This week in your Kitchen Garden.

[RubyToogood]

Also, I've got some small pumpkins growing and they're sprawling all over the place. I'm not sure I've ever successfully managed to persuade them to grow up a support, any tips?

 

[campanula]

I am growing mine up a sort of hazel frame. A cobbled together A frame with all the old poles from last years coppicing and quite a lot of peasticks.I do have quite a lot of horizontals to loop the squash over, then I plop them in little hammocks made out of whatever comes to hand, but mostly those netty bags you buy lemons in and, a bit luridly, old pairs of tights. I do only have the smaller hokkaido squash like Uchiki Kuri and not walloping great Crown Prince, but so far, the trailing vines are OK with being lifted off the ground and tied in, RubyToogood

iona - I was wondering if you calculate how much you are going to need for each crop or do you simply use whatever space available. I am very vague indeed about everything apart from potatoes, where I have a sort of rule of thumb. Roughly, I expect at least 2 dinners for each seed potato and in a good year, 3 or even 4. So, allowing for spuds at least 3 times a week, I need to plant at the very least, 50-60 seed potatoes. They are certainly the only crop which gets the benefit of a hose and even in this horrible drought year, I am getting at least 3 dinners (for 2) out of each Kestrel (some of them are enormous). Tbf, I do possess the ideal mythical fast draining soil, enriched with all my trove of annual compost and vasty amounts of irrigation,
The pink fir, however, are roughly in line with your bulb-planting efforts, barely managing 1 dinner per potato...but I do only grow them as a sort of extra fillip to the main course which are always Kestrel but I have used other varieties from the same stable (Jack Dunnet's)- such as Osprey or Catriona). Big fan of second earlies.

 

[gentlegreen]

One of my courgettes is oozing from a few leaf stems ...

Any tips for dealing with mildew apart from watering ?
Due to iona mentioning it, I will be deploying two litre plastic bottles on the canes I was planning to put in beside each of my 13 plants so I can work out where to water - something I should have done to start with ... I'm thinking of making the cane a moderately tight fit in the tops and cutting the bottoms off to pour water into ...
I doubt any of the drippers are still working ...

I harvested one of my "mini spaghetti squashes" to see if it was a mislabelled "Little Gem" and it does appear to be turning yellow underneath ... I'll see what it looks like inside later...

When it stops drizzling, I suspect I will harvest all my peas since there are no more flowers and teeny caterpillars are everywhere ...
"Hurst Green Shaft" beat "Kelvedon Wonder" hands-down - both in terms of yield and sweetness.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm thinking of resorting to fungicide for my mildew - though with no rain in prospect I will be going to town with improving the watering.
Losing my squash patch would leave a sad 12 square metre hole in my garden - though I suppose I could plant late spuds or something ...

I put in six 2 litre bottle funnels on canes with shiny flags to aim at by each of the main producers - courgettes and pattypans and got a decent amount of water down their necks.

The sprawlers are more challenging to locate - I note that the winter squash puts down roots at nodes ...
I will give them an indiscriminate hosing this evening ...

 

[iona]

Had the first mulberries, blackberries, apples and pears this week. I fucking love this time of year.

 

[iona]

I'm going to have to do something about the codling moth next year. They are all like this. Ignoring it and letting nature take its course is not working

I just eat them but that probably doesn't help much? Pheromone traps are better for monitoring than actual prevention iirc - I think the exact phrase used on an orchard maintenance course I went on was "massive gay orgy" (of confused male coddling moths) - and spraying is generally only done over larger areas.

@iona - I was wondering if you calculate how much you are going to need for each crop or do you simply use whatever space available.

I do careful planning then shove random amounts of stuff in wherever there's space at whatever time I get round to planting it... Kinda given up trying to feed other people, it's technically my mum's allotment but she just buys supermarket veg and leaves whatever I give her to rot in the fridge so next year I'm going to grow fewer things and focus on stuff that's low effort and that I can either eat huge amounts of (peas and broad beans!) or that will keep fairly well (spuds, garlic), plus rows of chard since that thrives on the plot with barely any input and I know somewhere that will buy surplus if I can produce enough.

 

[contadino]

I do careful planning then shove random amounts of stuff in wherever there's space at whatever I get round to planting it...

I did exactly that this year. I weighed each seed potato from last year and it's yield, then calculated how many kilos I wanted to grow and ordered the number of grams of seed plus 25% contingency. They sent nearly a kilo of extra, which I just bunged in the ground because otherwise it'd be for the compost. Some went in buckets, others in the soft fruit area - wherever there was space. The thing is you'll easily find a home for excess new potatoes.

I just wish that for once I could stick to my plan.

 

[iona]

A winter wash might help reduce next year's codling moth population RubyToogood but if there's other affected trees growing nearby there's nothing to stop them flying in from elsewhere. You can use the traps to work out when's the best time to spray if you don't mind going the full chemical warfare route.

 

[RubyToogood]

A winter wash might help reduce next year's codling moth population RubyToogood but if there's other affected trees growing nearby there's nothing to stop them flying in from elsewhere. You can use the traps to work out when's the best time to spray if you don't mind going the full chemical warfare route.

I've been thinking actually that my habit of leaving solar lights in the trees all year round, whilst pretty, may be to blame as apparently they are like all moths in that respect.

 

[iona]

I've been thinking actually that my habit of leaving solar lights in the trees all year round, whilst pretty, may be to blame as apparently they are like all moths in that respect.

Yeah, I picked so many apples from unsprayed orchards last year that I ended up with adult codling moths hatching in my flat this spring Getting them to fly towards a light was usually the easiest way to evict them.

 

[iona]

I did exactly that this year. I weighed each seed potato from last year and it's yield, then calculated how many kilos I wanted to grow and ordered the number of grams of seed plus 25% contingency. They sent nearly a kilo of extra, which I just bunged in the ground because otherwise it'd be for the compost. Some went in buckets, others in the soft fruit area - wherever there was space. The thing is you'll easily find a home for excess new potatoes.

I just wish that for once I could stick to my plan.

I chucked a load of last year's mankiest leftover spuds in the compost heap and they've grown really well (less said about the permanent colony of volunteers in my soft fruit area the better )

 

[iona]

Does anyone else do the exhibition veg thing or am I the only weirdo into that? (Just local village shows, I'm not growing ridiculous onions the size of footballs that taste of nothing)

 

[The39thStep]

These small melons have been very tasty also have an incredible aromatic smell

 

[iona]

Mulberry murderhands

 

[iona]

These small melons have been very tasty also have an incredible aromatic smell

View attachment 336965

I've just taken on a new gardening customer with a massive glasshouse that they're happy for me to plant stuff in. Definitely going to try growing melons in there next year.

 

[Ron Merlin]

Today's bounty. Cherry Belle radishes and Sungold toms

 

[stdP]

Slightly crappy picture I'm afraid, but I'm pulling about this many tomatoes a day from the two plants my partner put in fabric planters.



They're not in a greenhouse but get a fair amount of sun in the day and as such they're hoovering up water like nobody's business (but I've been using greywater left over from the washing up so no waste there) and many of them appear to go from "getting there" to "ripe" in less than a day.

This is the about the seventeenth time we've tried to grow basil - and for once it's doing spectacularly well in a box on the windowsill (although our cat was none too pleased about losing one of her spots initially). It only gets sun until midday or so but that doesn't seem to have stunted it any; it's also wants a healthy drink at least once a day.



I'm just back from our local italian deli with some proper buffalo mozarella and we'll be having us an excellent salad this evening.

 

[RubyToogood]

I'm having a harvest day. Chopping and stewing apples, blanching runner beans and making tomato sauce to freeze them in.

Also need to tackle the courgette mountain and make individual lasagnes with them but that's probably not going to happen today.

 

[campanula]

Woe and dread: steeling myself for an allotment day after 2 weeks of neglect. Well, actually, more like 2 months. The only crops are potatoes, leeks, squash, courgettes and spring onions but all the late summer flowers will be a horrible dried out mess of crispy foliage while the roses have exploded with their major growth phase of the season. In my imagination, this is going to be bloody. Sweetheart is driving me there - the theft of my bike definitely made a dent in the regularity of my visits but I can haul a shitload of supplies on the truck, including my knapsack sprayer and some vicious herbicide to see off the swathes of bindweed which surrounds my embattled plots. Plus more tea and milk. I have a couple of largish areas to clear, ready for the great transplanting (ridding myself of the numerous pots in my garden).

I bloody hate this design-y part of gardening. Deciding what goes where and attempting to think ahead. At this point, I have no plans or strategies at all, apart from a huge trove of seeds and an urge to rip it all apart and start over. I am going to take my camera to record the dreadful chaos. Something will surely emerge from the mess, one spadeful at a time.

 

[BoatieBird]

Good luck campanula!

 

[RubyToogood]

What veg can I grow other than courgettes and runner beans? My diet is a bit samey in summer. They are the things that really crop well for me which is why I always grow them.

The garden is small, faces east and the buildings are tall so I don't get sun after lunchtime. I had another go at tomatoes this year and have only had a few. I can and do grow rocket but any other leafy veg gets grazed off by slugs, and root veg don't grow well for me, plus they take up a lot of space for what you get back.

I might have another go at French beans for variety. Peas I found not worth the bother. Other squashes generally do ok.

 

[iona]

What veg can I grow other than courgettes and runner beans? My diet is a bit samey in summer. They are the things that really crop well for me which is why I always grow them.

The garden is small, faces east and the buildings are tall so I don't get sun after lunchtime. I had another go at tomatoes this year and have only had a few. I can and do grow rocket but any other leafy veg gets grazed off by slugs, and root veg don't grow well for me, plus they take up a lot of space for what you get back.

I might have another go at French beans for variety. Peas I found not worth the bother. Other squashes generally do ok.

Radishes don't take up much space and they don't need as much time or soil depth as other root veg. I find slugs will leave other stuff alone if it's planted alongside pak choi, and they aren't that interested in some greens like land cress. Purslane does ok too. Rainbow chard or the variety sold as "perpetual spinach" are both too vigorous for slugs to have much of an impact ime. Spring-sown brassicas can be picked from summer onwards. I think you do potatoes already? The indoor tomatoes I grow normally don't do well with the extra light if you grow them outside, but they might cope with just a bit of morning sun if you want some seed to try next year.

 

[RubyToogood]

Radishes don't take up much space and they don't need as much time or soil depth as other root veg. I find slugs will leave other stuff alone if it's planted alongside pak choi, and they aren't that interested in some greens like land cress. Purslane does ok too. Rainbow chard or the variety sold as "perpetual spinach" are both too vigorous for slugs to have much of an impact ime. Spring-sown brassicas can be picked from summer onwards. I think you do potatoes already? The indoor tomatoes I grow normally don't do well with the extra light if you grow them outside, but they might cope with just a bit of morning sun if you want some seed to try next year.

Rainbow chard could work. I've grown purslane before in a container but I find that anything fiddly like that doesn't work in my soil. Brassicas - I had surprising success with some purple sprouting broccoli plugs I bought from the garden centre in autumn year before last but I don't know what kind they were and didn't see them again last year. Otherwise I've never found brassicas did well either - they take too long and get munched by cabbage whites while they're about it.

It's very much a mixed planting scheme where I'm squeezing veg into gaps between the fruit/herbs/other plants. I only have two small beds dedicated to veg alone. Once the runner beans and courgettes are done, I could turn one of them into a poly tunnel with the addition of a couple of wall brackets and some plastic sheeting

 

[iona]

Brassicas - I had surprising success with some purple sprouting broccoli plugs I bought from the garden centre in autumn year before last but I don't know what kind they were and didn't see them again last year. Otherwise I've never found brassicas did well either - they take too long and get munched by cabbage whites while they're about it.

Have you tried kale? Brassicas don't do great on my allotment either but kale does much better than anything else, and doesn't take nearly as long as stuff like broccoli and cabbage - you can start cutting them as baby leaves if you sow or plant quite densely. Generally do need to net them against butterflies and pigeons though.

 

[iona]

Spring onions can be poked into little gaps wherever you have them. Garlic too.

 

[RubyToogood]

iona what variety are the indoor tomatoes you grow?

I had visions of growing enough tomatoes for pasta sauce and whatnot but it's really just been a very slow trickle of mostly gardener's delight. The plum and beefsteak tomatoes haven't done brilliantly at all.

Meanwhile, bumper grape harvest.

 

[contadino]

I've got cima di rapa growing now. The cicoria rosso di Verona are getting battered by pigeons so this year timing was right but should've netted them.

 

[iona]

@iona what variety are the indoor tomatoes you grow?

Real Seeds sells them as something like house tomato / russian house tomato iirc. I can send you some seeds if you want.

 

[The39thStep]

Just bought :
12 broccoli plants
12 Savoy cabbage plants
12 beetroot plants
12 Portuguese cabbage plants (thick white stems no heart type)
6 Asturias cabbage plants ( the tall kale you pick the leaves for caldo verde)
12 leek plants
A pot of mint
A pot of celery
A pot of parsley
For 11 euros 50 cents

 

[stdP]

Today was the final harvest of the indoor basil -it's done so well this year that we're going to try and keep a couple alive for next year, but this is about 10% of the entire crop:


Some of it we're drying out, some of it's being kept in oil, the rest we're making a big load of pesto this evening (going by quantity, about half a litre's worth :O)