VEGETABLE GROWING 2020

@misterQ There is something I wished to ask you since I saw your post about early broadbeans.
My tomatoes' days are counted now, so I will soon remove them leaving my beds bare.
So for the first time I was thinking of using the beds in winter and spring for thinks like spinach (gigante d'inverno), pak choy and broadbeans (dulce claudia and similar).

If I understand correctly, last year you sowed the broadbeans in winter and they were all grown and productive in February and March, then you pulled them out and planted tomatoes and other varieties instead?

If that is the case, which period would you raccomend sowing them?
Also, do they deplete the soil a lot?
I mean, do they need blood and bones before/after sowing?
(The beds have been used for tomatoes, squashes, beans and quite a few other things, so they most definetely will need some replenishing I guess).
Thanks!

 

This is my last harvesting of tomatilloes and tomatoes for the year I think.
Most went into salsa verde, I hope it freezes well, and I will dehydrate the tomatoes.
The chilli are from the plants still outside, I think I will pick the best one and bring it indoor.

 

I also don't like to leave the plots bare over winter so I fill them up with what I consider to be catch crops like garlic, radish, Swiss chard, gai choy, spring onions and some times parsley.

I treat broad beans in much the same way.

This year was a bit different as we had an exceptionally warm spring but normally the tomatoes would have occupied the plot between May/June till the second week of October so if broad beans were to be sown direct then the seeds would have gone in around mid-September.

It is still not too late to plant broad beans now, however. Just germinate them indoors in small pots and transplant them outdoors in November.

I do not add fertiliser prior or subsequent to planting beans as there will be enough residual tomato feed in the soil to produce a good crop the following year.

There was an abundance of under sized leeks from the bucket challenges so the plot is currently occupied by leek transplants - which means no broad beans for me this autumn.

 

@misterQ Thanks! I will grow mine in pots then, and transplant whn ready, Nigel also mentioned he does the same with good results.
Also, I must have some spare garlic and spring onions I could try.

 

It is now many years since I grew veg etc with my Dad. Our plot was the size of a football pitch. We stuck to the ancient method of leaving one area free each year, rotation planting.
Come the fall. The main crop of potatos had been lifted and bagged and stored, any excess ended up clamped. So apart from perennial stuff, any fruit bushes etc, only some root cropes remained in situ. Winter cabbage, parsnips, turnips, swedes and mangols for the animals. This proved beneficial, as the ground was allowed to recuprate. Perhaps some compost as such was spread out and the winter would break it down.

 

Cabbage ‘Filderkraut’ I just harvested. After stripping off the outer leaves, the heart weighed in at around 3kg’s.

 

That's some cabbage!

 

As I’m tight for space, I only grew six, around 18” apart. If they had more space, say 3’, I imagine they would grow a lot bigger. I understand 10kg’s isn’t unusual.

 

Last tromboncini harvesting for the year.




The USA pumpkins (some seeds bought off a supermarket in LA) made for beautiful and sprawling plants, one was over 15 feet long, and endless edible flowers.
Which is good because aside of that they only made two pumpkins, and quite small too..
Still my wife turned one into an Halloween prop.



And shortly after into soup material
Actually it is more scary like that :D

 

@Freddy I had no idea they could grow that large!
Too much supermarket shopping for me I guess

 

Well thats next week sorted out, cabbage for dinner every day.

 

I suppose in truth, I didn’t think they’d grow quite as big, given the lack of space.

 

Yeah but you cant complain
What did you feed it on, hormones?

 

Oh, I ain’t complaining No feed of any kind. Just composted manure incorporated into the ground when I made the raised beds earlier this year.

 

Stop press!! Stop press !!

Surprise onions growing in veg bed!
After my failure crop of onions, I left the rocket to take over the bed, and it has flourished now we have had some rain. Today I needed to harvest some perennial rocket to make courgette pesto, and as I was cutting back some of the stems to strip indoors, I noticed that there was an onion shoot amongst the stems. Then another, and another, and another!

What should I do with these? I’m not sure if they are bits left behind from the harvesting, or onion sets that didn’t do anything because of the drought, and are now shooting. Will they come to anything if I leave them in the ground (nothing else planned to go into the space until spring)