Penellype's 2015 Edible Garden Challenge

[cazp]

That looks brilliant Penellype! I can appreciate the effort it takes to grow all that veg in minimal space. I tried container gardening a few years back and grew loads of veg over around 3 months of summer but couldn't manage much in the months either side.

Nowadays I've got two small raised beds and some minarette trees these days and love the challenge of growing as much as I can in a small space but still not growing as much as I'd like outside of summer. Your posts show what is possible!

This year trying to extend the season this year with some winter cabbage, leeks, and three varieties of Kale, including Red Russian Kale which is meant to be good as a salad leaf. I'm planting Japanese onion seeds late in the summer for next year which is a new one for me.

Not growing it this year but I can highly recommend dragon's egg cucumber which I grew (2plants) in a large tub in a 6ft blowaway greenhouse a couple of years back, and they produced more cucumbers than we needed over the summer and they were the nicest I've tasted.

Look forward to seeing how your challenge progresses!

[Penellype]

5 new varieties today!

Tomato Balconi yellow - a week behind the Balconi red planted on the same day and grown in the same conditions. Carrot Marion - a couple pulled to check on size as the foliage was quite big. 3 varieties of strawberry all with the first fruit ripe on the same day - Elsanta, Marshmello and Vibrant.

Total varieties so far = 56

[Penellype]

Finally, after about 18 months in the ground, my garlic chives are big enough for me to dare to pinch a couple of leaves.

Total varieties so far = 57.

Having walked round the garden today I've decided the task I've set myself is far too easy. I've 23 varieties left to get to and I'm growing another 6 sorts of tomatoes, 4 sorts of potatoes, 3 sorts of beans, 3 sorts of courgettes, another 7 varieties of assorted fruit (possibly 8 if my single gooseberry survives to edible size) - and that alone adds up to 23 or 24. I've some more herbs, things like summer cabbage, calabrese, onions, more carrots and peas and some new sorts of chinese greens, plus the fussier things that might curl up and die like cucumbers and melons.

I'm going to move the goal posts. The target is now 100 Its going to take a bit of luck to get there I think, but its not impossible.

[Penellype]

First of the unnamed everbearer strawberries today.

Total varieties so far = 58.

[Nicos]

Would you like me to send you some white radish seed?...and if I can find them, some white carrot seed?

...just thinking that they are quick to grow ....

[Penellype]

That's kind of you Nicos, but I don't really like radish and I already have 6 large pots of carrots. I've plenty of varieties of seeds etc, the main issue will be if we get hit by blight before the tomatoes are ready, which happened in 2012.

[Penellype]

A few calendula (marigold) petals adding colour to my salad for lunch today.

Total varieties so far = 59.

[Penellype]

So, half way through the year and not quite at 60. I was going to do a stir fry chicken dish yesterday and use the onions (sturon) I moved in order to put in the cucumbers and melons, but it was too damn hot to do that sort of thing, so it will have to wait.

[Bigmallly]

the main issue will be if we get hit by blight before the tomatoes are ready, which happened in 2012.

Give 'em a spray of soluble aspirin Pene.

[Penellype]

Cheers BM, might be a thought if it looks like becoming humid as well as hot. I'm keeping an eye on Blightwatch.co.uk - the essential service for professional potato growers to see if there is anything approaching a smith period, and at the moment all seems ok, which is good. I did notice today that the aphids, which have completely coated some of the nasturtiums and invaded the apple tree, raspberries and the currant bush, have started to take up residence on the bush tomatoes. There definitely seem to be a large number of pests about this year. I was going to add ladybirds to my order of spider mite predators, but jibbed at the price of £38 for 100!

[Penellype]

Finally got round to cooking a risotto and used one of the transplanted onions (Sturon). Even though it has been grown in 100% shade (behind a bucket of potatoes) and in a couple of inches depth of sand and compost in a 6 inch gap between the patio and fence, it had formed a bulb about an inch wide and I felt a bit guilty using it as a spring onion. I love Sturon.

Also had a bit of an accident when pricking out my Rosedale lettuces (red cos variety) and broke one off at ground level. Decided it was better to eat it than compost it, so that's another variety.

Total varieties so far = 61.

[Penellype]

First little sprig of white currants tasted today to see if they are ready (nearly). Plenty more where those came from

Total varieties so far = 62.

[Penellype]

The race to produce the first edible sized courgette has been won by Green Bush, with these 2 beauties (teaspoon for size comparison).



Piccolo looked like winning as it was the first to produce a female flower, but the marble sized fruit has stubbornly refused to grow and looks like rotting despite being carefully hand pollinated by me. There will be more.

For the eagle eyed, yes that is an aphid at the bottom of the picture. It is now an ex-aphid.

Total varieties so far = 63

[Penellype]

A few chive flowers with my salad today. I bought the chives to go in the vertical pot garden earlier this year, so the leaves don't count, but the plant had no flowers on at the time, so they are home grown .

Total varieties so far = 64

[Penellype]

More than half way through the year now and I thought it was time to post some pictures to give an idea of where all this food is coming from. Because of the layout of the place it is difficult to do this without taking lots of pictures of small areas, so this is going to run over several posts due to the 5 pictures to a post limit. I've tried to include everything - the good, the bad and the downright ugly, to give an accurate picture of where things stand.

First post - Indoors.

The spare room (east facing):



The Balconi tomatoes were getting scorched by the hot sun and also were starting to lean alarmingly, so they have gone outside and the self watering trays are occupied by a mixture of lettuces.

The landing (south facing):



The snackbite peppers are loving the self watering tray and are much taller than last year (so much so that one of them may have to go outside). Plenty of fruit forming and bigger than last year. The remains of the last lot of lettuce on the left will be eaten at lunchtime today.

The sitting room (west facing):



My poor, poor Shirley tomatoes . This is my biggest mistake so far this year, and an expensive one. I noticed the leaves were looking a bit brown and crispy on the 4 plants on the right a while ago, but thought it could just be the sun as May had been an unusually sunny month. I completely failed to connect this problem with one I had had on the strawberries in my friend's greenhouse - red spider mite. I didn't even notice when the problem started to spread to the plants on the left and almost none of the flowers were setting desipte being hand pollinated. Then, last Wednesday, I looked through the window and noticed lots of dark dots on the glass at the top, which were moving. Closer inspection showed the tell tale webs on the leaves of the plants. I ordererd some predatory mites immediately. Unfortunately I found out later in the week that Wednesday is their delivery day, and because the predators are very perishable they don't order much more than they have orders for by the Monday, so my order will not be dispatched until today. Meanwhile I have cut off the worst affected leaves and wiped the mites off the window with a wet piece of kitchen roll, but I can see that they are spreading. I'm hoping I can salvage the fruit, and possibly that the plants will regrow from the bottom when the mites have gone.

The kitchen (facing south):



These are the overwintered Shirleys, plus a pot of surplus celeriac seedlings which are mostly helping to support the tomatoes. The spider mites have moved in here too, but the fruit is more mature and I should be able to eat most of it.

The utility room (grow lights):



Still doing sterling work with young seedlings - runner beans, cabbages, lettuces and Geisha peas, which are semi leafless and desperate to go outside when I have room for them...

A tip for those who struggle to remember to label things. You will notice several types and colours of pots. When I transplant seedlings I put each variety in a slightly different sort of pot, so I only need to label one of them. I can instantly tell that the 3 runner beans are all the same (Red Rum) - if I had panted more Stardust I would have used black pots for those.