Vegetable Growing 2024

I am still picking a few tomatoes every few days, also cucumbers are still coming along slowly.

 

Planted some modules of peas and broad beans as a green manure/cover crop/possibly for shoots if they can grow a bit in any mild weather

 

I'm still getting a few cherry toms from the GH but all the larger ones are finished. Outside I'm still getting a few salad leaves, chard is good, beetroot and cabbage in the cage. The sprouts are forming nicely.

 

We have Savoy and pointy cabbages still to come and the Swiss chard is fnally looking good.

I planted plugs of Savoy, broccoli and kale but they've been eaten back to their stalks which is dispiriting to say the least. No sign of who's doing it but OH didn't net them so could be anything. No doubt if I'd planted some sprouts he would have netted them asap.

 

Having kale stripped by the cabbage white caterpillars last year outside we sowed in the polytunnel this year. I cut back rather than pull the whole plant out and have been so surprised at how quickly the plants send side shoots and so we have yet more kale to harvest.

 

These are just plug plants @On the Levels and I've not seen slugs or caterpillars. Bit of a mystery.

Like you, when growing kale I take leaves as needed and leave the plant to grow on.

 

My vesca strawberries have been putting out another wave of fruit in the last week. I picked most underripe since something eats the fully ripe ones (i think wood lice?) but they were still extremely sweet, I wonder if this is caused by the cold weather? They actually tastes better than in the summer. The plants in the dark back garden are a lot shabbier than the ones in a brighter spot and have no flowers anymore.

The ones in the pot are sharing it with a newly planted Chaenomeles "Pink Lady" which is flowering! pretty but much too early :( We got one fruit from it this year but its not as fragrant as the neighbours one

 

Yes, woodlice love strawberries, in fact almost everything does.

 

Interesting as others on different threads have said that woodlice don't...they come in once the slugs/snails attack the fruit and then they come in. Not sure as we also have woodlice issues but are they the real culprits?

 

that could be the case. its always one small hole dug into the strawb and i find a louse nearby.

 

According to the books, woodlice are only supposed to feed on dead and dying material. However as usual with all pests they don't read the books. I remember decades ago a lady wrote to complain to Geoff Hamilton that she had used wood mulch on his reccomendation, and now her borders were overrun with woodlice, and all her seedlings were being eaten.

 

On Saturday I went to check my Allotment. Cut a cabbage, (only 2 more left now) and picked some mizuna from the greenhouse. I picked the very last of the Chrysanthemums, the Dahlias are blackened now so will need to dig them up soon. Appart from the greenhouse salad, the only harvests now will be , sprouts, parsnips, beetroot and chard.

 

I brought the last of the tomatoes down from the spare bedroom windowsill on Saturday . Most of them have ripened, even the little pea-sized ones (these are Rosella, so they aren't meant to be bright red).

 

I am completely new to vegetable growing. Where do you guys purchase your seeds from?
I've heard of Mr Fothergill's and DT Brown are good, but any suggestions would be super helpful. Thank you!

 

Hi @Glass12Full83 - it will often depend on the type of veg you want to grow, but there are loads of outlets, including those two. Chilterns, Kings, Simply Seed, Suttons and Unwins are all pretty good, and reliable.
I've used all of those for various things, although not always veg.

I don't know if there's a seed swap on this site - there is for tomatoes, but there's possibly one for general seed. Take alook at the various subject headings and you may find one there. If not, you could maybe ask one of the moderators.