Vegetable Growing 2024

First proper pea harvest of sugar snaps and a couple mange tout. The pigeons have been destroying my plants over the last few days, hey are relentless. So I have recovered them with netting

Also first outdoor potato harvest of rocket. Some a bit over new potato size. Couple of radish from the parsnip drills too

 

@Hanglow Fabulous harvest. We are having real issues with germination and so are so so so far behind then normal. No chance of peas as we have 4 that have germinated. Dwarf french beans? 4 germinated. Potatoes we stopped some years ago but get a good harvest from volunteers! Beetroot germination also so bad have had to sow yet again. What is going on?

 

Thanks for replying @Busy-Lizzie - hmm maybe my chances of mulberries are a bit distant.

 

A few black mulberry trees in my local park, nobody picks them but I dont know what you can use them for, they are sour.

 

I have been looking at past pics of my veg at this time of year and I am waaaaaay behind.
However, at least the slugs haven't got any of my (Runner, French, Borlotti) beans, nor my (Tarmino, Genovese) courgettes. Not that that's saying much, but there is hope.
This time last year, I had Carmen cucs nearly ripe. Pah! Not even a flower yet.
Chillies, peppers? Too chilly.
Tomatoes. Dismal
Herbs doing OK.

 

Apparently @pete they have to be practically falling off to taste good. I saw something about Tiptree preserves who have a mulberry tree and occasionally can harvest enough to produce their jam

 

I bought a mulberry tree.
Waited ten years for it to flower (the books said it would take ten years so I waited.)
It never flowered.
But it did get some sort of canker and drop dead one summer.
Talk about a waste of time.

 

@Tidemark oh dear... I think that's off the list then.

 

I was thinking of getting one too, definitely won't bother now. I'm too old to wait 10 years for something that may never happen.
The Goji berry is bad enough - anyone had any luck with those? It looks very happy and sprawls all over the place but never flowers.

 

I wonder if you could use the mulberries for savoury dishes? If you think about how we use cranberries for Christmas dinners of turkey/chicken. I hate the shop bought stuff because it's just jam IMO, so I make my own and it's quite tart and spicy, so perhaps the same could be done with mulberries.

 

My mulberries are sweet. I would be happy to have the tree if only it had been planted in a sensible place. The fruits are sticky and messy and they stain. Have to be careful of your shoes if walking on the drive under it.

I wish my broad beans would hurry up, we are off to the UK on Tuesday and I think I'll miss most of them. The sugar snaps are growing faster. Had 3 helpings now and there is another for tonight.

 

I was surprised to get mulberries within 3 years of planting it! Delicious!

 

@Stephen Southwest wow - do you know which you had ie named variety please?

 

I picked my earliest on sunday, a turban hardneck called primor that I grow in the greenhouse as it hates the wet outdoors. It's two weeks later than last year due to the weather. Earliest outside garlic is probably still a week or more to go, my later maturing hardnecks have yet to put up a Scape. They won't be ready till late july