Garden veggie tour - warning...many photos!!

A mini tour around the veg in our garden, here in Cumbria. Its my first time growing edibles apart from herbs so most of the planting/digging has been last minute and some of it is temporary.

Area 1: Potatoes, tumbling cherry toms, carrots, rocket, lettuce, Aliccante toms.



Potatoes chitted and grown in old compost bags (8 of them) a mix of varieties including Vale emarald, Rocket and Pink fur apples. I harvested these last night and we had some PFA for dinner...as good as Jerseys if not better.

The tumbin' cherry toms, yet to ripen..



Carrots in the old bin and in the wooden trough behind it are all the salad leaves, some sweet peas and alicante toms, also yet to ripen.



New for this summer is a herb trough including mint (in its own fort knox style area) and oregano, basil, chives. parsley and coriander. We have sage, bay, rosemary and dill elsewhere in the garden.



Another new bed for this year with "A" frame supports holding runner beans and sweet peas, you can just make out some beetroot at the base of the frame.



The same bed from the other side.



On this side of the bed there are shallots at the front ( we have grown and harvested radishes in the centre of the a frame when everything was first planted)



The strawberry bed down the side of the house in front of the compost bin and behind the greenhouse.Half of this has already given us fruit, the other half has yet to and are repeat fruiting (apparently) although right now they are just going crazy sending out runners. (Note to self: Get those runners planted!)



Another temporary bed for this summer inspired after a conversation I had with a another gardener in the village about the american "three sisters" gardening technique, where you compost and grow at the same time. Basically I emptied my compost heap (no where near ready to use) into this bed and put a couple of inches of soil on top and planted into that...everything is doing incredibly well and I'll have a healthy bed full of compost to use again at the end of the season. (three sisters technique for those interested - http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/teach/2003045238014436.html) We have more sweet peas and runner beans in here, a couple of courgettes (green and yellow) three squash plants, radish, peas and a variegated sorrel.



Three rows of radish, next to the sorrel.



And the squashes now heading out over what remains of the lawn.The lawns days are numbered and wont be there next year :D



Yellow and green courgettes





Late planted peas just coming through, for an autumn crop...I hope!



At the end of may we bought a couple of huge strwaberry plants from a may flower market in cockermouth, these are now re-potted and producing fruits for us.





In the greenhouse we have Moneymaker and Gourmet tomatoes (just starting to crop) and a couple of cucumbers tht got scorched earlier in the year but are recovering now that I have painted on some greenhouse shading...and they are now starting to grow some decent sized cucs.

Thanks to kristen with his advice on "layering" my toms we have saved some space on the height and allowed more trusses to grow on the toms.

Moneymakers



Gourmet



Whole greenhouse.

I used a wide angle lens to get as much of the inside space as possible, the tom plant at the end shows how high all my plants would be if I had not layered them as per kristen's advice. Thank kristen!



This is the end of the gardens veggie tour, I'd just like to thank everyone who has offered advice to my daft questions, and also to those who asked questions and got advice that then saved me asking the question in the first place...this probably includes YOU..if your reading this.

Steve...

 

My kind of garden Steve....:gnthb::gnthb::gnthb:

Just one thing I have picked up from these pages is not to grow tomatoes within four foot of potatoes. I think it was a blight issue. get it in one crop and you have lost the lot.
I can see you have worked hard at it and its nice to start bringing in the harvest..
robert
Oh yes... one other question.. wheres the deck chair?

 

WOW Steve Amazing Crops. You have done Brilliantly for your first time, Youv'e given the old timers a run for there money Whats planned for next year? maybe some Leeks to show at the Competitions! Well done to both of you and your got some serious eating to do

 

Brilliant Steve. A first class example of making the best use of the available space :gnthb:

 

Excellent Steve Is there a thread about the layering of tomatoes?

 

Not a thread as such, I mentioned that I was running out of height in the greenhouse and only had 3 or 4 trusses...kristen recommended I layer them. Which is bending them over and growing them up the support of the next plant over, thereby gaing extra length of the plant. At that stage I was worried about snapping the stems but they bent over really easily in the end and I probably gained an extra 3 foot of growth.

Next year I'll be prepared and will make a framework that will let me train the toms from a younger age.

Steve...

 

Thank you so much for sharing this along with pictures! Truly an inspiration what you have achieved - particularly for your first year, and utilising space the way you have.
Really interested in the layering of the tomatoes as well - as I do have the height problem in my back garden greenhouse and feel that the beefsteaks I have in the centre of the greenhouse due to their height - is blocking the sun from the roma tomatoes on the other wall. Using the layering method is definitely something I will attempt next year.....unless of course I can still do it now?

 

great steve must be lovely having all that veg growing cant wait to get my allotment and start growing my own, thanks for sharing

 

Brilliant Steve - well done :ntwrth: Those strawberries look scrummy :luv::luv:

 

Thanks all!

Robert, taken on board mate...will watch that in future re your blight comment.

YDD, the part of the garden with the courgettes and squashes will be raised so Anne can get to some of it from her wheelchair, And the grass behind it will all be turned into one massive bed, the ground to the side of it will be a pond and the ground in front of it, between the greenhouse will be paved, with a wheelchair ramp for greenhouse access. Where the potatoes are will be turned into a much bigger raised veg bed this week - weather allowing. Photos of all of that as it happens on my garden project thread.

BTW, can anyone tell me where on the plant the squashes grow? Is it at the crown or somewhere along its trailing stems?

Steve...

 

Many thanks John, I guess that means I wont be able to grow them along the fence then as the squashes will be a little too heavy for that. Reverting to plan "A" and will grow them along the ground..

Steve...

 

love your tomatos. well done !