Penellype's 2015 Edible Garden Challenge

[Penellype]

Couldn't resist sampling a blueberry (Bluecrop) today. Very nearly ready . I love blueberries.

Total varieties so far = 75.

[Penellype]

Ate my gooseberry (Captivator) today as it was changing colour. This is the only fruit on a very young bush that was bought in a small pot at about 1ft high earlier this year. The fruit was quite sweet for a gooseberry and I'm looking forward to more next year, if the damn sawflies leave the poor bush with any leaves at all.

Also harvested the first of the gorgeous Snackbite Orange peppers from my landing windowsill today, but that doesn't count for this challenge as I overwintered a plant and ate one from that earlier this year.

Total varieties so far = 76.

[Penellype]

First of the green dwarf french beans (Topcrop) today. 3 plants planted in a 2 litre pot on my pole garden. These are not a patch on my favourite Purple Teepee planted in an identical way on the same day and grown in the next door pot on the same pole, which have been giving me beans for a couple of weeks. Both are starting to suffer from blackfly, which have killed their neighbouring nasturtiums.

Total varieties so far = 77

[Penellype]

2 new varieties in the salad today - choy sum and mibuna (both baby leaves). I grew some choy sum last year but nothing was edible, so its already done better this time. Tastes very similar to pak choi. Not grown mibuna before - it has quite a distinctive taste and is rather nice. Also the first of the Sungold tomatoes from my friend's greenhouse, but they don't count. The ones at home are coming along very slowly but one fruit has an orange tinge to it this morning so they should not be long.

Total varieties so far = 79.

I wonder which variety will be number 80. My money is on the runner beans, but I could be wrong!

[Lumpy]

You are a real inspiration to the rest of us......

[Penellype]

Thanks, Lumpy. Keeping track of things in order to post accurately on here helps, and there are some things I would never have tried if I wasn't aiming for a target, notably the mibuna. There are some things I won't bother with again (one is chard, which I really didn't like very much), but at least I have tried them.

[maverick451]

First of the Malwina (late) strawberries today. There are not many of these as they came off worst when the tower pot was blown over in the spring. Still, a strawberry is a strawberry, and it looks like there will be another one tomorrow

Total varieties so far = 74

Would you recommend Malwina Penellype? going to try a late strawberry next season.

[Penellype]

Malwina is a slightly strange variety, at least the plants I have do somewhat odd things. Last year I had maybe 5 or 6 fruits which decided to grow mini plants out of the tip, which obviously made them inedible.



Some of them also seem to fail to ripen at the stalk end - I pulled one off today that was still very green at that end but over-ripe to the point of being rotten at the tip. On the plus side they do have a nice flavour and they are noticably later than the ordinary varieties like Elsanta.

[Penellype]

2 new varieties today, so a dead heat for 80th place. Runner bean Stardust (2 beans) and 1 Sungold tomato harvested today.

Total varieties so far = 81

Also brought in 2 apples which I clumsily knocked and broke off the tree. They are not yet fit to eat, so I can't claim them as a variety, but if they ripen I will eat them. One for the "pending" tray!

[Penellype]

First of the Dixie blueberries eaten today.

Total varieties so far = 82

[Penellype]

I'm now struggling under a mountain of veg, particularly courgettes and carrots but also potatoes and calabrese (which is producing side shoots faster than I can eat them). Decided to do a "snapshot" of what is available so that I don't forget to harvest things.

Currently ready to harvest:
Courgettes (Green Bush, Goldmine, Piccolo)
Potatoes (Rocket, Charlotte, Desiree)
Carrots (Marion, Nantes Frubund)
Calabrese (Sakura)
Beans (Purple Teepee, Topcrop)
Peas (Onward - nearly finished)
Tomatoes (Shirley indoors, Balconi red and yellow, Sungold just starting)
Pepper (Snackbite Orange indoors)
Onion (Sturon)
Lettuce (Rosedale)
Nasturtium (flowers and leaves)
Baby leaves (Choy Sum, Komatsuna Comred, Mibuna)
Spring onions (Furio, Ramrod - still small)
Herbs (Parsley flat leaf, Parsley curled, Chervil, Thyme, Oregano, Chives, Garlic Chives, Fennel)
Calendula flowers
Blueberries (Bluecrop, Dixie)
Strawberry (Malwina - nearly finished)
Wild strawberries

Available soon
Potato (Sarpo Mira, Sarpo Axona)
Carrot (Autumn King, Nantes 2)
Runner Bean (Stardust)
Tomato (Garden Pearl)
Red cabbage (Kalibos)
Leek (Oarsman)
Mizuna (Red Knight)
Strawberry (Buddy)

Coming along nicely:
Runner Bean (Red Rum)
Tomato (Roma, Belle, Sweet Aperitif, Totem)
Pea (Geisha)
Cabbage (Pixie)
Leek (Albana)
Lettuce (mix, Relic, Valmaine)
Pak Choi (mix)
Strawberry (Everbearer)
Raspberry (Allgold)

Somewhat disappointing so far
Apple (James Grieve)
Cucumber (Vega)

Very disappointing so far:
Melon (Alvaro, Magenta)
Cauliflower (All Year Round)

In progress for later crops:
Brokali (Endeavour)
Broccoli (Early Purple)
Kohlrabi (Vienna Mix)
Spinach (Amazon)
Turnip (Snowball)
Florence Fennel (Sirio)
Beetroot (Boltardy)
Namenia

Still to sow:
Spring Cabbage (Spring Hero)
Komatsuna (Torasan)
Lettuce (Winter Gem)
+ indoor salad crops
+ anything else I decide to play with

If everything on this list except the melons and cauliflower produces something edible, I reckon I am on course for 103 varieties

[Penellype]

New variety Komatsuna Comred baby leaves in the salad today. These taste a bit like pak choi and are a really deep purple, very attractive.

Total varieties so far = 83

[Penellype]

New variety Spring Onion Ramrod in the stir fry tonight. These are finally just about big enough to think of using the thinnings as a bit of flavouring. I can't grow decent spring onions here to save my life, which is really odd as the same varieties (from the same seed packets) treated the same way grow nicely at my friend's house. From sowings at the same time, treated in a similar manner, mine are the thickness of a pencil lead, hers are thicker than an pencil. Same thing happened last year, when I couldn't even get most of the damn things to germinate here, and the ones that did seemed to want to grow upside down! The problems start in the modules, so its not the soil that's the difference.

Total varieties so far = 84

[Nicos]

yey!!!..you're getting there- soooo good to see this

[Penellype]

Its coming along - I will feel happier when the tomatoes to turn red and the cucumber decides that the object of the exercise is fruit, not all female flowers that turn yellow and drop off. The rest of the remaining varieties (not including the melons and caulflower which were always a gamble), with the possible and hugely surprising exception of the apple, look like coming up trumps.