Vegetable Growing 2025

It's very much an old wives' tale - people always say that if there's a lot of berries in the autumn it means a hard winter. But I'm pretty sure plants can't foresee the future, they can only respond to past conditions.

 

my mom always used to say' if there are a lot of holly berries on the tree, its going to be a bad, bad winter' lol.

 

Well I've an average crop of acorns, no holly berries, a below normal crop of tomatoes and runner beans.

So following that thinking I'm going to be wandering round the garden on Christmas Day in shorts and T shirt admiring the flowers on the late flowering species dahlias. I don't need to protect anything, take cuttings or any of the other jobs the prudent gardener does to prepare for the next year.
Perhaps we need a thread for old wives tales and folklore.

 

It's been very different in other parts of the country then. At our plots I've never seen so many Acorns from one of the oaks on our boundary, mind you the are tiny. Too hot for runner beans but both climbing and dwarf French beans have been prolific, I always grow them all to hedge my bets.
Today I dug my sarpo mira spuds and to my surprise some of them are very large, especially considering I don't water potatoes
I did water the trenches and line the base with home made compost, at planting time but that was all.

 

I'm seeing masses of acorns, conkers and hazelnuts. I've even taken a crop of hazelnuts from my garden as the squirrels didn't manage to eat them all. Lots of berries, and the hawthorn berries are huge. Blackberries haven't been good this year though; last year I was stuffing my face on the walk home from work every day, this year they've been small and unappetising. The apple trees are loaded, and I've had the most amazing cooking apples that a house near me has been putting out in a tub for people to take.

 

The trees in the park had masses of walnuts this year, thought I'd collect a few today on my walk.
Not one left or even visible, way up high, and some trees with smashed shoots and branches laying all around.

 

Our walnut tree produced only a handful of nuts last year. This year it is laden and we've already picked a basketful. I expect it will rest next year. Wild blackberries, on the other hand, are small and shrivelled and the birds have had them all.

 

Blackberries were bumper this year here, a couple of weeks early too. They are pretty much done now, usually they can be picked into october

 

Our own blackberries had a low crop but very tasty and juicy because I watered them.

 

l like that idea of a 'old wives and folklore gardening' lol..l think it would be fun..iv got loads of old gardening books that have these sort of tales..l volunteer to start the thread

 

iv just found an old thread that was started years ago..so iv reactivated it..some interesting things on there lol..will post more as l find them in my old country gardening books.

 

due to the super abundance of nuts this year herd I expect an enormous squirrel population next year in which no nuts will be harvestable thats why some trees do mast years, so the rodent population cant eat all of them

ive seen very few squirrels this year which is probably due to last years bad spring

 

I cut the last cauliflower this morning, but I also managed several broccoli side shoots. The Broccoli Marathon, have had a marvellous year. I only had 3plants but after cutting the main heads, way back in April-May. I've been harvesting side florets ever since. I did keep them well watered in the heat and drought.
The club root resistant ones haven't been nearly as productive. I was getting this much a couple of times a week., but they are slowing down now.

 

My messy greenhouse will get a proper clean when I do a final harvest of the last of the chilli's. I had just planted 40 garlic and sown a few rows of mustard in between.

 

With current Govt policy and its approach to agriculture/food security, you may well be glad of a bonus squirrel or two in coming months They were cooked in my parents house during the fifties, both before and after rationing, good wholesome food, similar to rabbit but often with fat.
They carried a MAFF bounty of 6 pence /one shilling per tail as they were/are a non indigenous species. These tails were dried in a biscuit tin tucked behind the flue pipe of the range, to preserve (and reduce the weight for postage !)before being sent off in batches of 10 to be redeemed with a postal order(s) of ten shillings. 'Pop' got excited for these, and even today grey squirrels are known as 'bonuses'.
The scheme started in 1932 @6d , raised to 2 shillings in 1956 and scrapped in 1957.