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This week in your Kitchen Garden.

contadino said:
You won't go far wrong with this.

www.wilko.com

Buy Plant Food | Multi-Purpose Fertilisers | wilko.com

Grow your plants to be strong and healthy with our speciality plant food and fertilisers. Choose from wilko own or leading brands for all your plant needs.
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If I don't know what feeding regime works, I feed with this once or twice a week and it hasn't failed yet. Edibles, obvs. Gromore for ornamentals.
Click to expand...
Thanks - I'm going to do a big shop at Wilko later in the week and I'll needs some of that for my tomatoes anyway :)
 
Epsom salts, a handful diluted in a watering can, makes a highly effective feed for outdoor tomatoes.

I grow climbing french beans up wigwams in two big pots (not runners or broad beans), and Im not sure I’ve ever fed them. Add an inch of new multipurpose compost and they always crop well enough to freeze enough for at least the next 9 months. I let enough pods dry on the plants at the end of the season so I have beans to plant in May and don’t have to buy any more.

Enjoying purple sprouting before it bolts, the kale is just beginning to flower. Brassicas are worth waiting for!
 
Boudicca said:
Tomato update. I nursed my 100 plants from one Waitorse tomato well, have planted 12 in my tomato pond (pond filled in with soil) and am in the process of giving the rest away 4 at a time. I hope they do actually produce tomatoes...

View attachment 322854
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Wow that is a splendid job of seed saving. They should do ( produce tomatoes) although they may or not be exactly the same type as the original. Taste/size etc compared to the parent will depend on where and how they are grown
 
So how do Urban's veggie people people think I should arrange my peas and potatoes at the shadier end of my garden ?
I have reserved the sunnier end for squash and courgettes ...
I have successfully grown beans in that location on the south fence before, but the rest is new territory for me.

N-S or W-E ??

I suppose the spuds might tolerate a bit more shade than the peas ?

thanks ...

beanslocation.2jpg.jpg
 
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Squash benefit from a bit of sun in order to ripen, particularly if we have a crap summer, but the rest will be fine in semi shade. Those rows aren't really long enough to make much of a difference anyway.
 
Artaxerxes said:
Ah Pak choi, or as I call it Slug crack.

Seriously given up on green veg at this point. Not without sentry guns and tripwires
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In my present garden, I'm only going to plant kale and PS broccoli in the ground.
I've started some pak choi seedlings and hope soon to be growing it in my two different hydroponic systems - not least because they're both off the ground - one of them 8 feet !
 
Artaxerxes said:
Ah Pak choi, or as I call it Slug crack.

Seriously given up on green veg at this point. Not without sentry guns and tripwires
Click to expand...
It’s been so dry here that I haven’t seen too many slugs. I think that’s why there wasn’t much damage to the Pak Choi. It possibly helps that they’re planted in Slow Worm central too!

My brassica seedlings in the mini greenhouse on the other hand seem to be a magnet for the snails.
 
Leafster said:
It’s been so dry here that I haven’t seen too many slugs. I think that’s why there wasn’t much damage to the Pak Choi. It possibly helps that they’re planted in Slow Worm central too!

My brassica seedlings in the mini greenhouse on the other hand seem to be a magnet for the snails.
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Mine were getting battered by slugs in the cold frame, but have been fine since I planted them out. I limed the bed they're in heavily - not sure if that's made a difference...
 
Anyone grown multi-headed cauliflowers? As it's just me, I thought having more smaller cauliflowers would make more sense.

However, I'm not sure how they are supposed to grow. I assumed the plants would get a reasonable size and then start producing the heads but that doesn't seem to be the case with mine.

IMG_0746[1].jpg

Is this normal? :confused:
 
No idea I'm afraid Leafster, I think brassicas in general tend to be a bit unpredictable and start producing heads whenever the hell they feel like it though.

Strawberries have been loving the weather here, I probably ate twice as this and I could've picked ten times this amount if I had time.
IMG_20220616_181105.jpg
 
Since I'm trying to grow lettuce, I thought I'd better try some.
I don't usually bother because of the price vs nutrient content compared with (cooked) kale... and my usual salad is sprouted alfalfa, mung etc ..
So I bought some Little Gems and mixed it with half a bag of Italian salad.
I rather liked it ... though it was helped by the addition of balsamic dressing ...
For the fun of it I'm hoping to triple my hydroponic real estate so I can grow afford to grow more than just "cut and come again"

I see traditional English butterhead lettuce is very expensive in the shops compared to iceberg ..
I grew up in a suburban household where I swear I remember my parents sprinkling salt on peanut butter sandwiches and butterhead lettuce ...

I also want to put some in my pretend allotment - since my pea and carrot bed is suitably remote from any slug activity - though dense rows of "salad bowl" are attractive too ...
 
Currently in my Direct Seeds basket ...
What does the team think for the full lettuce experience ?
My thinking is that most of this is for me - one person and I would sooner eat a whole lettuce in one session.

lettiicces.png
 
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Re lettuce I grow two types: all the year round is a butterhead type that I've found to be really reliable, and lollo Rosso because mixed into a bowl of salad adds a taste and colour mix.

Cicoria: I grow Rosso di Verona but it's too early to sow them yet. 2nd half of August, and they grow thru the winter. They need frost to develop their flavour. I used to grow white cicoria in summer but it's not too different from spinach enough to merit the effort. In fact I read that perpetual spinach (which is what I grow) is actually a cicoria...
 
gentlegreen said:
I bet there are a few things you struggle to grow though ?
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Yes , soon learnt that there is a reason that some of the veg and fruit we grow in the UK doesn't do well here. I've got very sandy soil as I had to have a veg garden built. The soil normally here is very clay like and almost red. Very difficult grow anything July/ August and most September cos of the heat and water is relatively expensive here . Runner beans -the flowers don't set , any size but small parsnips because they need a long season , same with Brussels sprouts . Spuds do ok but need lots of mulching. Seasons are very different so the most productive time of the year is Nov-May tbh .

plus side I've grown melons , mangos, oranges and lemons etc
 
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