Vegetable Growing 2025

I've had a few of my sets bolt, I just take the flower off and let them carry on, as said they are best used directly after harvesting at the same time as the rest, they often have a core in the middle but its still all edible.

 

They can be 'shortlisted' for use as salad onions as you require them .Its a lesson to the others, and the early flowering is mainly due to improper storage (by the stores) during the dormant phase. (Too warm in the shop ?)

 

I got fed up with onions bolting from sets, I have found that growing from seed is less affected.

 

You can eat them raw Tinkerbelle as long as they are green or just boil for a couple of minutes when they are a bit bigger. They go nicely with a white sauce. When the scar where they are attached to the pod looks black they are edible but not so nice.

 

Thanks to the warm and dry spring I got my first picking of fresh coriander earlier than usual.







And, with no pest damage!

 

I've had quite a few crops of coriander, mines bolting now. I forgot to resow it so have done so today along with lettuce for summer, more dill, some perilla seeds I found. Also trying some grumolo Verde chicory for leaves over summer

 

Not veg but we had our first picking of Strawberries yesterday. Another landmark moment of the season.

 

Steamed broad beans with rice and chopped grilled bacon is an old recipe of my late Dads I have on occasion.

 

Ah good to know as I assumed it was because of the way I am growing them, all in large containers or vegtrug, planted with home compost, leaf mould, blood fish and bone and well rotted horse manure. Just with it being hot for so long then all the rain we’ve just had, I thought maybe it was lack then too much water.

 

Think I might try with seed, would I start them in October or sooner for next years harvest?

 

How do you eat dill @Hanglow ? I’ve got some growing this year and it’s going mad, I don’t mind the taste but can only think to put it in a sauce for fish.

 

I chop it finely then slice cucumber and combine the two in a glass dish with cider vinegar. Then cover and leave in the fridge for at least an hour before eating. Keeps well for a few days.

I also use it in copious amounts when I make my own gravadlax - cured salmon.

 

I grow lots of lettuce and other leaves for salad so I always have some dill in the salad. It's also great with rice, many different veg, potato salad, tzatziki and other dips etc, as well as with the previously mentioned fish and pickles

 

Usually just after Christmas-January. You need a heated propagator to germinate and need to be able to keep them 'going forward' at lesser temperature without sudden cold. Its not difficult but 30 years practice may help....

 

You can also try overwintering onions from an August sowing, you need the right type (often called Japanese onions in the UK) or try the spring onions white Lisbon winter hardy. These are good, they bulb up if you let them grow on, don't keep well though. I wait until late February to sow onion seeds, I only need medium sized onions. For big onions sow earlier as suggested