Vegetable Growing 2024

The melon plants died, over night almost, when the rain started last week.

 

suprising. hope u got some fruit from it

I believe you can use unripe melons as veggies if you have them, like a wierd cucumber.

my toms are totally ridden with blight now, I pulled out the really bad ones and they look survivable till november now.

Cuces seem unaffected though, they have mildew but they did from day 1 and still making fruit. Telepathy still setting fruit, will have to pollinate it though.
Peppers also diseaseless.
Amaranth is setting seed finally, tough cookie that. Had one that grew in total shade and its fine!

 

A few squash, outside tomato and bean leaves got a bit frost damaged from the other night. Just about got away with it though

 

No frost here yet... but things are slowing down markedly, the outdoor cues have just stopped, so have the climbing beans (French and Runner) at least the cauliflower and Broccoli are still producing.

 

Cold at night here too but not yet frosty. It's bone dry so i'm watering the squash and fruit beds to help swell and ripen fruit but am not expecting great things. The squash we do have are really small compared to normal years and the courgettes have not been abundant.

 

The first picking of the chayotes







When cubed and boiled to make a Vietnamese style soup, they have I what I call a delicate palate cleansing taste. In other words, the flavour comes mainly from whatever sauce you cook them in.

They can also be eaten raw - sliced thinly on a mandoline with a squeeze of lime juice and a pinch of salt, they taste like freshly made pickled gerkins.

 

My first tomato is ripening. I didn't know I had grown a red beefsteak?! Pink Pineapple? Picked a second mini munch cucumber, more to come and 2 Telegraph Imp. cucumbers coming along nicely.
It is so frustrating to see so many tomato flowers which I know will come to nothing. The side of one plant, nearest the door was caught by the frost a couple of nights ago. Fortunately most of it was protected because the door was 2/3rds closed. The apples are continuing to colour and ripen.

 

As the great Jim Mcoll (Beechgrove garden) would say " when you are a gardener every day is a school day "
Not heard of these before, where did you get the seeds?,

 

@Allotment Boy it features quite a bit in Mexican and Caribbean dishes where it's sometimes called chayote pear but it's a squash. Quite a few recipes if you google.

 

The chayote fruit itself is a giant seed so just buy one from, say, a Turkish grocery shop.

Then leave it on a warm (not baking hot) window sill and it will send out a long shoot from the crinkly bottom end as it germinates. After that, plant it on its thin edge with the shoot pointing upwards at a depth of about 6 inches. The orientation reduces the risk of the fruit rotting in the ground while soil temperatures may still be low.

Timing the germination and planting out is critical to successful fruit production.

Under typical North London weather conditions, it must be planted out by mid May at the latest.

 

Chayote is a squash?!?! I thought it was some kinda tropical tree fruit. Very cool! I occasionally buy one to put in a curry as i find it remains crunchy when cooked.

Sainsburies in hampshire usually have them all year somehow.

 

Having picked the last pea beans of the season podded them to allow the seeds to dry out before storing for sowing next year. A very versatile plant. You can eat the pods when they are young and flat, eat them with the pea beans inside and then allow more to seed up and cook the beans without the pods. Amazing colours as well. Ying and yang, "bird's" nest ones, ones that have a blue tinge and others more black. All different.

 

I shall have to try growing them next year. My French beans did well again this year, am still picking a handful each day, so I'm ready to add to my pea/bean repertoire!

 

I posted on here a few weeks ago, when Monty was showing off his huge Tromboncinos on Gardeners' World, and was pulling them up saying there was no time for any further fruit to form. At that time my plants had yet to open a single female flower.
Well since then this has happened. It's only one, but it's way better than nothing.

 

Looks more like an
albino python to me.