[northfifeduckling]

Please tell me about what grows well, maybe particularly or surprisingly this year, do you have something that always does well in your garden? Do you have things you keep trying every year which never do well? I'm just curious to read your stories.

[doganjo]

I have absolutely loads of these very pretty yellow daisy sort of flowers that change into equally pretty white fluffy things that float away into other people's gardens on the breeze - they are soft and floaty and beautiful - and they are like triffids because every time you pull one of these yellow flowers off another 10 grow in its place.  And they are called - Dandelions!!!

[hexhammeasure]

chickweed ISN'T growing well, which buggers up my feeding regime for the hens and the ducks... buttercups are doing well however. and strawberries are groing strong this year all we need now is some sunshine to help them ripen.

[Fluffywelshsheep]

daffies didn't last that long this year and neither did the tullips but a lot of shrubby plants are going mad in my garden.

My Angelica plant tree is going mad might need to put it some where else as it is getting to big it's only two years old!!!!!


Grass as always goes mad.
Linz

[sellickbhoy]

I inherited a fantastic clematis - i think it's 2 plants that are intertwined as we get white and purple flowers on it - though at differnt times, it's huge, over 8 feet high and is supported on a trellis.

i need to figure out how to look after it so that it doesn't go wild or lose the fantastic blooms - but it is easily my favourite plant in the garden

as for veggies, my tatties look great, they always burst through without any problem. Though last year they got blight and i had to cut the tops off before they were really ready - but the spuds kept for ages and the size wasn't really a problem. this year i've gone for roosters which are "supposedly" blight reisistant - and given the dampness so far this year, that might be tested to the extreme!!!

my carrots also seem to grow without a problem. they take a wee while to get going though, but once they are up and running, there is no stoppping them. they kept in the ground until late october as well without splitting/rotting. this year i'm building some clamps to store them in - hopefully they'll keep a wee bit longer after that.

the only thing i've had a disaster with is - surprisingly - a blackberry plant. the fruit was starting to appear when i went on holiday last year and when i came back they were all mush - must have been severe rain, a bit of a cold snap or the bird mutilated them - or all three. but after that week the plants didn't do anything again. i cut them back in the autumn and they are off and running again this year. but we'll see how the fruit comes. I've resorted to buying a couple of replacement plants just in case - but i think i'll just be back along the canal bank to collect them again this year.

[gallovidian]

Our raspberries are not looking too brilliant this year (think they overdid things last time round!) but the pear and apple trees have both been smothered in blossom and look like setting lots of fruit, the redcurrant is also well-laden already (just hope I can stop the birds nicking as much as they did last year!

I'm new to the veggie-growing game (tho I used to look after the allottment for the care home I worked at about 10 years ago), but the onions are coming on nicely (much better than when I tried them on the allottment). Trying purple sprouting broccoli for the first time, and so far its looking promising - I've constructed a make shift rabbit deterrent to hopefully keep it that way! The rhubarb we inherited is stuck in the back of the garden, jammed between the compost heap, a red currant and the wall and did very little last year, so I've started a new root off in a more convenient spot and hoping that will do better.

[JD]

The onion sets and garlic I planted last October are doing well. I seem to be earthing up spuds every other day but am gonna stop now and let them grow away. Broad beans sown directly into soil are germinating. beetroot, sweetcorn and chillies doing ok in greenhouse. Will put the sweetcorn out in bed when they gain another few inches. MY problem is carrots sown directly into the bed. I have tried fior a few years now without any success. Have tried them in large pots this year. Rhubarb is particularly good this year but soft fruits dont look too great so far.
JD

[Greenerlife]

My flaming horseradish is doing far too well and has about a thousand new plants!  Spuds are doing well in their pots (too much blight around here to put them in the ground) and my raspberries and red and blackcurrants seems to be doing well.  My first lot of cabbages and brussels have been eaten by mice after careful protection from birds (you always forget something don't you?!) so have had to plant again.  Just put my tomatoes in hydroponics.  Peppers don't look very promising, and neither do the aubergines - but I might just be a bit early to be disappointed!

[northfifeduckling]

What is always doing well here is rocket. I'm glad I like the stuff or I would go bananas as it self seeds like a weed! I made 10 jars of rocket pesto (only way to feed it to the family, lol) last year and will start again soon...
Dandelion is doing rather well here, too- the ducks love it, so I take the whole plants out  roots and all and let them play with them. Raspberries are not looking great, they always did well before. I think the storms damaged them quite a bit. Gooseberries and currants have sawfly first time ever, but they seem to have a good amount of fruit. Rhubarb has seen better years. Will dig them up and expose them to frost as recommended next winter, then split and move them. Unfortunately buttercups are everywhere this year, so is hedge parsley.

[doganjo]

Hey, Kirsten - have you a recipe for that rocket pesto?  I hate rocket, but Sarah and her family love it - so I could make some of the pesto as a gift for them (they like pesto too)

[Fluffywelshsheep]

my carrots are  doing quite good sown lots in the grown and as a fail safe in tubs both are doing great, Not given them any specialist treatment not even sieved the soil as i was recommended too the soil is just to stuff from the coucil as had no time to do anything when i put them in the grounI have about 4 rows in the raised bed and about 3 tubs, the frist row i did add sand to the seed mixture but they took a wee bit to germinate even with old packets of seeds the oldest packet are a bit patchy but all i did was fill in the gap with another bit of seed lol.

I have now completly fill one of the raised bed with stuff and now going on to the next bed with cabbage and cauliflower

Linz

[northfifeduckling]

Here it is, Annie

http://www.foodiesite.com/recipes/2000-01:rcktpesto

I improvise with the nuts, walnuts, pine nuts, pecans

it is so nice that even my kids eat rocket this way, maybe you'll like it, too...

[sellickbhoy]

i'll tell you what grows well this year - potatoes, specifically the remnants of last years potatoes that i obviously didn't do a very good job on clearing out of the beds - they are everywhere, in between teh garlic, onions, shallots, where i've sown my beetroot and carrots, oven one growin in the compost bin!!!!

i will be going a much more thorough job on clearing the beds out this year, that's for sure!!

btw, if anyone is new to all this gardening lark - spuds, it would appear, will grow anywhere, so don't worry about them!

[Fluffywelshsheep]

spud are great first yearers!!!

will help break up the land for you.

Linz

[northfifeduckling]

Wherever you have tatties you will have the rogues for many years to come! I transplant just the worthy ones, small ones are not worth the effort but will be eliminated.The ones on the compost tend to look superb through all the good nutrition, but there's not much there at harvest time .They were probably just a few bits from the kitchen scraps. It is surprising how many big ones we missed out last year though and we were really thorough (so we thought). There is a proverb in Bavaria saying that the most ignorant of farmers gets the best tatties, lol. That would be me, they always did well in the ground so far, this year first time also in polybags and containers.