Anyone going to bother with growing veg this year?

I have grown various vegetables in the past in the greenhouse. A few years ago I bought three grape vines. Last year we had 40 bunches of grapes. Extremely easy to grow and we live in the North West it was quite a surprise for my friends when they realised I had grown them. Very little care required too.

I only started growing veg a few years ago and had a load of courgettes, so many that I had to make courgette fritters and freeze them, but the past 3 years I’ve have no joy with courgettes at all, so I’m not going to bother this year. I always grow runner beans, they are my favourite and so easy to grow and get a good crop. I’m going to try to grow some brassicas Again this year as I’ve not had much success in the past. Last year I got a really good crop of potatoes from some supermarket potatoes that had started to sprout.

We have an allotment and will definitely grow veggies. Who knows post Brexit what shortages will come up later. Tomatoes suffered as did most last year but they are SO tasty, not to mention cheaper. Also you know what they have been sprayed with - now we are out of the EU growers can use stuff previously restricted on food safety grounds.

It's a very peaceful pastime, pottering about amongst plants.

I've often gone out late on a starry night just to admire my few little successful grows.

Considering there is possibly going to have a lot of shortages and home grown veg not only tastes better but can save you money, I can't think of a reason why not to!

I always grow tomatoes from seed in the greenhouse and they give us enough through to September. I grow French beans, onions, courgettes, beetroot, squash and carrots. Just a small plot but I rotate crops every year and cram it all in (like you are not meant to!). I always take all the lower leaves off my tomato plants as they grow and I think that helps to keep the leaves dry and stop the mould.
Gardening is my little headspace time for me.

Everyone to their own pleasures though I think the famous gardener Gertrude Jekyll said 'vegetables are what other people grow for us'!

I’m increasing the range of veg I grow this year. The high level of inflation and paltry (by comparison) rise in pensions is a big motivator!

Forgot the sweet peppers and the hot peppers , but they were so hot I’m not doing them again !

We had so much fun and tasty tomatoes and cucumbers from my plastic greenhouse that we are investing in a pollycarbon full sized greenhouse , it’s on order and I am looking forward to using it
Outside we grew sugar snap peas , cut and come again salad leaves and carrots , spring onions and courgettes , so trying again this year

The greenhouse is my bolt hole and place of peace.
We have invested money into a Quadgrow system for the tomatoes (6 different kinds) so some will be in the greenhouse and some will take their chances in pots outside. I also have chillies and peppers, courgettes and salad crops in planters and, because my digging days are over, potatoes in sacks.
We collect free soil conditioner from the council which we mix with fresh compost and spoilt compost, if suitable.
We have probably spent far more on the Quadgrow and Haxnicks sacks than the cost of veg, but over the course of the next few summers, health permitting, the cost will repay itself.
I also have strawbs from our runners, blackcurrants, apples and pears.
While hub recovers from cancer surgery, it's nice to be out in the garden, yet accessible if he needs me.

Well, if anyone knows of an earwig repellant I'd be most grateful.
They are so hard to repel.

moonlight runner beans are self setting and gorgeous, I always used to sprout on damp kitchen roll, then pop into rootrainers to grow on.

Talking about outdoor grown tomatoes. Tomatoes do best with their lower leaves taken off and planting as deep as possible, roots grow from their stems. Later in the year, take off any shading leaves, so the tomatoes ripen. If it is constantly damp and drizzly outside then I take off all the lower leaves. I use halos as it makes watering more consistent

Potatoes, the charlottes that I grow in a 1 x 1 m bed. Rather than digging them all out at once, I leave them for months in the soil but I cut the haulms off when the tubers are big enough, that also prevents blight. The soil in my 6" raised bed is well drained

I gave up on chard and spinach because of the bolting in heat

Tight red drumhead cabbages are the best for not being attacked by caterpillars but I stopped growing tham as one is far too big for me. My purple sprouting and my one brussels plant will be under a net over a 1x1 bed with radish and lettuces underplanted. I used to go and squish the yellow butterfly eggs, not any more.

I grow shallots from shallots I first planted donkeys years ago, I think they were called jermor and are a decent size. I put mine in the ground early november, they will be ready in june and I quickly follow with, carrots and beetroot.

I’m really far more interested in growing flowers, but I do grow some vegetables. I like things I can freeze, so dwarf beans, chillis, potatoes (which I cook and mash, then freeze and reheat), tomatoes and herbs. I grow loads of fruit too, and get apples, plums and damsons from my dad’s allotment. I grow lettuce all year round. I’m giving chard a try this year as well, the seeds are in. Never any success with carrots.

Jaxjacky

Apologies Oldnproud some people think it does. I’m fortunate I have a greenhouse now, so tomatoes are grown in there with halo rings in grow bags.

No apology needed

Oldnproud

A general question here: Doesn't it work out really, really expensive to grow everything in containers?

It's because of the cost of compost that I am going to grow even my tomatoes semi-direct (as described in one of my posts upthread) in the soil this year.

That said, I do understand that if one's main reason for growing produce is for freshness, rather than economy, the cost might be unimportant.

Well I must admit it was a bit eye watering when we first bought everything, but we only now top up the compost with garden compost and FBB. Works well.

I ve just put two rows of potatoes in and two rows of shallots and a row of parsnips, next weekend courgettes, onions , peas and beans

We are.

I have apple, peach & plum trees, blueberry & gooseberry bushes & a small strawberry bed as well as two herb beds.
I am having a rest from potatoes, beans, brocoli, chard, leeks, onions & courgettes& salad crops this year. Will have a few tomatoes in pots. I am going to use my veg beds as cut flower beds this year..just for a change!

Apologies Oldnproud some people think it does. I’m fortunate I have a greenhouse now, so tomatoes are grown in there with halo rings in grow bags.

Jaxjacky

Blight doesn’t live in the soil Oldnproud I’ve reused soil/compost/grow bags for over 20 years, no problem.

No, I wasn't suggesting it does, but in the past when I tried growing tomatoes directly in the soil on my allotment, I found that they went down with blight very quickly. Any heavy rain was bouncing back up onto their leaves, so they were wet more often and for far longer than those plants that were in pots. That, I think, is what made them much more prone to blight than those plants in pots, whose leaves were not getting the splash-back.

Fuschia jam in a pretty jar would make a lovely present, wouldn't it?
I am hoping to be able to make some passionflower tea at some point.

I nearly always regrow the tops of things.
It's very satisfying eating the same lettuce twice.

My pots have really been neglected, so I had thought I would do away with them all.

We'll see.

Onions, onions and more onions! These are my most successful crop because they don't have any predators.

I also grew leeks for the first time last year and was very impressed by them, I still have one meal's worth left in the veg garden. No other b8gger seems to eat them, either!

Runner beans and courgette do quite well, too.

Apart from that my success with veg is patchy. It's a constant battle between me and the wildlife that like eating them. Did you know that rats absolutely adore carrots and will dig them up to eat them ? (and the ones the rats leave are riddled with carrot fly grubs...)

So my veg gardening really doesn't make us self sufficient or save us money, but I enjoy doing it.

I think gardening can be expensive, or relatively cheap, depending on how you choose to do it.

My best potato crops were grown in shopping bags.
A drop of wee contains nitrogen (I think) which is good for composting.
Solar lights threaded into the ivy round my door, at 99p a set.

I'd ideally love to be almost self sufficient, but it isn't going to happen in my few pots, with no land, so I'm just a dabbler.