Veg plans for 2020

Bill Hook

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Planted these recently for an autumn harvest
https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable-Seeds/Popular-Vegetable-Seeds/Broad-Bean-Seeds/Bean-Broad-Bean-Seeds---Luz-de-Otono_194118.htm

They look interesting... have you tried them before? My broad beans were disappointing (I grew Aquadulce, Monica and Crimson Flowered).

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Stew tonight - home grown carrots, potatoes, onion, tomatoes (a gift from from a client who's are well ahead of mine) plus mushrooms - and beef, not mine!

The tumbling toms are about 3 days from ready - tried one today and a bit crunchy still. Ailsa Craigs not yet fruiting but not that far away I think, while a Moneymaker sits in a teepee and is completely reliant on a fine Autumn if it's going to yield a crop!

Christmas potatoes are sown as are kale and lettuce, carrots to go in very soon.

One month later

The spuds are coming along just (I ran out of summer potatoes last week)



The Ailsa Craigs are finally fruiting I might get 20 or so, Moneymaker got washed away in the storms but I had a spare in the shed which is now in front room window so we'll see how far it gets before the sun/heat runs out!

The onions are lifted and should last me for a few months at my rate of use, carrots almost gone - a two's stews worth left. Debating if I should overwinter onions and do a late batch of carrots for "baby" sized harvest.

patnor1011

Bill Hook wrote: »

I'd love to be able to get some dry beans for the winter. What variety do you grow and how do you dry them? My efforts with broad beans ended in a soggy mess; I hung them up in a shed with plenty of space and air but they all went mouldy.:(

Sorry for the late reply. The variety on the picture is Red flowered scarlet runner. I do grow there for long time storage as when dry they are good for a couple of years. You do not need to dry whole pods, that can be done only in dry warm climate due to mould. I just harvest pods when they start yellowing and going sort of soggy or soft. Then I pop them open and harvest individual beans. I put them on homemade drying rack which I left on top of furniture or simply somewhere out of the way. Preferably on the sun but since there is not much of it just somewhere where there is air circulation and they dry in a few days. I use homemade drying racks I made from some wood and window netting from B&Q. These can be put on top of the radiator.

Dried beans can be used in stews or soups, the best way is to soak them for few hours or overnight in water before you plan to cook something with them.

Some beans I harvested today. I already got 2 times more and estimate to have about 5-6x more from just 10 plants. There would be more but they got battered pretty bad in last storm.



I can send seeds to anyone who will want some (seeds will be free, I only kindly ask you to cover postage and envelope).

patnor1011

My tomatoes are dying they are not going to survive damage done by last storm and I am wondering what can I plant instead of them. I already planted some spring onion and coriander which came out nice but I will have more place and do not know what I should put in there.

Bill Hook

patnor1011 wrote: »

Sorry for the late reply. The variety on the picture is Red flowered scarlet runner.

They look lovely. I have 3 types of runner bean producing loads of pods - Yardstick, Black Magic and Desiree - so I will let some of then mature (hopefully) and have a go at drying them. I need a bigger house: there are trays of seeds all over the place, chilli plants taking up half the kitchen table, etc.

Bill Hook

patnor1011 wrote: »

My tomatoes are dying they are not going to survive damage done by last storm and I am wondering what can I plant instead of them. I already planted some spring onion and coriander which came out nice but I will have more place and do not know what I should put in there.

You could try rocket and some oriental greens - mizuna or giant mustard.

Bill Hook

Bill Hook wrote: »

They look interesting... have you tried them before? My broad beans were disappointing (I grew Aquadulce, Monica and Crimson Flowered).

First time growing them. They seem to be doing well. Not growing very tall but in flower now

patnor1011

Now I will have even more space. I decided to clear out all outside tomatoes. It seems that they got way too damaged to survive in the last storm. The fruit started to rot still green so I am salvaging what I can before it will be unusable. Mostly cherry tomatoes. I got 2 tubs full this morning and still cleaned just one-third of what I have. Looks like I will fill another 3 at least.

CelticRambler

Drop a banana or two in with them to speed up the ripening process.

Sorted out my artichokes that fell in the last storm. Some stems broken so hoping the plants survive the next couple of months.
I managed to straighten others up with stakes and cable ties.

Lesson learned for next year.oca and mashua doing well.

patnor1011

CelticRambler wrote: »

Drop a banana or two in with them to speed up the ripening process.

Have something else in mind for them
Green tomato chutney. I made about 10 bottles of it last year. Good to eat in itself with bread or crackers or as a side with sausages or puddings. It also can spice up your sauce or stew. Sterilized in jars so it last longer.

Our greenhouse tomatoes are ripening fast.
Have 3 decent pumpkins too.
The Atlantic giant is allready basketball sized !
Next year I'm going to buy another glass house just for growing a monster pumpkin.

Just got home from a few nights and to find my pumpkin vibes wrecked by frost.
Hopefully the fruit still ripens.
One of them is beachballs sized !

patnor1011

I like spicy food. By that I mean extremely spicy where jalapeno does pretty much nothing for me. I got something called african chilli in my local asian food store. I noticed that some of pepper were pretty rippened so I dried them out more and saved some seeds. I planted them and kept behind window and I now have 10 healthy 20-30cm plants.
Since it is pretty late and I do not have glasshouse I am going to keep growing them in the house. I am going to use led grow lights just to see if I can grow successfully something which does have africa in the name.

I took this picture 2 weeks ago and now they doubled in size. Time to put them in new pots.

CelticRambler

patnor1011 wrote: »

Since it is pretty late and I do not have glasshouse I am going to keep growing them in the house. I am going to use led grow lights just to see if I can grow successfully something which does have africa in the name.

Careful you don't attract the wrong kind of attention with the grow-lights... :pac:

But let us know how you get on. Amongst my batch of 29ct seeds from Lidl this year were some jalapeños which were hot enough to have my African nephew dousing his throat with fromage blanc (my Dutch visitor got to the yoghurt first!) but we were rapidly desensitised so I have some cayenne peppers on standby for next year - as well as seed saved from this year's jalapeños. I will try to get some of them started quite early, as it'd be nice to have them available to use with the veg harvested in July, or even June.

patnor1011

My lights are not that variety. It is just sqare full spectrum led light. Thousand + small tiny white, red and blue led. It emits light not heat so no use in producing anything stronger than vegetables.
I used them to grow tomatoes in a shed when there was cold and rainy outside. Plants love them.

CelticRambler

I'm lucky in that our long dark evenings here (at latitude 46.4°N) aren't particularly long compared to Ireland, so I don't really need supplementary light ... except that the only rooms in the house that are convenient for laying out seed trays and a propagator are those on the north side of the house with small windows. Great for keeping cool in the height of summer, but not very practical for starting off seeds in January. My greenhouse is too far away from the main house to run power to, but I'm hoping to rig up a solar panel and an inverter so that I can put the propagator up there this winter. Longer term, part of my "sunken garden" project will involve the creation of a sort of conservatory-orangerie-pergola structure in the sunniest part of the garden - a greenhouse for the winter and a sitting area for the summer.

In the meantime, I'll settle for buying some under-bed storage boxes to use for early sowings, which I'll take with me (in my campervan!) while I'm away in the early part of the year. Hopefully that'll allow me to overcome the problems I've had in recent years with sudden changes of weather killing off my newly germinated seedlings while I'm not there, and not being able to do anything about it (like planting more) until I get home a fortnight or three weeks later. But that's "Veg plans for 2021" now, isn't it? Off topic for this thread ...

We need to open a new thread

Harry Palmr

Are my Christmas spuds cancelled?

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Are my Christmas spuds cancelled?

Mine are fooked !

Living Off The Splash

Every year we get some unplanned tomatoes growing among our raised beds.

We picked some yesterday that had grown and turned red outdoors.......just before the weather is about to turn.

A nice surprise gift.

I got 3 x 16m beds dug over today and weeds cleared.
Will throw on manure during the week and cover wity plastic.
Considering last year it was just covered in weeds we've come on.
Found an elderberry Bush in the garden as well

Living Off The Splash

Does anyone know where I might get 30 bags of well rotted manure delivered to my home in South Dublin coast?

Seve OB

wondering about my strawberries. bought 6 this year and have been growing the runners. up to about 16 now, some of the runners are still quite small and still attached. most are in pots.
should i stick them in the shed at some stage?
or should i gather them together and stick a frost sheet over them?
do they need to be fed or anything over the winter?

RachelsCousin

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Does anyone know where I might get 30 bags of well rotted manure delivered to my home in South Dublin coast?

Look at getting a bulk bag (skip bag size). Better value if it suits you.
Geeup.ie is organic horse manure. (They also deliver small bags if they suit better). Prices on website include delivery.
Mulch.ie offer a few options, including farmyard manure.
envirogardenandhome.com offer composted waste.
Plenty of landscape providers should offer options.

Looking at the prices, I'm so glad Ive local farmers all to willing to empty their sheds in my place.

Graces7

patnor1011 wrote: »

Sorry for the late reply. The variety on the picture is Red flowered scarlet runner. I do grow there for long time storage as when dry they are good for a couple of years. You do not need to dry whole pods, that can be done only in dry warm climate due to mould. I just harvest pods when they start yellowing and going sort of soggy or soft. Then I pop them open and harvest individual beans. I put them on homemade drying rack which I left on top of furniture or simply somewhere out of the way. Preferably on the sun but since there is not much of it just somewhere where there is air circulation and they dry in a few days. I use homemade drying racks I made from some wood and window netting from B&Q. These can be put on top of the radiator.

Dried beans can be used in stews or soups, the best way is to soak them for few hours or overnight in water before you plan to cook something with them.

Some beans I harvested today. I already got 2 times more and estimate to have about 5-6x more from just 10 plants. There would be more but they got battered pretty bad in last storm.



I can send seeds to anyone who will want some (seeds will be free, I only kindly ask you to cover postage and envelope).

Oh they look wonderful! I would love some ...

Probably the last harvest photo of 2020 from me (well us!).
Harvested the week before Halloween.



Been eating a lot of pumpkin pie/soup and even pumpkin ravioli !

Harry Palmr

My potted lettuces seem to have stalled after initial good growth. They are in medium sized pots and two big ones (little gems are split between both sizes and are all about the same size) and outside getting about 4 hours of direct sun when there is sun. Not sure if its the cold of the last week or so but they have been protected from night frost or if its lack of proper rain, though the compost is quite damp. They are big enough to be very lightly harvested

gnf_ireland

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

Does anyone know where I might get 30 bags of well rotted manure delivered to my home in South Dublin coast?

Probably a bit late, but you can try https://festinalente.ie/walled-gardens/garden-horse-manure-for-sale-delivery/

It will depend on how close you are to them in Bray, as they had stopped delivery there for a while due to restrictions.

cuculainn

Anyone else inflicted by these snails.? I literally have to shake them off every stalk of kale....and the cabbage is infested with them...

p.s ignore the fact that they have started humping!!!

Frogeye

My butternut squash are starting to get a white mould around the stem. On some of them the orangy flesh below the stem is starting to go brown and soft as well.

Any ideas what I did wrong? I though these would store much longer. Harvested them at the end of September.

Thanks Frogeye

Living Off The Splash

I saw Monty recommend that a piece of the stem/stalk should be left on the squash to stop the actual vegetable going soft.

gozunda

Frogeye wrote: »

My butternut squash are starting to get a white mould around the stem. On some of them the orangy flesh below the stem is starting to go brown and soft as well.

Any ideas what I did wrong? I though these would store much longer. Harvested them at the end of September.

Thanks Frogeye

Hi Frogeye

All squashes need a period of ripening in a bright, dry and airy location to harden the skin so they will store properly. Also make sure they are not packed close together and have plenty of air circulation

If the ones you have a going off- remove the bad bits and any skin and chop up the flesh - Cut up in chunks cook and then freeze in handy sized portions.

Bought some Egyptian walking onions this evening from incredible vegetables in the UK.

Also got delivery of taunton deane kale cuttings.

Living Off The Splash

Mild day here in Dublin today. I am going to use the opportunity to get out and rake some lovely leaves to add to my compost. I think there may be one more rake left in the leaves after today. Might give the compost heap a bit of a turn as well while I am out there. Pity the grass is so wet, it needs one last cut.

The other half will halve a look at harvesting our sunflower seeds for planting out next year.

CelticRambler

Harvested the last of my spring-sown potatoes this week (Desirée) and what a difference a metre (or two) makes! I had five drills, planted in the shade of a large gable wall. From the two drills furthest from the wall, i.e. experiencing the best/worst of the summer weather/drought, I got barely enough to fill the two crates back left and centre, and they were mostly marbles ; from the two drills closes to the wall, though, I had more enough to more than fill the three crates at the front, and there's a fair few half-kilo monsters in there too!



Quite a lot of slug damage at one end of each drill, though not as bad as what's happening over where my winter greens are supposed to be growing. Almost all of my spinach has disappeared after a very satisfying germination rate. :mad: The silver lining on that particular cloud was finding (and not accidentally killing :pac: ) a fat and beautiful fire salamander. I hope he (or she) was wide awake and feasting on the slugs and not trying to hibernate!

RebelButtMunch

My Jeruaslam artichokes are finished for the year. I had a bit of a funny year, where I just to dump a bag of them into the ground to keep them. Nice and tall anyway

Got delivery of my walking onions today

gozunda

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Got delivery of my walking onions today

Make sure they don't get away

yellowlabrador

Are any of you worried about the brexit situation? If no deal is made, we won't be able to buy imported uk seeds. I've checked the websites but most haven't got any stock on offer and there aren't many Irish seed suppliers. the only one I know opf is Brown envelope seeds in Bantry .

yellowlabrador

yellowlabrador wrote: »

Are any of you worried about the brexit situation? If no deal is made, we won't be able to buy imported uk seeds. I've checked the websites but most haven't got any stock on offer and there aren't many Irish seed suppliers. the only one I know opf is Brown envelope seeds in Bantry .

Bought seeds last month from premier seeds direct and tamar organic.

yellowlabrador

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Bought seeds last month from premier seeds direct and tamar organic.

Thanks for premier seeds direct. I've just put my order in. Lovely variety and choice. I can look forward to spring now.

CelticRambler

Somewhat "after the fact" when talking about plans, but yesterday I picked the last of my 2020 jalapeño chilis and pulled the last of my carrots (a late sowing). A bit of a topsy-turvy end to the year, as I was really not expecting to be picking outdoor-grown chilis on Christmas Day ... but I left the carrots in the ground too long and they were devasted by slugs :mad: so I have four (4!) small ones left to get me through the winter.

As a small compensation, where the slugs had also massacred my feuille de chêne lettuce a few weeks ago, a new control technique (for me) seems to have persuaded them to look elsewhere for their leafy greens. First, I waved my Lidl flamethrower over a 20cm perimeter around the line of plants, did a bit of gentle hoe-ing, then flamed it again. After that, took three trays of ash from my woodburning stove and heaped it (emphasis on the heap) on all four sides of the bed, not being too careful to avoid getting ash on what was left of the lettuce either. A couple of weeks' worth of rain has washed the ash off the leaves, but the heaps are still in place and the plants are doing really well now.

SpacialNeeds

We have a new lawn with one very sunny corner since recently. It's ours to do with what we wish and I was thinking of putting in beds in the sunny section there, with a view to constructing a permanent glass house.

I'm a bit overwhelmed and don't really know where to begin with the lawn or planting in general right now!

Slightly Kwackers

Deleted User wrote: »

Chiili's already planted indoors.

On the cards:

-potatoes
-onions

If I get my hydroponics set up going - lettuce.

I had a go at chillies last year, I grew from seed in the window and most were what you would call "leggy" I suppose.


None survived planting out, all frost was gone, and the days were sunny, but I guess the wind was too much.


I bought some seed and saved some from an Aldi extra hot range.



Have you any suggestions as to how to improve my chances?


I have grow lights Ebay LED types from around 5 to 90W. They are not really that effective though.


Regards


SK