Do any of you grow your own vegetables

[1066familyman]

Small piece of the garden devoted to growing veggies. We have Peas, beetroot (mmmmmm) potatoes and this year we are attempting....

SWEETCORN

Don't know why London calling is wishing you good luck with sweetcorn ?.....perhaps Harry Hill's badger parade visits his crop just prior to harvest too

Yes, if you attempt sweetcorn, make sure you make them badger proof ! I found that out the hard way.

Hope I'm not teaching granny how to suck eggs, but anyhow, my top tips for sweetcorn are :

Make sure you plant them in blocks not rows as they are cross pollinated. Use the lay out of the number 5 on a dice as your basic planting pattern.

Too late now, but best to start them off early (mid April) in pots indoors, 2 seeds to a 3" pot. Plant out end of May/beginning of June when nice and strong. This avoids your seedlings being mullered by slugs and snails.

Plant two plants per station ( one pot if both seeds came good ). This strenghtens them and provides protection against wind damage.

Break off any side shoots growing from base of plant. Also remove any small cobs until you have no more than a max of 3 cobs per plant.

If all goes well you're in for a real treat. Get straight into a pot of boiling water ASAP after picking for the sweetest corn you can get. The minute it's picked all the sugars start turning to startch, hence shop bought corn on the cob is pretty shite. It tastes lovely raw too if eaten as soon as you pick it.

 

[1066familyman]

Can't you just keep the garden gate shut then ?

Anyway, on the subject of broad beans (which I ADORE), I'm buggered if I can find any lately in Tesco, either tinned or frozen. Is there a world SHORTAGE or something ? If we actually get some decent weather this weekend I might trundle along to the pick-your-own and see if I can snaffle some. Will they still be in season ?

Yes, broad beans still in season. We're still selling our crop at work and the purple variety we tried this year are just as tasty as our Bunyards Exhibition.

Good luck with your snaffle.

 

[tedebear]

Broad Beans
Spinach
Potatos (swift and maris peer both in hesian soil filled bags from Marshalls seeds)
Tomatos (Roma)
Beans (green and purple)
Peas
Carrots
Cabbages - lovely as tonights coleslaw proved!
Courgettes
Spring Onions
Brussels Sprouts Red Bull
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Lettuce

I think the hardest part was digging in compost and mulching over winter to get the soil not so clay-ey and free draining. The stuff I've grown in pots from compost (peat free) bought at the garden centres always does well.

Compost, compost, compost is my tip! Its no secret and its easy to make and good excercise to dig in ...

 

[Gully]

When it comes to the digging in compost bit, do you spread it over the plot and dig in straight away...or leave it for a bit? I have been filling my compost bin with vegetable peelings and grass clippings, amongst other things, for almost two years and figure that the stuff at the bottom must be pretty much ready to spread.