Veg Garden Harvest

At last we have started to reap some of the rewards in the fruit and veg garden. Although we are having a very poor year compared with previous seasons due to the very cold Spring, we are now starting to pick and eat some crops.

Our gooseberries have been a triumph this year with around 21lbs from four bushes. The rhubarb is doing well as usual, which we have at least once a week and with 5lbs already in the freezer. We have had lettuce and radish a plenty but no other salad stuff as yet. I am about to pick the first of the mange tout which we are having for lunch and some broad beans will hopefully be ready from next week(ish). I am picking blackcurrants every couple of days as they ripen but we've no strawberries ripened yet....

How are you all doing?

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

Things are doing well in my garden Barry but I've only had rhubarb out of it so far. I've stopped growing lettuce as I was growing it for the birds not ourselves.

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

Do you not net your veggies Alan. We net so the butterfly's don't lay their eggs on them. Caterpillar can wipe out a full lettuce in a day.

My Strawberries are dismal this year. Not good weather for veggies this year. Plenty of rain not enough sun.

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

I have had about 2lb from my young gooseberry bush ,
The black current bush has some fruit yet to ripen but I lost a branch and fruit in the wind and rain,
The 3 year old strawberries are covered in fruit ..all green
One of my sage bushes is dying, not sure why but disappointing because I dry a lot for use in the winter and the other bush is only tiny,
The rhubarb is miserable..

The garlic is a triumph and the bulbs thickening up nicely now
The tomato bush is looking good,
The runner beans have reached the top of the canes and I have taken the top growth shoot out. They are developing a nice lot of flowers

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

It's true about the strawberries that they're so late. We are usually scoffing them two weeks before Wimbledon but here we are in the middle of the first week and they are struggling to even turn pink. The irony is though that we are going to Dorset for a few days next week and we've asked our neighbour to water for us, in return for picking anything ripe at the time...

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

We've harvested our 1st Earlies - very low yield this year from our Rocket but some cheapo ones I got in Poundstretcher, just to try-out, produced 2 kilos from 6 seed potatoes that I took into work!

Our salad leaf bolted very early so we're just waiting for all the other salad stuff now - Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Spring Onions.
Red Onions are still doing OK - not great,just OK!

Can't be bothered with Lettuce or more Salad leaf now as the stuff we bought from Lidl is cut and come again and it's producing all we need at the moment!

Cabbages and Broccoli are coming on well and so is the Beetroot and I've just noticed the first ripening Strawberry!

Looking at the Tomatoes we might just have a good crop this year although we weren't exactly short last year! stevmk2

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

I've been picking strawberries for the past week and there's still loads

Waiting for the blueberries to ripen (so are the blackbirds )

Tomatoes and cucumbers are still growing in the greenhouse.

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

Its all new to me growing vegetables so a learning curb for me , i was late getting them in , but planted up some Butternut Squash plants , some potatoes , broad beans & runner beans ... but always grown Tomatoes in the green house for yrs ..

sounds like your all far more experienced than i am , so i hope to learn a lot from you all .

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

Mid July now and still mixed results in the veg garden, with the weather being so wet there doesn't seem to be enough insects to pollinate things such as my bush tomatoes and beans, so I'm running a brush over them and the runner and french bean flowers, to try to get them all to set..

I've cut down all of my summer fruiting raspberries, sacrificed the fruit and burnt the canes to prevent the spread of mildew to my autumn fruiting canes, which are looking OK at the moment and aren't due to fruit until September, so we stand a chance there if the sun ever decides to appear.

On the upside though we seem to have new spuds a plenty (International Kidney), and the loganberries and blackcurrants are still producing well. The blueberries are now starting to turn, and we could be looking at around 5lb from our four bushes, so we shouldn't totally starve over the winter...

How are your gardens progressing now?

Re: Veg Garden Harvest

I Have picked 2lb of fruit off my one blackcurrant bush,there are a few more to come,
The rhubarb is still misreable,
I am delighted with the garlic, 21 big plump heads, well worth growing,
Runner beans won't be a bumper crop , very sparse low down on the plants but I already have quite a few little beans and a couple 6 inches long
There are 6 tomatoes on my one plant so far.
The strawberry plants which I cut back to the crown a few weeks ago have already grown a good crop of leaves, I am hoping for some late fruit.