[Terry T]

As the selection of winter veg gradually diminishes, I wondered if anyone has anything else in the ground that I’m missing out on. I’m down to
Outdoors
sprouting brocolli
leeks
carrots
salsify
leeks
parsnips
leeks
kale
cabbage
and did I mention leeks?  I went a bit overboard it seems, still only aroud 200 to go...

In polytunnel
celeriac
chinese cabbage,
kohl rabi
mooli
rocket
turnips
coriander
spinach
chard
lettuce
and thankfully no leeks

I’m spending the winter edging my beds which hopefully will save me loads of time next year from fewer weeds, hope the sun comes out soon though, always makes the jobs more enjoyable.

Anyone else busy on the veg plot?

[Fleecewife]

Ooh we can't get near the veg plot - there's a sort of permafrost an inch below the muddy surface and tomorrow it's due to snow again and looks heavy.  We always seem to have a mad panic in April when suddenly all the work has to be done at once and of course it's lambing too.


At the moment outside we have carrots and er that's it.  In the tunnel we have green curly kale which is really struggling although I'm not sure why, and PSB which has been eaten by something so it's just sticks.  It's not been warm enough to kick these brassicas back into growth, so we've had none to eat.  Oh and there's three leeks, or I hope there are as they're destined for my lamb and bean casserole tomorrow 
That is the sum totality of our winter veg this year, it's pathetic!  It will be a hungry gap indeed, although we have plenty of veg stored in various ways from the summer harvest.

[cloddopper]

Wot no Brussels sprouts ...
Our Bedford basket fill's are a short stemmed variety that have given us 18 inches of 50 p sized tight sprouts per plant . they take a long time to produce .
We only wanted some for December & January so only have five plants grown from seed . Glad we chose the shorter stemmed one , the high winds of November failed to cause them to suffer from wind rock .

We also have Bolthardy beetroot which has come on well , still got about 20 roots in the SFG .

I've used scrap 100 mm x 400 long soil pipes to make protectors / necks for our out door celery . They have helped protect the hearts from several minus 6 degree frosts .   As it is a  self blanching strain it's got a very strong flavour ..good for soups & stews , plus the greenery dries well in a cooling oven on the rack & stores well for later use if put into  in several small heat sealed vac pack bags once it's well dried & crumbly .

We've still got some green salad onions , a clump of perennial chives , several bits of chervil and some hardy flat leafed parsley that were protected from frost due to me thinking of inter planting them with the  dwarf beans in a whole four foot square with them when I put the beans in .

 Do you grow broad beans or runner kidney beans  ?
 The chervil etc is growing in amongst the dead skeletons of the peas & yellow or green dwarf French  green & yellow , beans  & broad been stalks
 I'm leaving the skeletons there in the bed so that any fixed nitrogen on the roots  that they may hold can be kept in the beds for this years salad stuff. I'll pull the stems out a few days before I make the bed up for growing sometime in early to mid March so it can settle down in time for seeds or starter plants I'll be growing in the glasshouse.

 The rhubarb which is some of our three year old sown from seed ( Victoria )  was split in Novembers the crownswere planted in a fresh well manured bed & is starting to poke it's heads though . Might bung a weighted bin or three  over some of it to see if it will produce a few sticks .

 Can't do much by way of work as two beds are also full of over wintering Sturton & sensi onions that should be ready in June July .

 I finished  turning any cleared individual square foot beds & whole four foot square beds ( I practice All New Square Foot Gardening ) just before Christmas , for I wanted to get them well fertilized with quality home made manure based garden compost to bring on zillions of worms in the coming year .

[Clarebelle]

Not much survives the winter wind burn outside here except kale it seems! Still got loads of dwarf curly kale. I planted out a fennel (herb, not bulb) plant in a sheltered-ish bed last spring and it did really well this year and is actually still producing new fronds from the base and doesn't seen to be phased by the wind at all, incredible really.

I don't have a tunnel, just an ill conceived (not by me) greenhouse which has got some parsley in it and that's about it!

[Terry T]

Thanks for all your replies, it’s interesting to find what’s possible in different locations.

Last 3 leeks Fleecewife, I hope they are delicious.  I run a veg box scheme up until Xmas and so like to have plenty in for the winter boxes but clearly went over the top this year...I’ll be sick of them by spring.

I do also have sprouts in Closhopper , just forgot about them. Interesting your beetroot’s doing well outside, I had mine up and am storing in compost which works ok but I’m sure they’d taste better if fresh. And I’ve never tried chervil so will gjve it a go.

Dwarf culy kale is amazing isn’t it. I love it, it’s soo hardy. If you’ve got space for a polytunnel Clarebelle, I would recommednd one for a windy site - they are such a nice space to grow in and it’s much easier to produce your own veg year round- if you want to ( I think I’m a bit obsessed where as some may prefer a better veg : life balance.

[Fleecewife]

I agree about having a polytunnel if at all possible.  I would suggest that in a very windy area such as Orkney you position the tunnel so a corner faces into the strongest winds.  Here our tunnel is placed west-east to catch the most sun and our strongest winds tend to come from the SW, so they catch the tunnel on the corner. We didn't plan this, just observe the outcome.   Direct southerlies tend to rip the cover off, by causing a vacuum on the north side, and straight westerlies or easterlies can smash the end in, where the door and louvres are.  But when the wind hits on a corner it seems to decrease the overall effect.


We seem to be suffering horribly from vermin in our veg areas here this year.  I think it's due to a neighbour digging out an old shed which rats etc used to lurk under, so now they are all coming to see us, and are rabidly vegetarian.  This means all our beetroot were hollowed out in the autumn, so no crop, and all legumes had their pods raided as they grew.  I think that's what destroyed the PSB.


Does anyone have any idea on how to prevent that sort of damage?  I'm finding it very disheartening.  I cope with the little devils in spring by starting most things off in 3" pots in bakers trays suspended from the crop bars, so that's no longer the problem.  It's so much worse to have spent the growing season nurturing all those lovely veg in the adverse conditions of where we live, only to feed vermin 

[Clarebelle]

I would love a polytunnel but they are a bit hard to keep up here. There are people who have them successfully but there are many more who lose them in the wind. 40-50 mph winds are extremely common year round and my house is on the northern end of one of the northern islands so it really is exposed. I might consider it at some point though. There is a company in Shetland who is doing great work developing tunnels for extreme conditions.

On a plus note, due to lack of frost here, many root veg can just over winter in the ground here without any protection.

[PhilW]

Hi Clarebelle
Have a look at Keder polytunnels (http://www.kedergreenhouse.co.uk/) we've had one for about 7 years now and it has stood up to 70mph winds. They are not the cheapest to buy, but in the long run are.

[Terry T]

Mmm, vermin are a real problem. The only thing I’ve found to work is poison unfortunately, which I realise us not a nice option. I’ve also tried traps, chilli flakes, feral cat and terrier with no real success. I had them descend on my tomatoes in Nov and ended up harvesting them green to ripen indoors so I could get the plants out.

[Clarebelle]

Hi Clarebelle
Have a look at Keder polytunnels (http://www.kedergreenhouse.co.uk/) we've had one for about 7 years now and it has stood up to 70mph winds. They are not the cheapest to buy, but in the long run are.

Thanks, we have a community growing project on the island that has a couple of Keder tunnels. They have only been up a year so I am looking forward to seeing how they perform.

[DavidandCollette]

Early season we start carrot Rocket and peas in glittering suspended from the crop bars. Once established they slide off very easily into the ground. Water well first. Nice then leave them alone. We will be growing strawberries from 5" pipe with holes every 12" and suspended from crop bars. Keeps fruit clean and nice off. Also grow beetroot winter lettuce parsley and chard in the poly tunnel over winter

[Anke]

Early season we start carrot Rocket and peas in glittering suspended from the crop bars.

What's "glittering"...

[cloddopper]

I agree about having a polytunnel if at all possible.  I would suggest that in a very windy area such as Orkney you position the tunnel so a corner faces into the strongest winds.  Here our tunnel is placed west-east to catch the most sun and our strongest winds tend to come from the SW, so they catch the tunnel on the corner. We didn't plan this, just observe the outcome.   Direct southerlies tend to rip the cover off, by causing a vacuum on the north side, and straight westerlies or easterlies can smash the end in, where the door and louvres are.  But when the wind hits on a corner it seems to decrease the overall effect.


 
.

We seem to be suffering horribly from vermin in our veg areas here this year.  I think it's due to a neighbour digging out an old shed which rats etc used to lurk under, so now they are all coming to see us, and are rabidly vegetarian.  This means all our beetroot were hollowed out in the autumn, so no crop, and all legumes had their pods raided as they grew.  I think that's what destroyed the PSB.


Does anyone have any idea on how to prevent that sort of damage?  I'm finding it very disheartening.  I cope with the little devils in spring by starting most things off in 3" pots in bakers trays suspended from the crop bars, so that's no longer the problem.  It's so much worse to have spent the growing season nurturing all those lovely veg in the adverse conditions of where we live, only to feed vermin 

Hollowed out beetroot .. usually means voracious slugs , birds , millipedes or wood lice the attack starts in tiny cracks or where there is evidence of wet rot


Snails but mainly slugs & birds especially pigeons also cut out the green flesh on beans to get hold of the soft bean .

I think that rats themselves tend not to be green style vegetarian eaters .  They tend to be dry high starch / carbohydrate grains , dried legumes or oiled feed animal feed eaters.

 That said I have seen rats eating broken off sugar beet tap roots that have been brought to the surface when the field has been tilled and the weather has been horrific  such as during the severe winter of 1962/3 when farmers were having to use pneumatic road drills to get over wintering carrots out of the ground .

The rats didn't hollow the sugar beet out ,  they ate them completely . Starting from the biggest broken end then going right along it to the very thin tip .
Did you find any evidence of tiny chisel marks in pairs of the rats two front teeth on the beet roots ?

[cloddopper]

Early season we start carrot Rocket and peas in glittering suspended from the crop bars.

What's "glittering"...

Rain Guttering  channels  Anke .

[Fleecewife]

Early season we start carrot Rocket and peas in glittering suspended from the crop bars.

What's "glittering"...

Rain Guttering  channels  Anke .

Glittering is a typo.  Rones in Scotland.