Two veggie questions...oops 3 sorry!

[witch-1]

Question 1: Can I still sew swede? The packet says up to June

Question 2: We picked the first few runners today - they tasted lovely, but were on the stringy side? Any reason? Any solution?

Now my potatoes are dug up, we have a spare bed! Mmmm what to put in it?
Its at the north end of a south facing garden! Fairly sheltered. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance... nothing quite tastes like your own I'm discovering!
Jan
x

[Tigerella]

Hi

I have sown some Marian Swede seeds last week, they are ok.
I have also just sown cabbage, cauliflower and beetroot, and carrot.

Tigerella

[Hazel at the Hill]

Good, ain't it Witch!

I'm still learning, but I'm still sowing swede. Seymour says that you can follows potatoes with leeks (think you're a bit late to sow them tho'...) or turnips, so I'm sowing short rows of turnip as the spuds come out and also kohl rabi and celeriac, as I think they are the same sort of thing. Hope I'm not sowing in vain, tho'!

[rustylady]

Your runner beans really shouldn't be stringy at this time of year. How long are they?

[Salina]

when I harvest my spuds I'll have one large tub and several spare pots, so I'm going to sow some turnips ready to go in the tub and not sure what I'll oput in the spare pots yet, probably my squashes when they get a bit bigger.
so maybe you should put you're turnips in there? or maybe grow some lettuces or something, tubs are great for growing those because there's some much space.

[Flummery]

Salad stuff can still be sown. I'm sure you'll be ok with swede too, though I'm not a swede expert (yet - had some good advice on here so I might be eventually).
I've never really got on with the texture of runner beans so I always grow climbing french now. They shouldn't be tough at this time of year but to my mind they always have a 'stringy' quality that I just don't like. This year I have climbing french bean 'empress' which has the most beautiful purple flowers. I hope the pods are as colourful!

[witch-1]

The few runners that I picked (I mean few too, there were 5) were from 8 - 6 inches, the shorter ones were quite wide! As I buy these all year from the supermarket as we love them I knew roughly what size they should be.

One was particularly 'woody' when slicing it.

As I said flavour was great, texture was poor.

I shall sow some swedes this week and see what we produce for the winter months.

And go looking for something else to add to the bed.

Thanks
Jan

[SueA]

Hi Jan, you have to watch the variety with runner beans & try & pick one which says 'stringless' & pick them very young or they do go woody. Not sure what else to suggest except to keep them well fed & watered (not really necessary at the moment!). In the bed where you've had potatoes you could always try another crop of potatoes for an autumn picking. I know we're supposed to rotate crops but I think it was gardener Peter Seabrook who said he was going to grow a second crop of spuds in the same compost as the first as he thought 2 crops grown for about 3 or 4 months each was only the same as growing a crop which grew all summer long in the same place (his might have been in containers though). You could always try a few french beans in there as well as you should get a crop before the frosts.