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Adventures in edible gardening
On the edible gardening front, this year we planted:
- four types of tomato (Hundreds and Thousands, and then Aurora, Amish Paste and Latah)
- aubergines (Black Beauty)
- chillis (Chilly Chill and Orange Wonder)
- peppers (Semaroh and Amy (pointy), and Kaibi (round))
- tomatillos
- cucamelons
- mange tout (norli)
- French beans
I also got two grafted plants, one tomato and one aubergine, to see if they did enough better to be worth the money. They didn't.
The tomatoes really did quite well. The 100's and 1000's are very small cherry tomatoes, which I grew in hanging baskets. They were nice to have early in the season before the larger ones had ripened, but weren't really all that exciting: I'm not sure I'll bother next year. The Latahs were the earliest of the proper tomatoes, and did their job as such. The Aurora produced vast amounts of fruit, even allowing for the fact that a lot of it was wasted because we hadn't quite considered the amount of staking required (apparently you can get circular jobbies that you put around the plants to keep the stems up, which sounds like a plan for next year). The Amish were utterly gorgeous but didn't all manage to ripen, which was a real shame. I have a shelf full of jars of passata, which was the main aim, but next year really hope to be able make some just with Amish, as I think it will be really good.
We must have had at least four or five aubergines, in total, but then it wasn't a great growing season. The peppers produced quite a lot of fruit which almost all rotted on the plant: the only ones that actually ripened did so after I'd put them in the conservatory to see if I could keep them over-winter, so next year I'm going to try some outside (in the hope it will be a better summer) and some in pots indoors. The chillis, on the other hand, did brilliantly, with masses of fruit on both types of plant; I'm also trying to overwinter some of these plants, which still have ripening fruit on them now that they're inside. Next year, Mike wants to grow a hotter variety, as he says even the Orange Wonder is very mild.
The tomatillos did, if anything, too well (tomatillo passata didn't work as well as we'd hoped, but Mike's made a few batches of tomatillo stew and, of course, much green salsa was consumed), and work better in pots than in the ground (easier to pick the fruit). The cucamelons went outside too early, which knocked them back a bit, but they did get going eventually; I've saved some of the tubers, so I'll see if I can coax them back into life in the spring.
The mange tout and beans did ok but I think I need more plants (and to put them in places where they won't be so overshadowed by tomatoes and tomatillos!): we never really got enough at once for a meal unless they were left on the plants for too long.
Next year, I suspect we'll probably have most of these again, if in slightly different proportions. As well as another chilli, we're also going to add a couple of other types of bean and have a go at baby corn and (I hope we don't regret it) courgettes. Which reminds me that, as well as the mange tout and french beans I started a few weeks ago, I should also start the new variety we bought at the garden centre the other week....
- four types of tomato (Hundreds and Thousands, and then Aurora, Amish Paste and Latah)
- aubergines (Black Beauty)
- chillis (Chilly Chill and Orange Wonder)
- peppers (Semaroh and Amy (pointy), and Kaibi (round))
- tomatillos
- cucamelons
- mange tout (norli)
- French beans
I also got two grafted plants, one tomato and one aubergine, to see if they did enough better to be worth the money. They didn't.
The tomatoes really did quite well. The 100's and 1000's are very small cherry tomatoes, which I grew in hanging baskets. They were nice to have early in the season before the larger ones had ripened, but weren't really all that exciting: I'm not sure I'll bother next year. The Latahs were the earliest of the proper tomatoes, and did their job as such. The Aurora produced vast amounts of fruit, even allowing for the fact that a lot of it was wasted because we hadn't quite considered the amount of staking required (apparently you can get circular jobbies that you put around the plants to keep the stems up, which sounds like a plan for next year). The Amish were utterly gorgeous but didn't all manage to ripen, which was a real shame. I have a shelf full of jars of passata, which was the main aim, but next year really hope to be able make some just with Amish, as I think it will be really good.
We must have had at least four or five aubergines, in total, but then it wasn't a great growing season. The peppers produced quite a lot of fruit which almost all rotted on the plant: the only ones that actually ripened did so after I'd put them in the conservatory to see if I could keep them over-winter, so next year I'm going to try some outside (in the hope it will be a better summer) and some in pots indoors. The chillis, on the other hand, did brilliantly, with masses of fruit on both types of plant; I'm also trying to overwinter some of these plants, which still have ripening fruit on them now that they're inside. Next year, Mike wants to grow a hotter variety, as he says even the Orange Wonder is very mild.
The tomatillos did, if anything, too well (tomatillo passata didn't work as well as we'd hoped, but Mike's made a few batches of tomatillo stew and, of course, much green salsa was consumed), and work better in pots than in the ground (easier to pick the fruit). The cucamelons went outside too early, which knocked them back a bit, but they did get going eventually; I've saved some of the tubers, so I'll see if I can coax them back into life in the spring.
The mange tout and beans did ok but I think I need more plants (and to put them in places where they won't be so overshadowed by tomatoes and tomatillos!): we never really got enough at once for a meal unless they were left on the plants for too long.
Next year, I suspect we'll probably have most of these again, if in slightly different proportions. As well as another chilli, we're also going to add a couple of other types of bean and have a go at baby corn and (I hope we don't regret it) courgettes. Which reminds me that, as well as the mange tout and french beans I started a few weeks ago, I should also start the new variety we bought at the garden centre the other week....
no subject
Also, how did you plant the cucamelons? Am deepy curious about them, cos I figure that chilled and sliced in half, they'd be perfect in a G&T.
no subject
Nice idea on the G&T, I'll have to try that next year! They also make a nice light pickle.