We only get to the plot, which was very overgrown when we got it in February, about once a fortnight. So we have nothing like the successes that most of you have. And it's an open plot, no greenhouse, tunnel or shed (and no room for these at home either).
However, as our first year of growing veg properly (cos a pyramid of peas in a tub and a hanging basket of cherry toms for the past 3 years, doesn't really count), we've had:
Onions - red and yellow sets - most grew well, some red bolted but almost all usable in some form. Will feed ourselves on these until at least Xmas I reckon.
Garlic - have about 40 cloves, some very small which will be resown in about a month and lots of lovely large ones which will feed us hopefully til next late spring.
Potatoes - only did earlies, and 1 small bag of seed, but didn't get blighted and had maybe 3 supermarket bags of a harvest which were gorgeous.
Peas - earlier I would have said only the ones in the garden tub did well (and they did very well this year), but my 2nd and 3rd sowings on the plot are producing now - a handful of pods every week/2 for the past month. The garden gave us 6/7 meals worth and lots of toddler meals seperately.
Mangetout - some of these grew into proper peas (lack of regular harvesting), and only a few plants survived the pigeons and slugs (quite similar to the peas really), but getting a handful on every visit since July.
Brocolli - a great success - a fair bit went over, but have 9 meal sized bags in the freezer and have had it for probably 15-20 meals.
cabbage - rain-induced rot and slugs got a few, but we've had 5/6 nice ones and a final one yet to harvest.
Cauliflower - had 2 and there are 3 more coming along (out of 6 plants planted).
Lots of spring onions and lettuce - eating it almost every week since early July.
Radishes - grew wonderfully, but OH had planted them and then didn't know what to do with them, so they mostly bolted and were composted (I am not a radish eater).
Carrots and beans - sown late July - are coming along, as are a last sowing of peas. (Lettuce never came up from that lot).
Loads of tomatoes from our compost spreading in the back garden - will have a couple of pounds of green uns in the next week or 2 (and have to pull then cos builders coming in to build on that bed).
Hanging basket with 3 plants of cherry toms did WONDERFUL - we have been eating them non-stop for the past month.
French beans gave us a handfull for various stir fries regularly for over a month.
Parsley - thriving on the plot so harvesting all summer (lots of lovely bacon and cabbage with parsley sauce) and have a couple of bags in the freezer as well.
Failures - lots of peas came up but got eaten by slugs. Lots of lettuce and cabbage got attacked too. And my courgette plants - all 4 of them that had grown! And a lot of the seeds I sowed either never germinated or died an early death. And forgot to sow lots of seeds I had bought - lack of space cleared and lack of time to do it.
Next year I hope to:
Have the entire space on my plot available for planting.
Have a bit more time to spend there - no college and study, and also that the toddler will be less demanding (that may be a vain hope though!).
Plant more - both quantity and variety of veg - and visit it more regularly.
Definitely plant more spuds.
Do more manuring.
Do more protecting.
Also, should have added that while we didn't get huge quantities of any one thing in particular (most less than I would have liked), we did get a reasonable variety of produce, so we were able to make lots of stirfries (which is how we do a lot of veg anyway) using mainly our own produce. And I have been eating lovely homegrown salads at work all summer, when I usually can't abide buying lettuce and using that (flavour thing). and the toddler has been eating a fairly good variety of homegrown stuff, not only nicely cooked, but lots of it raw as it's being picked. She had unfortunately figured out where peas came from reasonably early so the harvest from the tub was more sporadic than expected (I'd catch her with a few pods in her hands!), but luckily the cherry toms were so high she had to ask to be lifted for those (only about 8-10 a night went into her as part of her tea!!!).
Last edited by Winged one; 13-09-2007 at 01:54 PM.
Reason: Forgot to add...
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