Penellype's 2015 Edible Garden Challenge

[Penellype]

Sounds much like what I did Chris. I think my breakthrough came when I realized that you could actually grow real veg (carrots, cabbages, potatoes etc) in pots. I couldn't possibly have grown this much stuff if I only had soil, even if I had dug up all the patio area.

One of my "tricks" is to use the garage to start off pots of seeds if I am short of space - I've done this for spinach and carrots as well as potatoes, and it can give you an extra couple of weeks overlap, which you could never do if crops were in the soil. Similarly buckets of potatoes go into the garage once the foliage dies down, even if I am not ready to harvest them, to make room for something else.

[Lumpy]

Penellype - I have been reading your thread for a year now and just to let you know that I think that you are...........

[Penellype]

Thanks Lumpy

[Penellype]

So here it is - variety 110 is mispoona.

I was planning to nip off a few small leaves for a salad, but decided to pot up the plants into a bucket to go in the growhouse, as like many brassicas, they are finding my house on the warm side. While potting them up a leaf broke off, so I took the opportunity to eat it.

I've not grown this before - its a cross between mizuna and tatsoi. From the tiny sample of one very small leaf, I found it very pleasant - less coarse and mustardy than mizuna.

[KevinM67]

Penellype - I have been reading your thread for a year now and just to let you know that I think that you are...........



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I've got to agree with Lumpy.

One of the few/various threads I've kept track of religiously throughout the year.

Fair play to you Pen, and I look forward to 2016's travails.

[Penellype]

I've got to agree with Lumpy.

One of the few/various threads I've kept track of religiously throughout the year.

Fair play to you Pen, and I look forward to 2016's travails.

Thanks Kevin

[vixylix]

Challenge complete Penellype?! What is your challenge for 2016?

[Penellype]

Yes, the challenge finished at the end of the year with just one crop that I had hoped to sample but wasn't ready (giant winter spinach).

I'm not really sure what this year's challenge is going to be. I've learned a lot from last year, including what I really don't like and is therefore a waste of time and space, so I don't think I will be pushing for quite so many varieties this year.

Currently I am still finalizing the plans for what I am going to grow where, which I'm finding difficult this time. The main problem is the long bed near the leylandii hedge, which is becoming full of tree roots, depriving it of nutrients and water. I don't think there is much I can do about this in the long term apart from convert it back to container growing. I have a vague idea of how I might go about this which is linked to the success I had with self watering pots last year. My idea is to use the quadgrow type planters either sitting on top of the current soil or with the reservoirs buried to reduce the height a bit, which I can then use for a variety of crops by changing the type of pots. I did this last year on the patio using a saladgrow planter for spinach, then replacing the shallow top with 4x 11 litre pots for tomatoes, and it worked quite well. If I put the bases on the soil I can put up a support frame anchored rather better than I can do on the paving, and grow the cordon tomatoes in pots. My difficulties with this plan are that these planters are expensive (my brother kindly gave me a quadgrow veg planter for Christmas, but I would need several more) and I'm not sure what would happen to the reservoirs in a hard frost - they might break, and also some plants really do need soil rather than pots, especially the maincrop peas and onions. By converting the long bed to pots I would seriously reduce the available positions for peas, and as I do tend to get pea moth which overwinters in soil, crop rotation of peas is essential.

I'll solve it somehow, but it is proving a bit of a tease at the moment.

[vixylix]

The best kind of tease though - I love garden planning even though I find it stressful in such a small space! Good luck with everything!

[Penellype]

I don't think I will be pushing for quite so many varieties this year.

Err...

Just counted up the varieties on my list for this year. Including a few which I am only going to grow at my friend's house, the number currently stands at 118



This could be why I am struggling to fit them all into this year's plan.

[Bigmallly]

I look forward to reading your 2016 book.................

[Jungle Jane]

You've done amazingly well,I could never keep track of 118 varieties!!

[Penellype]

Just spent most of the evening trying to create a list of what to plant when and where - got as far as March so far. Keeping track of the varieties isn't that hard, deciding where to put them and remembering what I've decided is somewhat tricky.

[Containergardener]

What fantastic reading, so informative . Really gives me confidence to try more.
Amazed just how much you managed.

Off to catch up on 2016 now. I too look forward to a book