Vegetable Growing 2024

@CarolineL We have 2 quinces, Meeches prolific which produces fruit of an apple shape and the other is Vranja which is pear shaped. We also have a medlar which over the last few years we have given all the fruit to neighbours and friends as the quinces are enough to work with.
How old is your quince? We did have issues with the Vranja in the garden some years ago as it lost its leaves very early. Pollarded it very hard so no flowers/fruit the next year but then it has done well.
I noticed that it was November when I bottled/jammed last year so very early this year.

 

Thanks @On the Levels
Unfortunately I couldn't find a varietal name on the quince label. It isn't very old - I was sent it as a maiden about 3-4 years ago. But we've had a couple of poor years, lots of rain and little sun, so maybe I just have to wait. It's formed a lot of whippy growth, so I'll prune it (assuming it's spur bearing, not tip bearing like some fruit).

 

I've just been forwarded a warning about the chances of yakon infecting potatoes with a virus
https://planthealthportal.defra.gov.uk/assets/factsheets/Yacon-Biosecurity-guidence-2022-v2.pdf
Seems a bit over the top but I will just keep them to myself from now on.

 

I'm sowing more green manure/cover crops this year. Already spread white mustard over a bed that is half filled with garlic and is half empty, it's germinated well and survived the frost we had last night. I've also sown a load of old peas and broad beans that were a few years old in module trays to plant out in a couple more weeks. If it is a mild autumn I may be able to harvest some tops for stir fry

Going to harvest the first sprouts this weekend, just noticed quite a few look ready. I think they liked the cool wet summer

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

I cleared the last of the outdoor tomatoes, and half of the greenhouse ones. I have planted some Mizuna plugs in the freed-up space in the greenhouse bed. I've left the remainder as I think a few more may ripen if the weather stays mild. If not they will be replaced in the same way. The Mizuna provides useful winter salad leaves.

 

Lots of my Romaine lettuce seeds have germinated. I sowed them in small coldframe last week.

 

Well, the cold frame is a new experiment for me so it will just be "the elements" and hopefully I'll have a few small plants before the snow flies. I am thinking about starting a window box sized container in the greenhouse, just to go up one step from out on the ground, and see if I can again, get some edible growth before it becomes bitter.

It costs too much to heat a greenhouse here in winter. I tried that once. It cost just under $200 canuck dollars, or 100 euros or about 85 of your pounds?, for ONE month so that never happened again.

The heater runs on natural gas and I use it to extend the season a little and to keep the greenhouse a teensy above the freezing mark at night. And that usually only involves keeping the air circulating and the dial turned just barely above "pilot" light setting. When the final day of extending the season will be this year, I do not know. We've had a very mild autumn so

 

It's been a bumper year for quinces here @On the Levels and people keep trying to give me bucketloads. I politely refuse as we still have jars of the stuff I was given 3 years ago - jelly and bottled fruits.

We cleared the last of the squashes on Friday and OH dug p all our potatoes to make space for winter crops such as brassicas, garlic, broad beans and so on. The Swiss chard is finally looking good and the pointy cabbages are, at last growing big enough to think about harvesting them once the last 2 Savoy cabbages have been picked.

I need to sit and work out my spacings and rotations before planting new stuff and then get OH to fork out the compost piles. No hurry. we need a few dry days before we can think about anything other than keeping to the path we tread from house to veg plot to see to the chooks.

 

We picked the medlars before the storm and have a huge bucketful. Having done so much with the quinces we are lucky that we have some neighbours who love to have the medlars, one to eat when they are bletted and the other makes medlar jelly.

 

Deer have got into our allotment again and have been browsing my veg. Mainly the leaves of chard and beetroot. I'll probably pick all the beetroot soon before they eat them

 

@On the Levels what do medlars taste like? I have a young tree, but as yet, it's only produced a couple.