Vegetable Gardens: Tips, Advice, Questions, Tales, Pictures

[MatskiMonk]

Thought I'd post a quick update photo on the chilli plants... Or as I call 'em now, the 'Gran Turismo difficulty setting' plants.

Going reasonably well. Going to pot up a load more at the weekend to one pint pots.

 

[Dennisch]

I have one garlic and a basket of fire.

I have 4 potatoes going strong.

I have a solitaire bell pepper hanging around.

I have another 5 bell peppers sitting in a el cheapo green house.

I have a yellow or white raspberry.

I have 3 Granny Smith's trying their best to grow.

I have another 2 Grannies trying even harder, and a weird grassy thingy, no idea what it is.

I have 3 types of strawberries growing along. Normal, raspberry strawberry and pineapple berry.

And I have an olive tree and almond tree.

And it's all growing on the power of 2 fluffy poopmachines roaming my backyard.

 

[permaculture]

And it's all growing on the power of 2 fluffy poopmachines roaming my backyard.

thanks for sharing! i've got a pretty massive urban garden going now, always adding to it.

do you have chickens in a city? apparently its one of those things here that, while requiring a permit etc, ends up coming down to how the neighborhood feels about them. i'd love some if i wasn't worried about early-morning chicken noise.

 

[TB]

This is the best I've ever had a tomato plant grow. So far only one tomato but there are plenty of buds so more will be coming.

For reference, the wire mesh around it to keep the bunnies away is 36 inches tall.

 

[Dennisch]

1.2 kilo potatoes. From 2 plants. And they taste great. I've also learned that you can easily grow 4 plants in about 40 liter of soil.

 

[opelgt1969]

View attachment 1171886

1.2 kilo potatoes. From 2 plants. And they taste great. I've also learned that you can easily grow 4 plants in about 40 liter of soil.

I smoke the other end of my pot plants.

 

[Touring Mars]

For the first time ever, I had no luck with my chilli seeds this year, so I replanted a whole bunch of seeds in fresh compost and used my incubator to get them started... of 17 seeds, only 2 have sprouted

Granted, the seeds were all from either dried or frozen chillis - the frozen ones were chillis I grew a few years back, and so they have been stored in the freezer for years - alas, of the 8 seeds I planted (2x 4 different types), none have sprouted, including my old favourite orange habaneros...

The other 9 seeds were all from a single (dried) orange habanero from a plant my old boss has at work, and two sprouted... that's quite surprising, because it is usually a case of all or nothing, so for two to sprout and seven to fail (well, nothing has happened for around 3 weeks...) is quite weird, but at least I should have two new plants on the way.

Ironically, these are very likely related to the orange habanero chillis I had in my freezer. My original plant came from a chilli my old boss gave me, and his current plant is probably a descendant of the same ancestor plant as mine - so the orange habanero sprouts I currently have are probably cousins of the seeds that I planted from my own chillis...

 

[MatskiMonk]

For the first time ever, I had no luck with my chilli seeds this year, so I replanted a whole bunch of seeds in fresh compost and used my incubator to get them started... of 17 seeds, only 2 have sprouted

Do you do anything to prepare the seeds first? I'll generally scarify mine in black tea for a day or so before they go in the soil, dried seeds will often show signs of sprouting even after such a short time. Though I've never tried from frozen, I've had seeds that have germinated after more than 3 years that have just been kept in an envelope in the back of a cupboard.

I've not managed to keep up with things this year and so ditched everything (even 'only' about 20 plants this year was more than I could manage) at about the time they started fruiting in February.. consequently, this was my entire harvest...

1 × Small 'Big' Bomb chilli.

Not particularly hot, but when when they're a proper size there's a lot of flesh to them.

 

[Touring Mars]

Those look great 👍

I soaked the seeds inside kitchen roll and left them in the incubator overnight... one seed actually sprouted in the paper, and so I was certain that it would grow, but it didn't

 

[Sprite]

Our normal plants are going great guns so far this year.

1 Pear Tree 3 years old. No flowers this year. But it’s still young.

By its side you’ll see a small pot with 4 spring garlic growing, however I suspect one of them is rotting as its leaves are dying off. I’m going to give a bit longer but may end up pulling it.

Our two Blueberry bushes are always winners and we got over a 1kg of fruit last year. Looks like it will be similar again this year too.

Our Gooseberry bush has gone from strength to strength each year. It’s from a cutting we took of my late mother in laws when she passed. We couldn’t dig up the bush we planted for her as it was huge and produced masses of fruit. So we left if for the next resident of the sheltered housing to enjoy… they tore it out within a few months of moving in. Just so glad we managed to get this cutting.

This year is the second year of fruit and this time it’s not just one or two, it’s a heap of them.

Our Apple tree has got a load of bloom this year. Last year I got 2 blooms of 6 flowers, none turned to fruit and dropped them at the end of spring (known as a spring drop) just down to lack of nutrients. This year we’ve had around 30 blooms of 6 flowers and so far none have dropped. Some have started to swell ever so slightly too, so we’re hopeful.

We also grow a Bay Tree and a Rosemary Bush, which grow fantastically and provide some nice herbs for the cooking.

My plan this year was to add a Green Tea bush to the collection, that way I could get my tea fix. But I’ve been too lazy.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I soaked the seeds inside kitchen roll and left them in the incubator overnight... one seed actually sprouted in the paper, and so I was certain that it would grow, but it didn't

Yeah, the kitchen roll method was a bust for me, not saying it doesn't work, but I didn't see overall better conversion to seedlings that year, just an extra stage for those that made it.

 

[Dennisch]

From left to right.

Yellow raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, white pot is 3 types of strawberry, black pot in front of that Granny Smith apple, tomatoes, Frisian potato, Victoria potato, Jerusalem artichoke, tomato, tomato, tomato (they're a lot of different tomatoes), the big black tub is 3x Brussel sprouts and a red cabbage. Olive tree and an almond tree in the grass.

Yellow courgette.

And 2 Bell peppers. Those are now 2 years old, or maybe 3, no idea anymore.

I have more potatoes getting ready for the ground, but I need to make space for them.

 

[Dennisch]

Completely forgot to post this one, and it deserves a separate post, me thinks.

Grown from a seed from a rose in the backyard. This tiny one is getting ready to bloom.
Really proud of this one as it's pretty hard to get a rose to grow from a seed.

 

[Touring Mars]

@Dennisch It's the only time I've ever used the 💩 emoji in a positive way, hoping that it might help your rose to grow 🌹

--

Good grief.

Some dodgy-looking guy rang my door bell twice, but I ignored him. He then arrived at my actual front door and knocked my door - FOUR TIMES over the course of almost 10 minutes, waiting for me to answer.

I decided not to answer, but wondered why he was so convinced I was in. He ended up putting a note through my letterbox to ask me to shield my LEDs which are pointing out of the window, as my chilli plants are on my window sill... they are super-bright, but I didn't think they'd annoy anyone living ACROSS THE ******* STREET from me, but apparently they do.

I'll move my lights to the spare room though as a neighbourly gesture.

At least he wasn't a local urchin looking for weed

 

[Dennisch]

Look at it go!

 

[Sprite]

Things are starting to swell rather nicely now.

 

[TB]

It's not much, but it's a start.

Pot-a-peno

Sun Sugar (left) and Big Boy (right) tomatoes

Some onion and cilantro and I could be making salsa.

 

[W3H5]

My pomegranate tree is fruiting again. Last year the fruits didn’t mature so perhaps this year I might get to eat one as there are a handful gaining mass.

 

[Dennisch]

It's getting really green here.

 

[TB]

There's at least 5 jalapeños coming!

 

[TB]

Not bad progress for 2 days.

 

[TB]

It appears that there are a lot of jalapeños in my future.

 

[Dennisch]

I have 2 new peppers.

Madame Jeanette.

And Lila Luzi, no idea how that one will be.

And the first tomato has arrived!

And the vegetable garden at my sister's place:

She has a lot. Beans, cabbage, tomatoes, herbs, potatoes, fruit trees etc. etc.

I'm driving there every day to water it all and keep the wild plants away.

 

[Sprite]

Well, update on the fruit so far.

The wife loves gooseberries and decided it was time to pick them! It’s a little early but she likes them very sour so…

Here is about half the crop.

The Apples are coming on in a big way now. We have around 25 at this stage of growth now. All healthy and no bugs eating them etc.

And the Blueberries are seriously abundant. It seems this year maybe thier best yet.

I’m anticipating about 2kg at least.

The roses took a hammering from greenfly but bounced back and we have loads of them flowering in white and red/pink/orange.

We’ve also planted some some more cat mint for the monster but it can be made into a tea too for us.

 

[TB]

It took forever but I finally have a tomato!

 

[Dennisch]

It took forever but I finally have a tomato!

View attachment 1269292

I have 2!

There are a lot more but these were ripe.
Next year I need to trim the plants more to have more growing power going to the fruits but it's going reasonably well for a first time growing tomatoes.

Edit.

 

[TB]

Next year I need to trim the plants more to have more growing power going to the fruits

I think that's what I need to do, too. The plants are about 5 feet tall and there are buds all over but none of them are very large.

 

[Dennisch]

I think that's what I need to do, too. The plants are about 5 feet tall and there are buds all over but none of them are very large.

You need to have one main stalk growing, and removing all the thieves growing in the pits of the branches. It probably has a different name but I can imagine that a gardening website in English has all the information on growing tomatoes.

 

[MatskiMonk]

It probably has a different name

Pinching out, stopping off or topping off.

 

[Dennisch]

First batch is in the house! Almost 2 kilo from 3 plants.

And!

Purple peppers!