What I harvested in 2024.

[ameno]

Carrots, peppers, and the first bucket full of sweet potatoes. And some more apples.

[Nicos]

More apples here too…almost over now.

[ameno]

Some more sweet potatoes.

[peanut]

The last of the peppers and chillies and tomatoes, big bowls of both.

[Bren In Pots]

Kale and carrots.

[ameno]

More apples, and some beetroot.

[Mark Rand]

cleared the last of the tomato plants out of the greenhouse and got 1.25kg of usable tomatoes out. All the unusable ones went in the rubbish bin (so the compost heap isn't infested with tomato plants) and the plants went on the heap. sieved the top of the compost and raked it flat.

[ameno]

A bucket of cape gooseberries, and two more buckets of sweet potatoes.

[bramble]

A bucket of cape gooseberries, and two more buckets of sweet potatoes.

Ameno...Would you have ny tips on growing Cape gooseberries please.
Do you grow them under cover and are the plantain containers or in the ground.

[ameno]

Ameno...Would you have ny tips on growing Cape gooseberries please.
Do you grow them under cover and are the plantain containers or in the ground.

Outside in the ground.
It took me a while to get the hang of growing them, too. They develop too slowly from seeds, and the fruits always barely begin to ripen by the time the first frosts hit.
I've learnt that to get a good crop from them you need to grow them on a 2 year cycle. Sow the seeds in about June, bring them on, and pot them up as far as 1 or 2 litre pots. The overwinter those somewhere frost free (they don't seem to mind the cold, but cannot withstand frost), and plant them out late the following May.
You can also take cuttings from the new growth of these overwintered plants in March or April. They root in water after about 2 weeks, and the plants grow a lot quicker than seed-grown ones.

From year 3 (that is, the year after your first successful crop) onwards you can skip the stage of sowing seeds yourself in June. The plants do it for you. They self-seed quite freely where they were grown the previous year, especially in compost made from last year's plants (much like tomatoes do), and these self-sown plants can just be dug up and potted on in about late September or early October, ready to bring inside over winter.
It might also be worth trying to take cuttings in the summer to bring on to over-winter, although I've never tried it that way.

Be warned, the second year plants grow very large. I overwintered three from last year and between them they have completely take over the 2mx1m raised bed they are in, and half a metre or more in all directions beyond the bed. They have a very spreading growth habit, and never stop growing or producing flowers. They completely smothered the poor pepper plants I had in there with them.

Also, even using this method the bulk of the crop comes quite late. You get a few early ones, but you won't start picking in bulk until October, then it continues until the first proper frosts (light ones they seem to shrug off). They will continue to ripen on the plant even in cold weather, just as long as the plants are alive.
If you get early frosts where you are, you may need to consider growing them in a greenhouse or polytunnel.

[bramble]

Thank you so much Ameno for all your very useful information.
You have given me plenty to think about
We are fortunate in the area we live in as we dont tend to get any early frost.
Looking forward to the challenge. .

[Bren In Pots]

Chard and carrots today.

[ameno]

Went around picking everything that might be damaged by the coming frosts:
Another bucket of cape gooseberries, a bucket of dry beans for shelling, all of the remaining peppers, all of the remaining apples, and all of my persimmons (only 5 this year).

[ameno]

Dug up the first of the yacon (about half a bucket full).