What have you learned this year ?

[Small pumpkin]

I have learned that my chilli obsession my be getting a little out of hand!
I have the winter to decide if I need to curb my enthusiasm or try to turn it into a business!

[Chris11]

Another growing season when too many different varieties was never enough

[rary]

Penellype, what are framberries, I have never heard of them and if they are nice can they be grown in a cold wet climate

[chris_m]

Penellype, what are framberries, I have never heard of them and if they are nice can they be grown in a cold wet climate

According to Marshall's website;

A new variety of strawberry; this fantastic new fruit has a taller habit than regular strawberry plants and fruit that has a hint of raspberry with strawberry combined. So enjoy the sweetness of strawberries with the fragrance of raspberry in one fruit!

https://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/fr...1-pid9897.html

I suspected it might be something to do with raspberries since "fram" is the start of the French for raspberry, framboise

[Penellype]

Penellype, what are framberries, I have never heard of them and if they are nice can they be grown in a cold wet climate

They are supposedly a cross between raspberry and strawberry, but the plants look very like strawberries. I bought 3 plants at the start of this year, one of which produced about 3 small fruit which looked like small round strawberries and were extremely tasty. The others produced copious numbers of runners, some of which I have potted up in the hope of getting more fruit next year.

As far as I am aware they are hardy like strawberries, although the flowers and fruit will need protecting from frost.

[Nannysally99]

I learned that we loved growing flowers as well as veg this year.
Container gardening worked well for veg and newly created flower beds went well
Sweetcorn look quite good at the end of the border

[no_akira]

They cross fertilise, Yellow beans had a tinge of green, The green and purple never really got going. Next year will do them in separate beds away from each other.

[Penellype]

They cross fertilise, Yellow beans had a tinge of green, The green and purple never really got going. Next year will do them in separate beds away from each other.

They will cross fertilize, but this won't affect the colour of the beans on the plants you are growing, only those that would grow from the seeds inside the pods. Yellow podded beans often have a tinge of green, especially if they are slightly shaded, by a leaf for instance.

[Philthy]

Not to bother again with tomatoes bigger than cherry types.

I've got room for a maximum six cordons in any one year; the amount of pickable fruit this year was just rubbish I did one plant of Black Russian (got x4 decent size specimens, and a handful of undersized things that refused to ripen). Roma which produced LOTS of foliage but very few flowers. Some others which I threw away the labels for, cropped okay I suppose but the texture wasn't especially pleasant, underwhelming. They were a brownish colour, I remember that much.
The only plant that did well was the single cherry that I grew; Rosella. Very nice tomato, pink'ish rose colour, bountiful trusses.

Anything bigger are just too hit and miss for me. Don't know why there should be such a distinct difference in performance given the varieties are grown side by side.
Anyway, I can't be bothered to figure it out now
For some reason Tomatoberry, Black Cherry, Sungold and the like.. they've always done well so guess I'll stick just with them in future.

[Penellype]

I find it hard to grow the larger tomatoes outdoors - there doesn't seem to be enough warmth and time for the larger fruit to ripen properly. Even my old faithful Shirley really struggles outdoors. The cherry varieties ripen faster and produce a lot more fruits per truss.

The only one I have found that has produced a decent quantity of larger fruit outside was Ferline, but 2 of the 3 plants I grew were pathetic, the 3rd, growing next to my hotbin, was bigger than the other 2 plus the 3 crimson crush I grew nearby all put together. I'm sure that the heat and the liquid that drips out of the bottom of the hotbin had a huge amount to do with this.

[Chestnut]

My first year on the plot, so have learned many lessons (sounds so much nicer than made lots of mistakes!)

Keep garden reference book in car, so I can look up stuff like planting distances when I am planting seedlings in the ground

Do digging a bit at a time, preferably in dry non frosty weather

Net brassica seedlings, as soon as they sprout if not before, to protect against butterflys

Grow more beetroot, now I know I don�t have to eat it pickled

Sow at least twice as much as I think I need, to allow for losses to the local wildlife, non germination etc

12 courgette plants between 2 people is a lot of courgettes to eat

[KevinM67]

I know I'm a bit like a 'broken record' with this, but - the benefits of seaweed.

I'm mulching all my beds with it over this winter and will further mulch most of my crops next spring with it.

It's great stuff !!!

[monkeyboy]

Plant toms earlier than June! Keep on top of the pruning.
Plan rather than be haphazard.

[damian1225]

Dont bother with peas they are lot of faff, its space I could have done something else with..

[KevinM67]

Dont bother with peas they are lot of faff, its space I could have done something else with..

I must admit, I was like that when I had the plot in the UK.

I grew them this year for the first time in years in the back garden and the kids couldn't get enough of them, but for some reason the couple of pigeons we normally get never touched them.