Any good discoveries this year?

[MrsCordial]

I was wondering if anyone had planted anything for the first time this year and really had their socks knocked off?

I've grown mustard greens for the first time, two varieties, Green Wave and Dragon's Tongue (from Real Seeds). They're both delicious and have grown without a murmur. I'll definitely be growing more next year. It's such a good feeling when you try something new and it really works. Makes up for the kohl rabi, which have done bugger all

[WPG]

I've grown 4 varieties of courgette this year, but the best by far has been the yellow, warty skinned, Rugosa. It's much more manageable than the others (el greco, romanesco, 8 ball) in that the courgettes don't suddenly double in size overnight, and it's also cropped for the longest time. It also seems to cook the best (at least, the way I want to eat it- it's a much firmer courgette that doesn't turn to mush when cooked).
I'll definitely be growing it again next year.

[MrsCordial]

I'm planning to grow yellow courgettes next year. I saw some in another garden and fell for them. Bit tragic really!

[Tripmeup]

Athena Polka courgette plant- no further explanation needed.

..only thing to watch out for is the conditions that suited some plants/varieties this year may be different next year

[Potstubsdustbins]

Red Duke of York first earlies and Firestorm runners. Will deffo be growing both again.

Potty

[JoeDaStudd]

My rats tail radish are doing amazingly well, I've been eating them since the start of July and they are still flowering and producing pods.
Each plant has literally given hundreds if not thousands of pods already. Even after I cut one of them back to a 1' stump due to a caterpillar infestation its already grown back and have pods.
My new mustards and oriental greens are doing great too, but they have only just gone in.
O and potatoes and garlic in flower buckets are very much worth the small effect for the reward.

On the negative side asparagus peas while beautiful didn't live up to the hype and required constant attention once they started cropping (literally a day late and they taste horrid). Broad beans in pots where hit and miss, the hanging baskets worked far better then the flower buckets for some reason.

[Bren In Pots]

Di Nizza courgettes from seeds bought for 29p from Lidl

[tumbling tom]

California Wonder peppers!!

I know these are "ol skool" but I always grow alsorts of pepers and have never tried these.

Cannot believe how compact the plant is and how prolific they are. Each of my plants are on their third set of peppers this year and they take up no space at all.

Shame I didnt try this before as in previous years I have been a container gardner and this is the first year I have had a plot.

[poly]

Two varieties of beans,Trofeo a Dwarf French with really tasty filet beans and Red Swan another dwarf type with lots of delish pale red pods yum!

[Two_Sheds]

I was wondering if anyone had planted anything for the first time this year

Yep: caviar (black) lentils, from a pack out of the supermarket. We got lucky with the weather: hot & dry for weeks on end, which they like

[marchogaeth]

What a great thread! Sugar Pie Squash, also from Real Seeds (link above). It is scrummy.

Two new (to me) tomatoes that stand out are Latah (Real Seeds) and Makstoka (Free from a magazine that shall not be named). Maja (VSP) proved to be really good in a cold spring but I'm still out on the taste.

[vikkib]

I grew Rocket as first early spuds this year and they've been great. Very tasty and I'm still digging them up now, albeit much bigger, so they keep pretty well in the ground too!

Grew Hunter BNS for the first time and I'm pleasantly surprised how many fruit per plant I seem to have... finger's crossed the ripen in time!

Golden Sunrise toms, very nice.

Romanesco cauliflower... temperamental but very pretty and tasty.

Ooooh! And banana shallots from seed. From the tiny, little, fragile plants I stuck in the ground to massive bulbs of shalloty goodness in 3 months! Excellent! : )

[susieq100]

I too have grown Maskotka and Floridity tomatoes for the first time which have been great, but the mini plum pear shaped tomatoes (will have to look them up in my diary) have been wonderful! I'm going to plant twice as many of them next year ... the flavour is unbelievable! I was also very pleased with Sarpo Mira pototoes - good yield, nice flavour and they don't go 'lishy' when you cook them - even when you don't watch over them like a hawk.

[chris]

Two squashes I'm going to grow again are blue banana, and sweet potato (both available from realseeds). The blue bananas, are just incredible. My smallest one (had to harvest due to slug damage on the stem) is 3.8Kg.

The sweet potato look absolutely stunning, and have been incredibly prolific.

On the flip side, my snowman squash... only 1 per plant, so a bit of waste of space (unless, of course they taste amazing.. I'll report back on that).

[mothhawk]

Kohl rabi - what a terrific plant - apart from keeping the butterflies off it needs nothing special. Eat the leaves like kale, eat the bulbous stem either raw or roasted or steamed, lovely flavour, though I found the flavour got stronger if it was picked and left a day or two. It's at its sweetest and most delicate eaten straight from the garden