Vegetable Growing 2025

@hailbopp that cauliflower looks wonderful - every bit as good as, if not better, than the bought one I'm having tonight for Cauliflower Cheese. How weird about the tiddly ones. Must admit, I also like raw Cauli so I'd be inclined to scoff all those

 

Thanks @pete I’ll make a note to get myself off to Morrisons for a bag in February and follow your lead.

 

Wow!

 

Harvested some callaloo a few days ago,




Well, it was to cut back the bigger plants in order to let in more light for the adjacent African aubergines and the smaller callaloo seedlings beneath their canopies.


And, yesterday,



Spring onions and mint - you can never have too much of these.

 

Various garlic. Unfortunately most of my standard types have decided to produce lots of separate bulbs clustered together instead of a nice compact head. Still useful though!

 

For the first time in years our dwarf french beans are stringy! Not sure why...could it be lack of rain? Very disappointing but hope the other varieties will be OK.

 

Yes, lack of rain causing maturity before normal growth is made. The plant has made an attempt to reproduce to 'save the species' as it were. Did it contain the normal amount of seeds , did you notice ?

 

@infradig no we picked them before they had formed seeds.

 

Amaranth doing well. The direct sown ones almost caught up with the 3 week earlier transplanted ones. Tastes ok but a bit bitter raw.



Some squashes forming. its a nice bush size only 2 foot tall.

giant vesca berry, largest yet. Delicious. Likes full sun on top and moisture on bottom.

 

I planted banana peppers for the first time, but I did not realize how prolific they are. Lord only knows what we are going to do with them when they ripen, it is only my wife and me. I have a dozen plants in the greenhouse, peppers here, peppers there, peppers, peppers, everywhere.

.

 

@misterQ I've never come across the Callaloo before. Do you use them raw or steamed ? Yours certainly look enticing.

 

The weather has completely changed over night, heavy rain and not exactly balmy after being fried alive for days. Now the greenhouse is bearable to be in it I have been removing some of the lower leaves on the tomatoes.I have never bothered to do likewise with the cucumbers and always had a good crop but do others remove the lowers ones on their cucumbers?

 

I belive you use it like spinach. On my father's old Allotment site in S London a lot of the people of Jamaican heritage used to grow it.
When you asked them how to use it they would just say "put it in a pot and cook it all up" Not entirely helpful

 

Today's pickings, include, beetroot, French beans mixed colours, cucumbers, lettuce, a few sungold toms, courgettes, yellow and green, lots and lots of Plums, and a few figs swapped with plot neighbour for(guess what)--- a big punnet of Plums. Oh and some more new potatoes previously dug.

 

@Allotment Boy How we envy your plums. This year despite having fantastic flowers in the spring, one tree has died and the other has 6 plums. Elsewhere in the village friends have trees loaded down with plums. Not sure what has happened with ours.