Veggies you wish you could grow!

[sewer rat]

Most of what I wanna grow grows well enough but next year I wanna stay on top of my principal pests - rabbits and pheasants. They have trashed 280 brussels sprouts plants , munched all my celery and the pheasants have stripped a few of my Black Tuscan Kale plants and had a taste of my cauliflower curds, rendering them unsaleable.
The only veggies I have trouble with are Pak Choi (keeps bolting though the Chinese Cabbage is fine) and Florence Fennel ( though I think this could have been birdies attracted to the feathery foliage).
Having said that, most of what I am growing, I have grown before but next year I'm trying squashes for the first time, as well as JA's, so we'll see how they get on.

[raine]

I'd like to grow carrots but my soil is sooo stoney and i'd two lots of rhubarb die on me (have no idea why as the one in my garden crops beatifully every year!) This year I want to try raspberries and asparagus. Fingers crossed

[shirlthegirl43]

I'd like to grow carrots but my soil is sooo stoney

I don't have very deep soil so I fill 10litre flower buckets with seived garden soil and plant my carrots in those. I checked them yesterday and it looks like we have some nice sized carrots to go with Christmas dinner. Might be worth you trying to grow them that way.

[rustylady]

Nice one SBP, I wanted to put forward this question too but thought I'd be pushing my luck a bit, so thanks.

Okay my first choice of veggies I'd love to grow (yet uncertain of their success) are those seriously expensive to buy in stores.

Asparagus (> £2.50 per bunch)
Artichoke (£1.50 per bud)
Florence Fennel (£1.50 per bulb)
Baby Corn (fabulously expensive I believe)

Exotic Veggies
Okra! Okra! Okra!
Soya, Soya, Soya Beans!
Chayote/Cho Cho, Luffa, Bittergourd, Yard Long Beans, Hyacinth bean

I would have loved to continue exploring different varieties of:
Winter Squashes (they're just so adorable)
Heirloom Tomatoes (dangerous obsession)
Various Leafy Veggies (Chinese, Japanese, Spinach type, Salad leaves)
Various Lettuce (just plain crazy about different shapes, sizes & colours)

Soya Beans, my daughter has tried and failed. Okra - I think we're too cold in UK. Baby corn I tried last year - not worth the space in my opinion. The rest of the list you should be OK with. I just want next year to be warm enough to get decent results with my courgettes, tomatoes etc.

[veg4681]

The only veggies I have trouble with are Pak Choi (keeps bolting

but next year I'm trying squashes for the first time

My August sown Pak Choi have not bolted (presentable enough for shops ) compared to the ones sown in Summer so maybe they prefer cooler climate. But the birds are so hungry now that it's cold, they're going vegetarian over Pak Choi.

Soya Beans, my daughter has tried and failed. Okra - I think we're too cold in UK. Baby corn I tried last year - not worth the space in my opinion. The rest of the list you should be OK with. I just want next year to be warm enough to get decent results with my courgettes, tomatoes etc.

My soya beans weren't exactly a total failure even though the wet weather didn't help. They seemed promising, I could probably push it so will definitely give them a go again next year. Sorry the Okra was just a wishful thinking. Yeah I reckon the baby corn takes up a lot of space for such a little crop. I don't believe the weather next year will be as bad as this year...I mean where's the global warming in that ?

[kernowyon]

Baby corn I tried last year - not worth the space in my opinion.

we had a real success with this, about 6-8 baby corn per plant. i planted about 15 plants in a block about six inches apart. had enough to preserve a couple of jars as well.

[bubblewrap]

Swede!! I tried for two years they did not grow any bigger than a plum.
Other "roots" (Beetroot, Carrots & parsnips)did well!

[smallblueplanet]

How many varieties of FF have you tried to narrow down to Zefa Tardo as the best one. Mine's called Sirio.

Ummm, zefa fino (think it was) and one from seeds of italy - neither grew. Zefa tardo did. Not got round to trying them again since our failures though.

[Birdie Wife]

[QUOTE=sewer rat;153447]Most of what I wanna grow grows well enough but next year I wanna stay on top of my principal pests - rabbits and pheasants. They have trashed 280 brussels sprouts plants , munched all my celery and the pheasants have stripped a few of my Black Tuscan Kale plants and had a taste of my cauliflower curds, rendering them unsaleable.
QUOTE]

Eek, cauliflower cheese for you and the wife for the next four months then?!

I'd love to grow asparagus, juicy tomatoes (especially plum and beefsteak ones), cucumbers, winter squash, pears, plums, apples... vagrancies of the scottish weather and having no polytunnel really puts paid to those plans though. Mind you, my cabbages had not a single caterpillar on them this year, the butterflies just couldn't fly in the rotten weather we had all summer. Silver linings and all that...

[HeyWayne]

We had the few carrots I'd managed to grow (and that hadn't been munched by snails/slugs/carrotfly or whatever it was), and I wasd amazed at the taste (as were our guests). I'm hoping to have a better crop next year!

[silverfork]

Butternut squash! Supposedly easy, but I get flowers, and no fruit whatsoever. Someone has suggested it was male flowers only? I haven't tried on my allotment yet as it was my first season, and I noticed my neighbour had a decent crop, so fingers crossed for this year.
Okra... I wish. Strong plants in the greenhouse, beautiful flowers. As the fruit forms, they go brown and drop off. Not worth the space in my tiny greenhouse when you compare with super-productive chillies.