Not to be grown list

[Flummery]

Welcome to the grapevine Ruthie - I'm a P S broccoli fan too.

[Winged one]

At the moment, I am sticking to things I know how to grow and like to eat. I agree with a lot that only early pots are worthwhile - I only realised recently how long maincrop have to stay in the ground and that's too long over the summer for my relatively small plot.

I am not going to bother with celery as we only eat a few packets of it a year. I may try fennel in the future, but have never eaten it as a veg (love the feathery bits straight from the plant though!!). I hate swedes (they're the big ones? we always called them turnips but I think real turnips are smaller?) with a passion, although DH will eat them. But MIL serves them often enough for Sunday lunch when we are there that I have never had to buy one!!

DH is not a fan of aubergines, so won't try those as have no greenhouse and want to reserve all my plastic shelter ideas for tomatoes and peppers (which we all love). Neither of us eat runner beans, but I am trying broad beans for the first time this year.

I haven't yet tried Kohl Rabi or Kale, and probably won't this year either, but I may in the future. I have a few experiments this year - leeks, squashes, pumpkin, broad beans, parsnips, peppers, brussels sprouts. I may also try a few beetroot.

[Madasafish]

With clay, I grow nothing that dislikes clay And it's a waste of time growing volume veggies?: so no root vegetables.. Bad value for effort.

Fruit, beans and more fruit is what we grow.

[jeannine]

Has anyone had success with strawberry spinach?

Unless I was doing something horribly wrong (which may well have been the case) I wont try that again. Mine was nothing like strawberries or spinach. The berries were tiny and just a mass of seeds and the leaves were too fiddly to harvest.

[momol]

Has anyone had success with strawberry spinach?

Unless I was doing something horribly wrong (which may well have been the case) I wont try that again. Mine was nothing like strawberries or spinach. The berries were tiny and just a mass of seeds and the leaves were too fiddly to harvest.

I haven't grown them Jeannine but ate the starwberry before (it is bland and slighly acidic and seedy) at the organic gardening show. The spinach looks pretty appetizing though (the non fruting stage).

[jeannine]

I would recommend cardoons, not that I've ever got round to blanching the stems and eating them, (be very interested to hear if anyone has?) but just because they look so fabulous and they are wonderful for wildlife - birds go mad for the seed heads.

[HeyWayne]

Puisonally, I won't be growing aubergines - I neither like, or dislike them, but LadyWayne doesn't like them full stop.

Not sure I can be bothered with cabbages either, or lettuce. We don't eat enough lettuce to make it worthwhile - I have salad in sandwiches, but other than that, it's rare we eat it.

I want to grow more in the way of flowers, introduce a bit more colour and wildlife interest to the plot.

As I'm fairly new to this I'm still discovering what I like to grow, so I'm trying pretty much anything at the moment, providing we eat it or like it.

[momol]

I am actually heading that way too HW as it is pointless to grow 5 types of lettuces yet we hardly eat them. I am more looking forward to growing veg that we want to eat (all year round if possible) but as my garden is fairly small and don't grow any bigger I found it harder to cope. Due to all that issues, got to be selective .
Things that I only eat couple of times per year can be bought from the farmer or even from the market / supermarket. So off I go to narrow down my choice and my seeds collections.

[jeannine]

I'm with you HW on the flowers front, it makes the lottie a much more lovely place to be. I go in my lunch hour and in summer I can bring back bunches of sweet peas, cornflowers or cosmos for the desks in our office!

[shaza114]

I won't try broccoli again - it never got past the seedling stage and swedes were hopeless too.

[Grovsey]

I wont bother with cauliflower, rotted from the inside out last year! Cabbage....mutilated by caterpillars.....

Elephant Garlic, not as nice as garlic and pretty useless for cooking.....

Yellow carrots...bitter tasting

pumpkins.....disaster last year as not warm enough

[sarahspatch]

How interesting that so many people dislike celery - I agree, I call it the food of the devil, can't stand it raw, though its ok when braised.

I've had success with fennel, never tried it previously but love it now. 'They' say its best to sow it after the longest day.

Couldn't grow peppers last year on the lottie, but that is probably due to the weather. That said, it has put me off after all the feeding and mollycoddling I gave them!

[muckdiva]

Really? What do they taste like raw (and cooked)?

Harvest them young and you can eat them like an apple. Lovely crispy texture (but don't let them get woody - then they are vile!)
Cooked - try a mixture of sliced courgette and khol rabi in a white sauce.... divine!

[muckdiva]

Did the HDRA Chickpea growing experiment last year, and not one chickpea from 18 plants..... The plants looked in great condition, and set lots of flowers, but they didn't seem to get pollinated (and too fiddly to do this by hand), so no pods at all. Waste of time - but you win some, you lose some.

I grew Oca (from Real Seeds catalogue) last year, and I'm undecided...they taste a bit like potatos, but slightly different texture (don't get blight though!)

[davefromthechipie]

Has to be cauliflower for me too I havn't had lmuch uck with them on this plot
Dont think il be doing carrots this year too .. maybe a fuw in a pot ( use last years seeds up) . great taste but so many problems and is cheaper to buy organic ones :/ . Last off is Asparagus only because i dont have the time/space at the moment. would like to try oneday