Anyone grow their own veg?

Originally Posted by Finport Red

Right, summer is over the harvest is past, so how did we all get on?

For me, big successes -

Potatoes - I think I have enough to see us through to January or February.
Courgettes - plenty of these from June to last week
Cucumbers - again loads, end of July until now
Cherry tomatoes - loads
Beetroot - plenty of them, nice roasted
Rocket/romaine - both great early on but bolted when we got that one week of nice weather in July.


Failures

Onions - ok but not very big. Again, some bolted when the weather turned Tomatoes - disappointing, really late In ripening, think they got the blight.
Peas/mangetout - very nice but took up too much room for all we got back. Won’t do again
Peppers - got one decent size green pepper and a few small ones
Chilli peppers - waste of time, probably started them too late.
Aubergines - nice flowers, but that’s all.
Carrots - tasted nice but there weren’t an awful lot of them and they weren’t very big. Didn’t even get an amusing one I could send to Esther Rantzen

All in all, a good first year. I know the things I’ll redo next year and those I won’t bother with, and also what I’ll do in their place.

Still waiting on the parsnips. They get sweeter if you let the frost get at them before lifting.

How did people who live in areas where the sun didn’t wait until mid august to appear get on?

Carrots are hard work, I've always struggled to get a decent crop, been a good year for spuds here as well.
Try growing onions from seed next year,I've found I get much better results than from sets.
Chillies and aubergines you need to start them really early, like February, indoors to get a good crop, and feed them weekly with tomatoe feed.

Originally Posted by TravellingRed

Carrots are hard work, I've always struggled to get a decent crop, been a good year for spuds here as well.
Try growing onions from seed next year,I've found I get much better results than from sets.
Chillies and aubergines you need to start them really early, like February, indoors to get a good crop, and feed them weekly with tomatoe feed.

I did some onions from seed, some from sets. Both red varieties. It was the set ones that bolted. Subsequently read they’re prone to that.

I’m not sure aubergines will work in this drab and colourless place. Too wet, too cold. Will try again with the chillies though, and start them off in Feb. Cheers

Originally Posted by Finport Red

I did some onions from seed, some from sets. Both red varieties. It was the set ones that bolted. Subsequently read they’re prone to that.

I’m not sure aubergines will work in this drab and colourless place. Too wet, too cold. Will try again with the chillies though, and start them off in Feb. Cheers

I've grown them here in Lancashire. They don't get assigned as shop bought ones but I ended up with 6 off 3 plants. I grew sweet chillies this year for the first time, have had a bumper crop.

Originally Posted by TravellingRed

I've grown them here in Lancashire. They don't get assigned as shop bought ones but I ended up with 6 off 3 plants. I grew sweet chillies this year for the first time, have had a bumper crop.

Nice one. Might give them another whirl.