This week in your Kitchen Garden.
- Thread starter Mrs Magpie
- Start date
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Did anyone else have particular trouble with tomato blight this year? It really hampered efforts at kitchen gardening this year for us
I’ve pretty much given up on tomatoes after too many years of watching them flourish in June and July only to have a soggy August ruin the lot. I’ve switched to tomatillos as they’re a lot hardier but might go back to toms if I invest in a greenhouse at some point.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Starting to feel slightly intimidated by the tromboncini...
I'm playing chicken with them. Presumably I need to pick them before any frost but I'm not sure they'll really get any on a wall near the house. Apparently they go like butternut squash if they get really ripe. Not sure they will though.
There are also three (3) pears waiting for me to make a decision. (Josephine de Malines)
I'm playing chicken with them. Presumably I need to pick them before any frost but I'm not sure they'll really get any on a wall near the house. Apparently they go like butternut squash if they get really ripe. Not sure they will though.
There are also three (3) pears waiting for me to make a decision. (Josephine de Malines)
Last edited:
andysays
Love and solidarity
My barber was telling me all about his tromboncini when I visited him last week.
I've never encountered them before, so it's good to see a picture.
Have you grown them before? Are they worth growing?
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I hadn't grown them before and it was a desperate measure after all my carefully chosen varieties (I usually grow a white/Lebanese variety) got eaten by snails and these were what the garden centre had. So they had a bit of a late start and got off slowly but I've had a few in September and October. You can eat them at any stage really. As a courgette, they're ok but not my favourite variety. I haven't tried them as a mature squash (yet).
I think they are a slightly different strain than most courgettes and marrows which is perhaps why they survived (or maybe it was just drier by then).
I slightly wonder if the UK climate is really sunny and warm enough for them to mature fully.
Still lots of tomatoes in th greenhouse...but they do get tougher skins as they take ages to ripen. Getting a bit fed up with them and longing to start on the end of year greenhouse clear-up.
I am going to grow them in the greenhouse again next year. I had 8 of them, each in a huge 40litre pot...and had a lot more success with them, than the 20odd ones on the allotment. Managed to stave off late blight (cos blightwatch and copper sulphate) but they never really grew more than 5 foot or so, whereas the greenhouse ones were true vines, reaching the roof, then trained across the pitch on wires.
I am going to grow them in the greenhouse again next year. I had 8 of them, each in a huge 40litre pot...and had a lot more success with them, than the 20odd ones on the allotment. Managed to stave off late blight (cos blightwatch and copper sulphate) but they never really grew more than 5 foot or so, whereas the greenhouse ones were true vines, reaching the roof, then trained across the pitch on wires.
Last edited:
Leafster
.
I picked another three
tomatoes from the mini-greenhouse yesterday. You're right, the skins are tougher. However, these were from the two left over seedlings which didn't ever get potted up properly so I can't complain.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Spotted these Portuguese Kale plants in someone’s garden whilst out walking
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
First chilli seedlings of 2022 
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Is it time to start my tomatoes? I started them too early last year and lost over half to a very cold wind. I topped them up with some plants which others had grown from seeds from supermarket tomatoes. I got some really tasty ones from Waitrose and though I'd try and grow some plants from the seeds but they were indeed really tasty and I ate them all.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
I’ve managed to overwinter my cayenne chilli plant. Been mild enough it survived but with small leaves.
Never to early to plant but you need to keep temps about 15-20 degrees for them to germinate
Leafster
.
I've been growing a Tayberry (Buckingham) for the last couple of years. It took a year to establish although I did have fruit in the first year. Last year was much better. I'm sure I'd get better cropping from it if I actually looked after it better - I've just left it to look after itself more or less.Does anyone here grow any of the less common / hybrid berries (boysenberries, chokeberries, juneberries, wineberries etc)? Would appreciate a review if so please
It fruits on last year's "canes" so all I've done is pull the new ones to one side as they grow to provide as much light to last years. Then, after the old growth has fruited, I cut these off and tie in the new growth ready for next year.
Apparently they're happiest in full sun but cope with partial shade and prefer like slightly acidic soil. My soil is alkaline but it seems OK. I suspect it could do with more water when it's fruiting as the ground is very free draining.
I've posted these elsewhere but it's growing on the trellis in front of the shed so gets full sun all morning and earlier afternoon.
I'd say they taste more or less like raspberries but less acidic.
Leafster
.
I wanted something flat to grow up against the shed and it seemed to be a good choice. There are raspberries growing behind the Enviromesh cage but I need to put some posts and wires in to stop them spilling out over the path and to make it easier to pick them.Thanks Leafster, actually just ordered one of those for myself so glad to hear it sounds like I made a good choice.
Want to take advantage of my work forest garden to try other new things I don't have space for myself
I have aronia, saskatoons, some weird Nepalese rubus and something called variously fourberries or golden currant. iona For varying reasons, (deer, general neglect, fucking ages to produce anything), I have had less than stellar results. The most promising are the golden currents (ribes aureum) although this is year 6 from seed(!). The r.nepalensis has loads of stingy, hard to pick berries which I have just left for the birds (but is a very attractive plant, if a bit wild. Loganberries are a lot more prolific than Tayberries (and nicely trainable too)...although I am using my allotment neighbours sterling specimen of loganberry (I just have the puny tayberry). O yeah, I have something called a ribes speciosum but it is still small (has edible fruit though). Quite a few things do but I generally have to factor in the pick to glory effect. So although I don't love gooseberries or plums, I generally get the largest amount of usable produce for least amount of time...compared to the hours and hours hunched over redcurrants or goji berries.
Both ribes and rubus are a bit of a struggle in my dry, chalky/sandy plot, but I was driven to come up with alternatives to raspberries and blackcurrants cos of disease pressures (these are rubbish on a public allotment, I get 4 years at best from a plant before it succumbs to reversion/virus/blight cos I have slacker (organic,ffs!) neighbours. I am having another go round with grapes.
Both ribes and rubus are a bit of a struggle in my dry, chalky/sandy plot, but I was driven to come up with alternatives to raspberries and blackcurrants cos of disease pressures (these are rubbish on a public allotment, I get 4 years at best from a plant before it succumbs to reversion/virus/blight cos I have slacker (organic,ffs!) neighbours. I am having another go round with grapes.
Last edited:
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
In these troubled times I need some instant gratification so went old school - well Primary School really - and planted some cress on Monday. Today, the magic is working and I look forward to my egg and cress sarnie this Friday 
(Stand by for next week’s “growing a butter bean in a jam jar with wet blotting paper” experiment)
(Stand by for next week’s “growing a butter bean in a jam jar with wet blotting paper” experiment)
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
I bought some more and they have indeed sprouted. I don't know why I am so surprised that you can grow tomatoes from actual tomatoes. I very much doubt they will be as tasty as the Waitrose ones, but it's definitely more satisfying than buying a packet.
They don't cross that easily so they'll usually come true from seed unless they're a hybrid variety.
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Thanks, but I was more meaning that they won't be as nice because I probably won't look after them properly.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
iona I have/had a sunberry, which is a raspberry blackberry cross (not to be confused with the sunberry which is some kind of solanum). It was great - vigorous, low effort and delicious fruit, but a bit too big for where I'd put it so I moved it and it doesn't like the new spot really. Not sunny enough possibly.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
ION, I bought some Swift seed potatoes. According to the seed merchant's info harvest is May/June. Does that sound plausible? If so I could plant them where the courgettes and runner beans are going.
I bought some potato growing bags but they say to only plant 1 spud per bag so I'll have lots left over.
I bought some potato growing bags but they say to only plant 1 spud per bag so I'll have lots left over.
