kohlrabi it was one of those moments i had when i was planning my season...so if anyone has a recipe or two for it, please let me know...
sweetcorn doing well,  have grapes on my vine in the greenhouse, we have had loads of fresh salad with tomatoes with our barby on the plot, we built a decked area between the shed and greenhouse, to enjoy a bit of socialising with our fellow alottmenteers. I shifted another 15 ton of top soil onto our new raised beds earlier this year. On the subject of raised beds we used old scaffold boards from a local building site, just the job !!!! and no i didn't pinch them!! anyway, all our onions leeks and garlic are doing well, we have 2 cherries left on the tree ( damn birds), we are all strawberried out, and the list goes on, i will be able to put my feet up soon and get the barby going again.....

[mumofstig]

dont know what to do with kohlrabi 

Young kohl rabbi is very nice grated, with or without mayo.
This sounds a good recipe...gets to use kohl rabbi and surplus courgettes...gotta be worth a try
recipe link