Calling SMB veg growers

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I grow perpetual spinach which is technically chard, use it exactly the same way as spinach and doesn’t taste too dissimilar. Raw in salads, sautéed in butter with black pepper etc. Find it grows so easily and it’s cut and come again so a dozen or so plants should keep you going
 


Thanks chaps, never thought to check the pH

I can get it to the seedling stage no bother, but when I plant it out (polytunnel or outdoors) it just goes spindly and dies... Tried it different seasons too....
Bollocksed cos I eat loads of it

Cheers for the chard tip too !!
 
Worst strawberries for me. They didn't flower much and have hardly produced any fruit. Strawberries, rasps and potatoes are usually the crops I can depend on. I wonder if I should have thinned them out or dug up the old plants, or just they suffered from it being pretty mild to very cold, very wet (clay soil) then very hot and dry. My raspberries have been poor too, but quite a few plants did not survive the winter. Those bits that did fruit, along with my blackcurrants have been attacked by birds. Having new netting still in a bag in the shed did nothing to keep them off!

How often do people move strawberries? I have heard some say move them every 3 years. Mine have been in the current place for a few years. I'm thinking of training runners over the path to the neighbouring bed to populate that for next year and dig the current lot out.
 
DaveH said:
Worst strawberries for me. They didn't flower much and have hardly produced any fruit. Strawberries, rasps and potatoes are usually the crops I can depend on. I wonder if I should have thinned them out or dug up the old plants, or just they suffered from it being pretty mild to very cold, very wet (clay soil) then very hot and dry. My raspberries have been poor too, but quite a few plants did not survive the winter. Those bits that did fruit, along with my blackcurrants have been attacked by birds. Having new netting still in a bag in the shed did nothing to keep them off!

How often do people move strawberries? I have heard some say move them every 3 years. Mine have been in the current place for a few years. I'm thinking of training runners over the path to the neighbouring bed to populate that for next year and dig the current lot out.
Click to expand...

Strawberry plant crops start dwindling after their third year apparently. If they are healthy then try using the runners, if it doesn’t work then just buy some plants next year
 
DaveH said:
Worst strawberries for me. They didn't flower much and have hardly produced any fruit. Strawberries, rasps and potatoes are usually the crops I can depend on. I wonder if I should have thinned them out or dug up the old plants, or just they suffered from it being pretty mild to very cold, very wet (clay soil) then very hot and dry. My raspberries have been poor too, but quite a few plants did not survive the winter. Those bits that did fruit, along with my blackcurrants have been attacked by birds. Having new netting still in a bag in the shed did nothing to keep them off!

How often do people move strawberries? I have heard some say move them every 3 years. Mine have been in the current place for a few years. I'm thinking of training runners over the path to the neighbouring bed to populate that for next year and dig the current lot out.
Click to expand...
I remove and replace all my Strawberries every 2 years in a new bed.

Flared Hicks said:
with fresh plants or runners off the existing ones?
Click to expand...
I always use the runners.
 
duff_man said:
Strawberry plant crops start dwindling after their third year apparently. If they are healthy then try using the runners, if it doesn’t work then just buy some plants next year
Click to expand...

Cheers, I will use runners, I always have done.

Back in around 2001, when I got my first house I made a strawberry patch from runners from my mam's garden. Then from their runners I give some to a few friends. When I moved out, we potted up some runners and some of the better plants and moved with them. They were in containers over winter (we ended up living with the inlaws for a while between moves) and one container full died.

It was July before we got the remaining ones in, looking a bit sad and pathetic, 5 plants in one reasonable sized bed. They went crazy with runners though and by October we had a full and healthy strawberry patch that produced loads of fruit. We have moved the bed a few times since and it looks ready to do so again. All our neighbours and in-laws who have strawberries do so with our runners - all originally descended from my mam's plants. It would feel wrong to buy new ones from a different line!

There are years when the veg patch feels like hard work and I have thought about just growing lettuce, potatoes, onions and strawberries. Far less work than anything else.
 
DaveH said:
Cheers, I will use runners, I always have done.

Back in around 2001, when I got my first house I made a strawberry patch from runners from my mam's garden. Then from their runners I give some to a few friends. When I moved out, we potted up some runners and some of the better plants and moved with them. They were in containers over winter (we ended up living with the inlaws for a while between moves) and one container full died.

It was July before we got the remaining ones in, looking a bit sad and pathetic, 5 plants in one reasonable sized bed. They went crazy with runners though and by October we had a full and healthy strawberry patch that produced loads of fruit. We have moved the bed a few times since and it looks ready to do so again. All our neighbours and in-laws who have strawberries do so with our runners - all originally descended from my mam's plants. It would feel wrong to buy new ones from a different line!

There are years when the veg patch feels like hard work and I have thought about just growing lettuce, potatoes, onions and strawberries. Far less work than anything else.
Click to expand...

I've scaled mine back this year.... New potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, courgettes, peas & broad beans...

Found root crops too prone to slugs (and crap.... Can buy Irish grown swede & carrots locally dirt cheap)
Leeks were unrewarding
Ditto onions

I would do purple broccoli and spring greens over winter undercover tho
 
DaveH said:
Cheers, I will use runners, I always have done.

Back in around 2001, when I got my first house I made a strawberry patch from runners from my mam's garden. Then from their runners I give some to a few friends. When I moved out, we potted up some runners and some of the better plants and moved with them. They were in containers over winter (we ended up living with the inlaws for a while between moves) and one container full died.

It was July before we got the remaining ones in, looking a bit sad and pathetic, 5 plants in one reasonable sized bed. They went crazy with runners though and by October we had a full and healthy strawberry patch that produced loads of fruit. We have moved the bed a few times since and it looks ready to do so again. All our neighbours and in-laws who have strawberries do so with our runners - all originally descended from my mam's plants. It would feel wrong to buy new ones from a different line!

There are years when the veg patch feels like hard work and I have thought about just growing lettuce, potatoes, onions and strawberries. Far less work than anything else.
Click to expand...

I am really struggling with lettuce and salad leaves this year for some reason. Started getting some peas through but can’t remember which row were which, they taste nice though.
 
Bit of a mixed bag this year.

More strawberries than I know what to do with. Tomatoes starting to set really well (had a few off) with a monster Beefsteak bigger than my fist and still growing. Cabbages doing well (wish I'd planted more). Beetroot is the best I've done. Loads of blackcurrants and redcurrants. Peas and runner beans going canny. Carrots are doing well for the first time ever.

However, my onions are an over-winter variety and they've been crap. Only half a dozen decent sized ones. The garlic isn't looking good either. Peppers and chillies struggling (one plant laden with young fruit but the rest have nowt). My turnips are all leaf with no sign of a root. Sprouts are sill only about 6 inches high and my cucumbers are feeble. The wind a few weeks ago has knacked my spuds so think I'm going to have to lift them this weekend. No joy with lettuce, pak choi etc either.

Hey ho, gardening still beats sitting in the house.
 
I think all the things that are doing bad for you are great for me, my bad crops are doing well for you. Shame we don’t live next door!
 
Getting annoyed with my raspberry plant , had loads of flowers but they don’t seem to be growing at all - do they need to moved outside the greenhouse ?
 
janiep said:
It's February, it's time to be thinking happy thoughts about what you'll be planting and eating this year.

I grow from seedlings not seed as I don't have a greenhouse and also have some time constraints. So just put my order in for:

tomatoes
summer cabbage
savoy cabbage
broccoli (calabrese)
purple sprouting broccoli
sprouts
celeriac
courgette
leek
pak choi
peas
broad beans
dwarf French beans
runners
aubergine
chillis
butternut squash
sweetcorn

Heavy on the brassicas this year. Love my brassicas me like.

@Cowvahlo @spitfire
I know there are more of us veg growers, sorry for not tagging everyone, can't remember who else is in.
Click to expand...
You need a marra
 

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