[Bert]

Veggies are all finished in my garden . In fact to day was my last day at work ( the veg garden) until next spring  . I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy .

[deepinthewoods]

i always think its more satisfying, making sure theres veg though the winter,  ihavent got much but ive got chard and spinach which will be covered shortly. to keep them coming. ive got half a dozen sturdy kale plants thast should stand for most of the winter, theres leeks standing well and various brassicas, sprouts, savoy and white cabbage that should also stand the cold.
the advantage is that there are hardly any pests to cause bother. diseases dont seem to bother winter greens much either. its definitely worth trying. its the easiest time of year to grow veg imo.

[MAK]

That true Dave and veg is more expensive if you have to buy it in the winter months.
 Again is depends on latitude and climate. The old ladies who live up the lane are clearing their gardens becuase it is the 20th Oct - that is what they do- garden by the moon and dates. It has been 25 degrees outside today but we expect it to get cold. I have worked out that last year the ambient temperature range was 63 C. i.e 38 in August and -25 in feb - these are ambient temperatures so full sun temperatures can reach 55 ( well off scale our thermometer) and shade temperatures in winter could be lower.
So a polytunnel can not be used in the summer and when it is -25 outside then everything freezes ( even in a polytunel).
That said I have the veg patch pretty full. I have the winter veg in and am still picking mellons , toms and peppers. If the weather chnages then I will loose these and enjoy the autumn/winter cauliflowers, sprouts, pasnips etc. But if it gets too cold then we loose the lot just like last Jan/Feb.

[benkt]

I was doing veg boxes again today and we had chard, parsnips, onions and the last (?) of the runner beans. Run out of spuds though - must grow more next year! The leeks are looking pretty small so might be a spring crop. Not dug any Jerusalem artichokes yet - there's a lot of growth up top but its our first year of them so will have to wait and see what lurks beneath the soil. Our fab preserving team also helped this week with members getting either bramble jelly or green tomato chutney. The winter greens are doing well in the greenhouse after being potted on - going to have to clear out the polytunnel so they can get planted up soon.

[Ina]

I was doing veg boxes again today and we had chard, parsnips, onions and the last (?) of the runner beans. Run out of spuds though - must grow more next year! The leeks are looking pretty small so might be a spring crop. Not dug any Jerusalem artichokes yet - there's a lot of growth up top but its our first year of them so will have to wait and see what lurks beneath the soil.

I'd just remembered that - Jerusalem artichokes are always my "emergency" veg - in case I run out of everything... Strangely enough, I rarely get round to eating any. They are not my favourite! Btw, I'd been told to take most of the top growth off in September/October - do you do that, too?

[VSS]

Got cabbages (red and green), sprouts nearly ready, curly kale, swedes and leeks to get get us through the winter.

Overwintering for spring crops I have got onions, garlic, two types of cabbages, broad beans and peas - lettuce in the conservatory. We don't get a great deal of frost - plants are more likely to be blown or washed away!

[Lesley Silvester]

I still have tomatoes ripening outside here in Shropshire.  That's about the only thing I managed to grow successfully this year.

[Ina]

I still have tomatoes ripening outside here in Shropshire. 

  Snow showers forecast for tomorrow!

[Lesley Silvester]

  Snow showers forecast for tomorrow!

Noooooo.

I like Jerusalem artichokes but they're not known as fartichokes for nothing.   

[Mel Rice]

As I live the furthest east...and quite high up (t'other side of Germany) I'l list what I had yesterday.....
parsnips (not looked at) spinach (needed picking) one or two swede and a couple of turnips (last few) beetroot (needs pulling and processing) brasicas at various stages of needing picking to little plants that I hope to over winter. A few sweet corn that I was going to dry for pop-corn. an ornamental squash that was struggling to ripen, raspberries that could have given one or two more picking sessions. a few runner beans ....and I'm sure there are one or two things I've forgotten.
 
I've put all these things in the past tense as WE'VE HAD ABOUT 8 INCHES OF SNOW THATS COVERED EVERYTHING
yesterday I was mowing grass and sweeping leaves, it was a bit chilly but lovely and bright. Today it has snowed and snowed. The trees are sagging, the animals have been in ALL day.
 
 Its supposed to get warmer again next week so I will be able to see what the dammage is! Oh well it looked nice this evening when it finaly stopped (although the sky is still very grey)

[Ina]

Ooops - I thought there'd been a bit of a heat wave in Germany recently? That must have changed very quickly! If the frost wasn't too bad, most of the plants might well have survived the snow cover...

[Plantoid]

Put your toms in a drawer along with an over ripe banana and they will turn red or put a yellow banana in and it will take a bit longer. They ripen due to the gas given off by bananass and the bananas ripen from the gas given off from the toms .
 In the 1970's Geest fruit importers of Spalding Lincolnshire made good use of this fact by  putting a row of  toms in boxes and a row of bananas alternately to fill their  tom & nana ripening shed to get them ripening on demand

[MAK]

Will bannana gas help our red peppers. We have a box of them that are all just showing hints of red - this may sound odd but I have a significant allergy to eating green peppers but not to red peppers. This is te only food allergy I have  but it is common in my family.

[deepinthewoods]

yes.

[sabrina]

I still have turnip in the veg plot and young cabbage growing in the pollytunnel. Garlic planted for next year.