Growing your own - is it worth it?

[Globaltruth]

Just had our first tomato, and others look to be ripening, runner beans regular now. The tomatoes are a real unplanned bonus as we were given the plants.

It’s been a real ‘win some,lose some’ year. Given the weather shouldn’t be surprised- excellent apples and a few pears off the new trees, but my toms have been hit by a horrible brown leather rot fungus just as they ripened. Mrs GT once again to the rescue with the green tomato chutney but still disappointing... so near.
I’ve found an excellent kale variety called Sunderland which is tender, sweet, prolific and hardy. Hoping it may overwinter. Recommended.
Courgettes have started again after the recent warm weather, and I won one of the classes in the the online village veg. Comp with a 17” runner bean. I did have a 20” in reserve. Good fun in a tricky year.

[Bryn]

Raspberries. I can't be sure what variety ours are, but they are rampant. We dig up a few roots each year to stop them spreading everywhere. We give them no care or attention whatever yet they produce delicious fruit. Mrs A. prefers raspberries to strawberries!

Mrs. A. clearly has good taste. Of course neither Raspberry nor Strawberry is actually a berry, the former being a drupe and the latter an aggregate accessory fruit. Who cares, they both taste good.

[cloughie]

Mrs. A. clearly has good taste. Of course neither Raspberry nor Strawberry is actually a berry, the former being a drupe and the latter an aggregate accessory fruit. Who cares, they both taste good.

That makes raspberry wine a product of brewer’s drupe!

[gurnemanz]

It’s been a real ‘win some,lose some’ year. Given the weather shouldn’t be surprised- excellent apples and a few pears off the new trees, but my toms have been hit by a horrible brown leather rot fungus just as they ripened. Mrs GT once again to the rescue with the green tomato chutney but still disappointing... so near.
I’ve found an excellent kale variety called Sunderland which is tender, sweet, prolific and hardy. Hoping it may overwinter. Recommended.
Courgettes have started again after the recent warm weather, and I won one of the classes in the the online village veg. Comp with a 17” runner bean. I did have a 20” in reserve. Good fun in a tricky year.

Likewise. Runners excellent. Today's might have been the last, though - excellent just now with some cod and our own spuds. Still quite a few flowers and small beans but probably too chilly now for them to come forth.

Courgettes have been less than prolific for some reason also cultivated blackberries below par - too dry? I have no greenhouse and tomatoes have been the best for years.

Someone gave us some kohlrabi plants and they did well. My wife found a lovely recipe involving goat's cheese, anchovies, thyme and lemon juice. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.the...-with-kohlrabi

[cloughie]

The runner beans came down yesterday as did the tomatoes - a chilli plant remains in the greenhouse and a few rainbow chard plants outside. The last few beetroot harvested also - definitely autumn now and looking to reshape the vegetable plot to make it easier to manage next year. Favourite would be permanent paths and raised beds bordered by sleepers. Will see!

[gradus]

Desert-like conditions until yesterday finished off all the beans very early and much else besides. I'm hoping that the rains will save fennel and leafy stuff that looks close to bolting. Huge apple crops but with Laxtons especially the hot dry conditions brought them on too quickly and none are left to store. Granny Smiths did very well though.

[oddoneout]

It’s been a real ‘win some,lose some’ year. Given the weather shouldn’t be surprised- excellent apples and a few pears off the new trees, but my toms have been hit by a horrible brown leather rot fungus just as they ripened. Mrs GT once again to the rescue with the green tomato chutney but still disappointing... so near.
I’ve found an excellent kale variety called Sunderland which is tender, sweet, prolific and hardy. Hoping it may overwinter. Recommended.
Courgettes have started again after the recent warm weather, and I won one of the classes in the the online village veg. Comp with a 17” runner bean. I did have a 20” in reserve. Good fun in a tricky year.

This is a new one on me and I wondered if it was blossom end rot? http://www.tomatodirt.com/blossom-end-rot.html Some of my plants went through a stage of this as the heat and drought made it impossible for me to keep up with the watering adequately. Fortunately not many fruit were affected and as it's been a good tomato year overall that loss wasn't a problem.
I had hoped my runner beans would do their late summer revival trick but the rain didn't come in time so I took them down after a few pods had dried enough for seed - it's a Heritage Seed Library variety. There will be selfsown lettuce, beetroot(for leaves not roots), and spinach in a couple of the small older veg beds if the weather isn't too bad, but otherwise sowing for winter was written off by the heat and drought so I'll concentrate on getting the rather makeshift new beds better arranged and yet more organic matter and hopefully worms into them to try and ease the concrete tendencies. Silt sets hard like clay, but unlike clay doesn't develop cracks for the water to run into so trying to get moisture below the dried surface is difficult.

[Rjw]

Still picking beans, beetroot, courgettes. Lots of leeks, kale and cabbage to look forward to. Collecting bean and lettuce seed for next year. I hung a lettuce seed head up in the greenhouse in a paper carrier bag to finish off drying, the slugs and snails have nearly eaten the bag, but not the contents.

[gradus]

I'm trying no-dig in earnest this coming year having been persuaded by the results from this Summer on late-sown stuff. We have light-ish soil so digging seems pointless with its trad purpose of breaking up the soil and Charles Dowding is very persuasive! Unfortunately I can't make enough compost on the allotment so have had to buy in municipal compost which seems to work well. In the garden we can make enough compost to go round but I have to admit to not bothering with the faff of turning it over in the bins as it is usable without making the effort.
Only just got round to planting winter onions in pots for transplanting once rooted.

[oddoneout]

I'm trying no-dig in earnest this coming year having been persuaded by the results from this Summer on late-sown stuff. We have light-ish soil so digging seems pointless with its trad purpose of breaking up the soil and Charles Dowding is very persuasive! Unfortunately I can't make enough compost on the allotment so have had to buy in municipal compost which seems to work well. In the garden we can make enough compost to go round but I have to admit to not bothering with the faff of turning it over in the bins as it is usable without making the effort.
Only just got round to planting winter onions in pots for transplanting once rooted.

Green manure for the allotment? Cut it down as needed and leave it to rot in situ or with a cover over - heavy cardboard from the likes of washing machines etc is good. Where the space isn't needed for a while soft waste can also be left to compost like that. Looks rather messy but the worms don't mind and it protects the bare soil. Not digging has the advantage also of reducing the quantity of weed growth over time as you aren't constantly bringing seeds to the surface and over time those that do germinate are likely to be 'wanted' - such as selfseeded herbs and salads. I had a couple of small beds on my allotment that provided pickings of parsley, coriander, corn salad, chard etc without any real effort and fewer and fewer unwanted items. I planted things like tomatoes or sweet corn in season and left the salads in situ as ground cover/catch crops.

[Rjw]

Just sowed my mangetout.

[gradus]

Spring garlic planted in egg boxes in the greenhouse today.

[Dave2002]

Debatable whether this year's efforts have been worth it. The Tumbling Toms - tomatoes - in hanging baskets seem to have worked, and arguably have been cheaper than buying tomatoes in supermarkets and are quite tasty. Some other varieties haven't done so well - though we might get a late burst. Raspberries - weren't so bad this year - we did water them better than last year. Tried strawberries as well - but although they produced fruit there wasn't a huge yield, and a fairly local fruit farm has much better tasting fruit - slightly expensive - but much better than the supermarkets.

Some green salad leaves are doing OK. I thought some of the salad and curly kale plants would be useful, but now it seems that slugs and snails have discovered those before they're ready to be used.

I bought a blueberry bush - will have to see if that's any good next year.

[gurnemanz]

I bought a blueberry bush - will have to see if that's any good next year.

I once tried blueberries. Knowing our soil was wrong I added some ericaceous fertiliser to boost acidity. Total lack of success ensued.

Runners have been great after slow start. No greenhouse but outdoor toms are ripening well. Various varieties - cherry, beef, and for the first time some very tasty brown and yellow cherry toms from plants given to us by a friend.
Thornless blackberries which originally grew through from our neighbour have spread and have been prolific this year with large juicy berries.

[Constantbee]

I once tried blueberries. Knowing our soil was wrong I added some ericaceous fertiliser to boost acidity. Total lack of success ensued.

Had a couple in ericaceous compost in containers once. They did quite well for about 3 years.

First steps with a small (7 cell) hydroponic unit here, hoping to be able to use it for fresh herbs out of season. Good results so far: one basil plant, a mint cutting, couple of parsley plants and some catnip to get posh paws through the winter. Seedlings are looking a bit pale and wan but still alive. Growing medium, couple of bottles, supplied with the kit, but looks like it might be expensive to restock.