Penellype's 2015 Edible Garden Challenge

[vixylix]

Really interesting to see your results Penellype - I bet you end up doing not far off the same number again next year though!

[Bigmallly]

Good grief Pene................

[1Bee]

I'm going to print that lot out for reference....

[Penellype]

I will add more notes on other categories soon, although some of the varieties haven't really got going yet so the notes are not complete.

[Penellype]

HERBS

Another category where most have finished.

I'm not a great user of herbs, although I will occasionally use some for flavourings.

- Basil (pot) last year's plant overwintered on the windowsill. Lack of space and enthusiasm prevented me from growing any more.
- Chervil (pots) my favourite herb, which I like in spring salads. Grown early on the windowsill and then on the pole garden (not a great success there). Tends to run to seed quickly, probably because it hasn't much space..
- Chives (pot on pole garden) plant bought from garden centre – my previous plant succumbed to a bad attack of rust. Grew remarkably well considering it was at the bottom of the pole and therefore very shady, producing a couple of flowers which I like in salads.
- Florence Fennel Sirio (flower border) old seed of a plant that I have never managed to grow for more than the leaves. Thinnings were used in salads and 2 plants planted out in early August. These grew into really nice bulbs, much better than expected.
- Garlic Chives (pot on pole garden) sown last year when they produced a pathetic little tuft of sick looking foliage. Would have been thrown away but given a chance right at the bottom of the pole garden in almost total shade. Produced some edible leaves and even a few flowers.
- Oregano (pot) Used occasionally as a flavouring. Not very happy in its smallish decorative pot, but took over a huge amount of garden when planted in the soil and seeds itself everywhere. Keeps getting a reprieve because the bees like it and it is pretty when in flower.
- Parsley French (veg garden soil) sown in a pot last year and dumped in a small shady corner when it got too big. Lasted all winter but then went to seed, got very tall and became a real nuisance so it was removed. I might grow this again, undecided.
- Parsley Moss Curled (pot on pole garden) barely managed to survive in a very shady position, but doing better now it is getting more light. Tiny amounts harvested so far, and I prefer the flavour of the French version. Might grow it again on a pole garden next year.
- Thyme Lemon (path) bought to fill a difficult gap in the gravel on the path (has to cope with flooding as well as being trodden on). So far doing well where other plants have failed, and provides occasional flavouring as a bonus.

[Bigmallly]

Gordon Bennett....................Ever thought of writing a book...............

[Penellype]

I've hardly started yet...

Dunno about a book - sounds like a lot of hard work to me.

[Penellype]

Variety no. 101 going into the lunchtime salad today - Komatsuna Torasan. This is supposed to be winter hardy so will hopefully keep going for a while yet.

[Penellype]

MAINCROP VEGETABLES – SUMMER HARVEST

Almost all of these have now finished or it is fairly obvious how well they have performed.

Beans
Not my favourite vegetable so they have to be good to be grown here.
- French Purple Teepee (pots, pole garden/ fence) plenty of tasty beans over a long period including some early, on the windowsill (plants got a bit big). Some blackfly and red spider mite.
- French Topcrop (pot on pole garden) a few beans from 3 plants – more blackfly, less flavour, much shorter cropping time and nowhere near as prolific as Purple Teepee. Not worth repeating.
- Runner Stardust (white flowered) (veg garden soil) huge quantities of almost stringless beans from 4 plants, many of them ready at the same time which was a shame.
- Runner Red Rum (pots) smaller but tastier beans than Stardust from later sowing. Performed very respectably growing up the arch with 1 plant in each of 2 5 litre pots. I haven't grown runner beans in pots before.

Courgettes
A staple ingredient in soups, but this year I lost the battle with the mountain of fruits. 8 plants is too many, although I usually lose some to mildew, but didn't this year.
- Goldmine (flower border, veg garden soil, pot) yellow variety that I liked very much last year. Many early fruits appeared not to have been pollinated and fell off. One plant took off in September, producing 10 courgettes at once. Will probably grow 1 plant next year, not 3.
- Green Bush (flower borders, veg garden soil, pot) reliable old favourite, not exciting but very prolific. The plants in the flower borders have 4 fruits per plant at any given time. 4 plants is too many!
- Piccolo (pot) round fruited variety I grew last year and only grew again because of this challenge. Fruits can get large very quickly if they set, but often fall off when small. Total yield from 1 plant this year was 3 courgettes. I won't grow this one next year.

Onions
I like to plant 100 sets which means I have enough onions to last the year. Spring onions would be used in stir fries if I could grow them.
- Sturon (veg garden soil) reliable old favourite grown from sets. Store very well and produce lovely sweet onions which are not too strong. Last year's crop was extremely good and stored onions didn't start to sprout until July. This year the onions are smaller due to being planted in a shadier place, but the crop looks reasonable and should last well into next year.
- Spring Onion Furio (pot, veg garden soil) Red variety. Last year's crop was left to overwinter in its pot in the hope that it would grow a bit. A few strands of grass-like foliage were eaten in spring, a couple of tiny bulbs were used in the summer. This year's crop fared much worse – of 8 modules sown with a pinch of seed each, one pathetic onion survived long enough to plant out, and was eaten when about 2mm thick as it appeared to have stopped growing. I won't be growing these again.
- Spring Onion Ramrod (veg garden soil) new for this year in an attempt to find a spring onion that will grow here. These grow well at my friend's house (where I do nothing different) making very respectable spring onions very quickly with little attention. Here they did actually survive and have been planted out, and are now just about big enough to use, whereas those sown at my friend's at the same time are huge. Not going to bother with these again here.

Peas
Summer wouldn't be the same without home grown peas so I make several sowings to keep me supplied for as long as possible, hopefully with some left over to freeze.
- Geisha (pot) late variety which I usually find produces a tiny crop due to slug damage. This year I experimented with growing them in a 30 litre pot due to lack of anywhere else to put them, and they did much better, producing a respectable number of peas in small pods (upto 7 peas each) over a 2 week period.
- Half Pint (pot) a very dwarf variety which I tried to grow on the windowsill very early in the year. Some of the plants died, but others did produce peas, although pods were small, with upto 4 peas but often 1 or 2. Nice to have fresh peas at the end of March, so I probably will grow these again.
- Hurst Green Shaft (flower border) my standard maincrop pea, also used this year for pea shoots in early spring. Bumper crop of lovely long pods with upto 12 peas in each.
- Meteor (flower border) early variety grown for a few peas in June. Did well this year.
- Onward (flower border) another maincrop variety, not as good as Hurst Greenshaft in my opinion. Pods tend to be full of air at first making it hard to tell when they are ready. I will finish the seeds as pea shoots and not buy any more, having bought Terrain (mildew resistant) to try instead.

Peppers
I'm not mad about peppers although the snackbite orange are nice. I can't eat chillies at all (too hot).
- California Wonder (pots) these were a variety I grew last year, which produced small red peppers (because I had them in a small pot on the windowsill), some of which lasted into the new year. Not particularly special and I won't be growing them again.
- Snackbite Orange (pots) a new variety last year, again lasting into the new year. Small pointed orange peppers grown on the windowsill. Very sweet and the only peppers I've found that I am happy to eat raw in salads. Did well on the windowsill again this summer. Will probably try the red and yellow varieties as well next year.

Potatoes
The aim is to grow enough potatoes to last me the whole year.
- Charlotte (pot, bags, dustbin) my favourite new potato with lovely flavour and texture. Huge crops this year with a bigger yield than some of the equivalent buckets of Desiree.
- Desiree (pots) my favourite maincrop variety, gorgeous mashed. 2 pots out of 6 still to harvest but 3 pots disappointing after some foliage died back very early. The other pot was better with some huge potatoes, but with a lot of scab.
- Rocket (pots) very early variety grown for potatoes in June. Good yields of decent sized new potatoes were nice until the Charlotte was ready, after which I had to be strict with myself and eat these first. I may try Lady Christl or Abbot next year if I can find them.
- Sarpo Axona (pot) maincrop variety similar to Desiree, blight resistant but in my opinion not quite as nice. Decent yield from one bucket grown in heavy shade from a late planting.
- Sarpo Mira (pot, water butt) very respectable yield of 4.1kg from 5 seed potatoes in water butt (very shady). Still to harvest 1 bucket.

Tomatoes
I rarely eat a meal without tomatoes, so if I could only grow one thing it would have to be these. Plants are outdoors unless otherwise stated.
- Balconi Red (3l pots) 1st time for this variety. Started off on windowsill and produced steady stream of large cherry tomatoes from mid June. Moved outside towards end of June as getting too big for the windowsill. Continued producing into August and a few late tomatoes in September.
- Balconi Yellow (3l pots) as for the red variety, slightly later to fruit. More fruit overall and plants fruited sporadically into October, but less taste. I probably won't grow the yellow one again.
- Belle (11 litre pot) beefsteak variety I haven't grown here before. Grown in the growhouse and all green fruit now brought indoors to ripen. Fruits tended to get damaged and 2 of the 5 big ones rotted before ripening properly. Nothing is quite ready to eat yet.
- Garden Pearl (chiligrow/quadgrow/veg garden soil) another new variety to me. 2 plants emerged from what appeared to be 1 seed in 2 of the pots. Very floppy and more a hanging basket type – collapsed stems and thick foliage makes seeing the fruit difficult and some got botrytis. Plenty of cherry tomatoes, flavour improves with cooking.
- Roma VF (veg garden soil) another on trial. Appears to be a bush variety and has produced a disappointingly small crop with disappointingly little flavour even when cooked. Prepared to blame the weather for the poor performance and give these another go in my friend's greenhouse next year.
- Shirley (3l pots indoors, flower border) my favourite red tomato, the benchmark by which all others are judged. 12 windowsill plants on self watering trays were growing beautifully until red spider mite struck when they had formed 1 or 2 trusses of fruit. The plants were completely killed, but I still managed to eat about 50 tomatoes ripened on the dying plants. I managed to salvage 2 healthy sideshoots and grow them outside. Growing well with plenty of large fruit, which didn't start turning red until October. These are always a bit of a gamble outdoors and the plants would have stayed inside but for the spider mite.
- Sungold (veg garden soil) my favourite overall. 5 plants have really struggled this year and are a pale reflection of the tangled jungle 5 plants made last year. Yields have been bitterly disappointing as a result, although the tomatoes are gorgeous as usual.
- Sweet Aperitif (veg garden soil) tried for the first time after rave reviews from various sources. Plants are even more pathetic than the neighbouring Sungold. Fruits are tiny and not a patch on Shirley taste-wise. I won't be growing them again as I prefer larger fruit.
- Totem (chiligrow/quadgrow) normally early bush variety which I usually cram into any available small space. Produces full-sized fruit with tough skins and only moderate flavour but useful for cooking. Better placing and self watering pots resulted in much larger crops this year (the stems collapsed under the weight of the fruit and had to be staked for the first time in 4 years), although the variety does seem more susceptible to disease than some. I will continue growing it until I can find a better large fruited bush.

[Bigmallly]

Looks like you have already written a book & copied this lot out of it.........................well done you!

[Penellype]

Its an ongoing document I've been updating for some time. However as far as a book would go it is incomplete, as I haven't grown all sorts of fruit and veg for various reasons.

[Penellype]

Variety 102 yesterday, but cheating a bit. Tomato Belle (beefsteak variety) produced 8 fruit (5 large, 3 small) in the growhouse. One large one got botrytis on the stem in July and rotted while still green. Another was picked when just starting to turn yellowish in late September, and this one is turning red at a rate which makes me think it might be Christmas before it is ripe. Behind this one was another large one which seemed to have a small damaged area on it, so I picked it too and put it in a separate dish. This one has been turning red slowly at one side and rotting at about the same rate at the other side where the damage was. Yesterday I decided that if I was going to get anything off it at all I had better eat what was edible, so I did - 1 thin slice. It was only really half ripe even though the skin was red and it tasted of nothing much. The remaining fruit have now been picked (one is quite badly split) and are attempting to ripen in the sitting room. If I am extremely lucky I may get 2 large ripe fruit, if not there may not be anything else at all.

I have no idea why I try to grow beefsteak tomatoes in my garden - it doesn't get enough sun for long enough to ripen them.

[Elfeda]

have you ever tried to cook unripe tomato? you can treat it as just like cooking apple

I have 4 bunches of tomato's at south east corner of the house and fence. hardly get any sun.. I do not worry about getting them ripen.

[Penellype]

I haven't tried cooking them - I tend to leave them to ripen if possible. Interesting idea though, which I may try if these big ones don't ripen up.

[Bigmallly]

I haven't tried cooking them - I tend to leave them to ripen if possible. Interesting idea though, which I may try if these big ones don't ripen up.

Keep some red food colouring at hand Pene.................