The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Connor on July 24, 2013, 09:08:16 pm

Title: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 24, 2013, 09:08:16 pm
New to the website so i thought i would show you all what i do and grow!

July in my veg garden is busy for a number of reasons:

1. I have harvested all my peas for the year and have the plants pulled up and have compost (home-made) mixed through the soil.
2. I have pulled up a row of King Edward spuds put and they were small but had a great taste and where they had been I spread cow slurry over it and i now have a few rows of carrots in its place
3.I have planted a lot of lettuce plants this year (too many) so i have been pulling leaves off them for my own use then give the rest to my goat for a snack/treat.
4. Also my strawberry plants have stopped fruiting so  any plants i have are in pots now and are for sale!
5. I have my compost bin emptied- i take 1/4 of compost and put them into bags to use in the veg garden and the rest i throw over my field which has recently been cut for hay.

Hope you enjoyed reading this update! Sorry there are no photos don't know how to put them up could someone help??
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Bert on July 25, 2013, 07:14:41 am
Well I'm jealous  ;D
I've only got 3 pea plants, my carrots are to busy fighting with weeds to grow properly  :innocent: , my potatoes aren't ready yet. My strawberry plants are only just thinking about flowering  ::)
To be fair me and all my plant did move house half way through the growing season :thumbsup: 
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Mammyshaz on July 25, 2013, 07:26:06 am
You are way ahead of me with the harvest. Here the Crops are flowering but no crop yet except for sugarsnaps. But with two boys with hawk eyes none have made it to a meal, all eaten as picked  ::)
Potatoes, squash, beans, tomato, cucumber and pumpkins are in flower, onions and garlic just going over now. Too much lettuce here too, it's been a good year for that.
Had strawberries and raspberries I assume by the colour of the boys mouths  :yum: greengage ripening but cannot see any apples  :'(

Oops, forgot to say, a big HELLO and welcome  :wave: from a couple of allotments in Durham.
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 25, 2013, 08:21:48 pm
Sounds good i have a polytunnel so i grow some things in there!
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: cans on July 25, 2013, 09:00:04 pm
Hi Connor,

You can make lettuce soup.  Tasty and easy to make. 

Next year you could feed some of the pea plants/pods to your goat as a treat. My girls hoovered them up.

I am trying to keep up with the raspberries this year.  And waiting for the onions and beetroot to be ready for making chutney in September. 

Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Lesley Silvester on July 25, 2013, 09:04:05 pm
I've started harvesting French beans and have had loads of strawberries. Nothing else is ready but I do have flowers coming on the squashes and some small tomatoes coming on. Yesterday I planted some Amaranth. Never tried it before so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 26, 2013, 08:54:21 am
I  give my goat the odd pea pod and she gets any strawberries that the birds have got at, only a few of my raspberries are fruiting any reason why this is?
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: cans on July 26, 2013, 12:26:38 pm
Hi Connor,
It could be that your raspberries are Autumn fruiting.  I have both summer and autumn fruiting.  Can hardly keep up with the summer ones and the autumn ones are just starting to show signs of bearing fruit.

Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 26, 2013, 02:58:59 pm
Might be had a look at them today and they are starting to bud but they aren't that tall :(
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: cans on July 26, 2013, 07:22:24 pm
My autumn ones arent that tall at the moment either.  There are just one or two starting to form fruit.  They should grow a bit more before the main crop appears.  The added bonus is that once the fruit is picked and you cut back the canes these are more tasty bites for the goaty ladies
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 26, 2013, 08:23:30 pm
WOW did not know that a goat would eat them lol i give mine lettuce plants that have been bad!
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Sudanpan on July 26, 2013, 09:29:17 pm
We've been making strawberry jam with our strawberries  :)  they are too soft to eat straight off but are great for jam. I think I'm going to make a strawberry icecream with the final crop.
We've been harvesting courgettes like crazy - I've just made 3 large courgette cakes! Otherwise we are eating them in all guises: grated, baked, fried
This week was our first taste of our aubergines -  :excited: - great just baked, then last night I made 'babaganough' - an egyptian dish (baked aubergine flesh, with garlic and sesame seed paste plus some olive oil)
Our toms are just starting to ripen, and our butternut squash plants are going great guns - methink this winter we will be living off roast butternut squash soup!
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 26, 2013, 09:30:48 pm
Sounds great could you tell me how i insert a photo in my topics?
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: morayjohny on July 26, 2013, 09:38:18 pm
Well done Connor, we've dug up one plant from our tatties to see what they were like and although small very tasty. However have had an excellent year for strawberries and the wife (Mischiemoo) made 20 jars of blackcurrant jam earlier this week which is lovely.

However our lettuces seem to be struggling a bit at the moment.

John
Title: Re: UPDATE:July has been a great and busy month!
Post by: Connor on July 26, 2013, 09:50:58 pm
I have strawberries aswell but didn't do well at all, my first batch of lettuce have done really well and are almost all ate. I have some younger ones in my polytunnel and them some more in my vegetable patch did you feed your lettuce plants?