Vegetable Growing 2024

I made low raised beds at my old house in France. It all started very well but they needed a heck of a lot of watering in the hot Dordogne summer. The netting is anti-cat.

 

This is my vegetable garden at the house, also in Dordogne, that I bought in January 2021.

End of May 2021




August 2022




August 2023

 

Planted out the dwarf broad beans at last. Looking good.
The sown (indoors) of tomatoes, leeks and onions so far behind but couldn't do them any earlier as rain, rain and yet more rain wouldn't have let us sow or transplant out.

 

Thank you JWK

 

First purple and white sprouting of the year harvested today. Last Swede also picked. Replaced some of the onions with spares as something had munched on a couple of bunches of them.

 

Our purple sprouting and cavolo nero have all gone over now and are a sea of yellow flowers. I was letting them set seed but the old seed I sowed last week is germinating well so no need.

I might keep one of each just in case and pull up the others so the chooks can have a pecking frenzy in their pen.

 

We have great trouble with brassicas. Possibly our soil (heavy clay) isn't good for them. We have tried over the years but the return just hasn't been worth the effort.

 

I'm slowly working out what does well on my site. I'm not doing spring or winter cabbages anymore as the slugs are so bad with them over winter. Sprouting broccoli and Brussels can grow away enough for them not to be as much of an issue. I like kohl rabi as it's quick and a half season crop

The other thing is that I've found F1 varieties of both sprouts and broccoli to be substantially better than open pollinated varieties. Which is a bit of a shame but is what it is.

 

Maybe correction of Ph would benefit. Do you apply lime?

 

I had to give up growing brassicas due to clubroot. It hangs around for years once the soil is infected.

 

@pete I only had one small attack of clubroot in our Belgian garden and it was on some plug plants I bought. I carefully avoided that small area for brassicas and had no more trouble.

It helps that the soil was a deep, fertile, alkaline loam over a clay base. This garden is also fertile, deep, neutral to acid loam so I add lime when planting out my brassicas.

I can only get bog standard plugs of Savoy and Pointy cabbages or broccoli and Brussels so I grow PSB, cavolo nero and now garlic kale from seed and let them get to a decent size - 9cm pot - before planting out so they have a good root system.

 

I tried Brussel sprouts about five years ago, after at least a 10yr rest from brassicas and grew them on into 5in pots before planting out, I got a crop but not as good as years ago, and when I dug them out they definitely had signs of clubroot.

 

That's a shame @pete. I do like my fresh cabbages tho not Brussels. Only grow a couple for OH who clearly has less refined taste buds!