tonight I am eating

[Does the Cooking]

My loved one and I are having Duck - with it we are having a tomato and herb (basil, chives and parsley); grilled courgettes with some peas.

So what? Well I have grown everything from seed my self. ( except the duck, off course, that was £1 on special offer from Sainsbury's - it had reached its sell by date.

I am still very much an amateur. I only have a back yard and its all in containers filled with five grow bags. One mistake I made is that I threw some of the plants that grew away. No one wanted them. Next year I'm keeping them.

I don't think I will recoup the money I'v espent on grow bags and containers etc. But I'll still have the latter next year (so it'll be more cost effective - but thats not the main motivation).

Is there stuff I can grow for the winter? What?

[Alice]

Potatoes


Hello Does the cooking, congratulations on your success and no the cost is not the only consideration. As you have discovered there is the pleasure of grow your own. Duck is my very favourite and tou could grow some gorgeous potatoes to go with it. The attached piccy is the potatoes (Charlotte) I grew in a bucket and had for dinner today. Flavour just gorgeous. They were supermarket potatoes (from a Scottish grower where potatoes are disease free) 2 planted in a bucket so quite a good return. You are not too late to plant some now. You could still plant some carrots in containers and purple top Milan turnips along with your succession of salad leaves. I'm sure other grapes will be along to tell you what you can grow for the winter. I'll be watching with interest myself.

[Shortie]

Well done Does The Cooking. Still waiting for produce from mine...

Chard can be grown over winter if you like the stuff. You can get garlic started (needs an October planting - the cold snap is what gives seperate cloves and not just one massive lump). That said, garlic will stay put until the following summer so not sure if you want the pots still taken up by it at that time...?

You can also grow leeks, brussels and parsnips I think over winter...?

[JennieAtkinson]

Does the cooking and grows it too! Well done. We had a meal last night from all home grown veg, its a great feeling.

Alice - when you say supermarket potatoes, are they ones you buy in Somerfield/Tesco? Nick was saying in another thread about growing new potatoes in tubs for Christmas. Could I use supermarket ones? Or is that risking it a bit, with potential for disease.

[Alice]

Hi Jennie, I used the potatoes I bought in Asda and intend to carry on doing so. I know there was quite a debate on the site about the risk of disease and buying certified seed potatoes BUT the certified seed comes from Scotland (disease free) so if you look for potatoes from a Scottish grower you should be allright. Also if you are growing in tubs you won't contaminate your ground. The potatoes in the pic were Charlotte from Asda and a Tayside grower. Planted 2 in that bucket 14 weeks ago and pleased with the crop and the flavour is excellent. Have other buckets and dustbins on the go and just about ready. I intend to just keep planting in succession. have some Nadine and Rooster on the go so will report how that goes. I would get going and plant the potatoes from Tesco in the tubs Jennie.

[JennieAtkinson]

Thanks for that Alice. Will visit shop tomorrow for a reckie.

[SueA]

Hi Does The Cooking, you could grow something like Swiss chard in containers which you can crop through autumn/winter , or if you want something which will grow overwinter & be ready to eat early next year you could try autumn planting shallots,garlic or onions in pots or growbags (the onions would just be a bit smaller than grown in the ground).you can also carry on sowing things like radishes & salad leaves which will carry on until late in the year.