Growing your own - is it worth it?

[gradus]

We grow Blueberries in 35l. pots of ericaceous compost, feeding and watering as needed and they produce good crops, although I left one plant unwatered and fed and it nearly died but has since recovered.
Outdoor toms have all been blighted, odd really as the spuds showed no signs. As a growing season, 4/10.

[oddoneout]

Despite this morning having had to clear my tomatoes due to blight, overall it's not been a bad year in terms of quantity of produce. The very wet May was a real help as it provided a good reservoir of moisture to help cope with the constant drying winds and so I had good crops from my climbing peas, which most years do tend to struggle as we usually have a cold dry spring and subsequent rain never quite fills the deficit on this difficult soil before warmer weather increases demand. The assorted beans seem to be able to get their roots down and in enough quantity to do better. Having said that, just at the moment the weeks of dry conditions have really slowed down the bean production, but the runners and possibly the french beans will pick up once damper conditions arrive (I hope!). The varieties I grow, being older ones, are less inclined to produce everything at once and then finish; in fact it's not unusual for the vines to have dry pods for seed saving at the bottom and flowers and pods at the top.
Courgettes have been doing their stuff but the squash plants have been a failure for some reason - slow to get going and only one fruit produced and that the wrong size and shape for the variety and may not ripen in time. Can't complain to the seed firm as they were self-saved seed! Bit of a contrast to last year when I had several small round fruits - about 2lb weight which does two servings for me so not overfaced - which stored brilliantly (I still have 2 left).

[teamsaint]

This year.

One out of three courgette plants from seed did welll and producing lots of courgettes. Jury is out on some squashes. Toms looking about average at best. Beans ok -ish, strawberries ok but not brilliant, lettuces and rocket so-so, rhubarb good as usual, Jostaberries disappeared overnight , but figs are looking like a terrific crop, hopefully this years big success.

TOH has just created ( with a bit of muscle from me) a herb garden, so on the lookout for some rare varieties. Have just ordered some seeds including meadowsweet to sow now for next year,

[oddoneout]

This year.

One out of three courgette plants from seed did welll and producing lots of courgettes. Jury is out on some squashes. Toms looking about average at best. Beans ok -ish, strawberries ok but not brilliant, lettuces and rocket so-so, rhubarb good as usual, Jostaberries disappeared overnight , but figs are looking like a terrific crop, hopefully this years big success.

TOH has just created ( with a bit of muscle from me) a herb garden, so on the lookout for some rare varieties. Have just ordered some seeds including meadowsweet to sow now for next year,

I'm finally enjoying my (normal size) strawberries now that the furry chomper and nicker(almost certain it was a vole, they have been active in the garden and they tend to cart stuff away to their hidey hole, and teeth marks too small for a rat ) has been displaced by the garden clearance next door. There have been plenty of little Alpine strawbs to graze on as I wander round the garden but they're not the same. Luckily the full size ones are a variety that crops over an extended period rather than just four to six weeks or so in high summer so should produce for a while yet.
Re the new herb garden a word of caution if contemplating lovage as one of the rarities. It's a useful herb for cooking in stews and soups etc but grows very big even before the flower spike grows up to 6 ft or so. Makes a handsome feature but needs elbow room! I had one in a previous garden which was controlled by a concrete path, so when I was given a small plant 3 years ago I knew what to expect, and that it would need to come out in due course as the bed layout changed. I have now started that process, to be done in stages as the roots are deep and persistent.

[teamsaint]

I'm finally enjoying my (normal size) strawberries now that the furry chomper and nicker(almost certain it was a vole, they have been active in the garden and they tend to cart stuff away to their hidey hole, and teeth marks too small for a rat ) has been displaced by the garden clearance next door. There have been plenty of little Alpine strawbs to graze on as I wander round the garden but they're not the same. Luckily the full size ones are a variety that crops over an extended period rather than just four to six weeks or so in high summer so should produce for a while yet.
Re the new herb garden a word of caution if contemplating lovage as one of the rarities. It's a useful herb for cooking in stews and soups etc but grows very big even before the flower spike grows up to 6 ft or so. Makes a handsome feature but needs elbow room! I had one in a previous garden which was controlled by a concrete path, so when I was given a small plant 3 years ago I knew what to expect, and that it would need to come out in due course as the bed layout changed. I have now started that process, to be done in stages as the roots are deep and persistent.

Thanks Odders, will pass that on. I think lovage is in there somewhere. Might try and find some of your later fruiting strawberries for next year. We tend to do pretty well with them, though the woodlice like them a bit too much !!

[oddoneout]

Thanks Odders, will pass that on. I think lovage is in there somewhere. Might try and find some of your later fruiting strawberries for next year. We tend to do pretty well with them, though the woodlice like them a bit too much !!

The strawberry I have is a hybrid of 2 french varieties and is called Mariguette. The sweetness seems to develop before the berry is fully ripe so eating them at the less than true red stage is perfectly possible; they are firm fruit which isn't to everyone's liking I have found, and the taste isn't quite the same as traditional English summer sorts, although I rather like the slight crunch and it makes for more successful slicing if that is what is wanted. It produces good runners that happily start flowering and fruiting at an early stage, often in their first year. For alternatives look for so-called perpetual or ever bearer kinds in the catalogues - as a type they have been around for decades (my grandfather grew them in the 60s), but don't seem that popular in this country. Having smaller quantities over an extended period doesn't seem to suit although for small households and small gardens it is a better solution than having more than one variety(with the space implications) to extend the season. The birds don't seem interested in them now but as you say woodlice do enjoy a nibble, and then the small grey slugs go in after... Keeping the ground clean of plant debris and hiding places helps a bit and also improves ventilation against botrytis; the winter compost or other mulch goes on later when fruiting stops and the plants have been finally tidied up.

[JasonPalmer]

I had a bumper crop of strawberries and some nice raspberries, I generally try grow things my four year old can then forage. Will try peas again next year. We also now have a new conservatory so will try growing tomatos again.

I use the organic gardening catalogue which means I can source rare breeds which can have great taste but hard for supermarkets to grow at scale.

I enjoy gardening, good therapy.

[oddoneout]

I had a bumper crop of strawberries and some nice raspberries, I generally try grow things my four year old can then forage. Will try peas again next year. We also now have a new conservatory so will try growing tomatos again.

I use the organic gardening catalogue which means I can source rare breeds which can have great taste but hard for supermarkets to grow at scale.

I enjoy gardening, good therapy.

If you grow peas have you tried the tall varieties? If not I can recommend them for maincrop use - better use of space, often decorative leaves and flowers and crop over a longer period; sometimes there can be pods drying at the bottom with new green edible pods at the top. At least 30 years ago I started growing Champion of England (among several others)on my allotment from seed from the Heritage Seed Library. They always did well although as the pigeons got to plague proportions and got crafty about attacking the plants it was necessary to put up quite substantial protection. After a few years several other plotholders were growing them as well. Several of the old boys remembered growing tall varieties, and everyone liked the taste of the peas, so I shared out saved seed and they then saved their own. It's good to see it has now got into the mainstream again, together with some of the others such as Ne Plus Ultra, Magnum Bonum, and Robinsons.
Another tall variety I still grow( I've had to give up the allotment so only space to grow one) is a large podded (long and wide) mangetout called Carouby de Mausanne. It has stunning pink and purple flowers and silver marbled foliage, so garden worthy in its own right, quite apart from the tasty pods which just keep coming, and no worries about finding pea moth grubs in the pods either because they are picked before the seeds develop.
You might like to try sweet peppers in your conservatory as well as tomatoes; there are mini and snack size varieties available which generally crop more quickly than the full size ones, and might be of interest to a foraging four year old?

[JasonPalmer]

Thanks for the suggestions, will keep in mind when ordering seeds. Sweet peppers a good idea. My son and I don't like tomatoes but the wife does so we grow them for her.

[cloughie]

Garlic, planted mid-November is coming on a treat.

[teamsaint]

Garlic, planted mid-November is coming on a treat.

No sign of ours popping up yet.
Bit concerned…..

[gradus]

No sign of November planted garlic which I'm trying in the greenhouse border having had a surprisingly good crop from the allotment polytunnel. Fortunately both enclosed spaces are not plagued by white rot which is endemic on our allotment.

[JasonPalmer]

No sign of November planted garlic which I'm trying in the greenhouse border having had a surprisingly good crop from the allotment polytunnel. Fortunately both enclosed spaces are not plagued by white rot which is endemic on our allotment.

Greenhouse and polytunnel, luxury, luxury I tell you

[gradus]

Greenhouse and polytunnel, luxury, luxury I tell you

Actually Insurance, Insurance, thanks to Storm Eunice's destructive power.

[JasonPalmer]

Actually Insurance, Insurance, thanks to Storm Eunice's destructive power.

Good move.