But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I wonder what others think.

Baz

We came to that conclusion years and years ago, that is why our gardens are
picturesque. When, and for how long, does a veg garden look picturesque?

Mike



"Baz" wrote in message ...

But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I wonder what others think.

Baz

On 20/09/2013 14:17, 'Mike' wrote:


We came to that conclusion years and years ago, that is why our gardens
are picturesque. When, and for how long, does a veg garden look
picturesque?

Mike



"Baz" wrote in message ...

But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I wonder what others think.

Baz
I agree with you Baz, with slight changes. I remove tomatoes because I
am never successful with outdoor ones I remove peas, because of the
problem with supporting them (almost as difficult as supporting my
wife). Also I would add French beans, I grew them for the first time
this year, they were a great success. I also grow a few lettuce and
beetroot. That is now my lot!

Me also. So for me the point of growing your own veg is to have something special. Sometimes its special just because you grew it yourself - peas you have picked and eat immediately are unlike what you can buy. Sometimes its special because you can grow rare an dunusual variets and veg you don't see in the shops. But growing standard commercial varieties when it will just be a lot of work to get the same, or worse, than the shops is pointless.

"Broadback" wrote

"Baz" wrote
But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have
grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner
beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I wonder what others think.

Baz
I agree with you Baz, with slight changes. I remove tomatoes because I am
never successful with outdoor ones I remove peas, because of the problem
with supporting them (almost as difficult as supporting my wife). Also I
would add French beans, I grew them for the first time this year, they were
a great success. I also grow a few lettuce and beetroot. That is now my
lot!

But what about the Winter veg? Sprouts, Cabbage, Savoy. Leeks and Parsnips.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Baz wrote:
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I was just saying to my dad today - there are a lot of people who say
that you are better off buying frozen peas to homegrown, as they are
frozen fresher (almost even if you eat straight from the plant!) and
they keep well, and there's not a /huge/ amount of variety in what you
can grow (although I think there's more than is claimed).

I will always grow sweetcorn, regardless of how poor a crop/effort ratio
you seem to get. ANd courgettes - they sometimes get munched to useless,
but treated right they are very reliable.

And butternut squash, because once they get going they just look after
themselves. And keep well. We have about 20 that will be ready for us
over the winter.

And regardless of how much I seem to fail, I'll always try growing a
variety of brassicas - the first cauliflower of the season that we ate
with our tea tonight just gave me such a thrill of "at last!", even if
it was tiny!

In article ,
says...

Baz wrote:
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.




To me growing veg is pleasure, picking and eating the
same, even better. Despite the claim about peas, I
believe that most home grown veg tastes far better
than that harvested in a farm a hundred miles or so
away upto 3 weeks ago!

I've an amusing anecdote on the subject:

We had a city based couple for dinner, and on the
plate were home grow carrots. Wife said these carrots
are delicious, where did you buy them?

I explained they were from the garden, which seemed to
confuse her, so after dinner, before it got dark I
took her down to garden and showed her the carrots. I
pulled one up as she still seemed disbelieving, and
she immediately blurted out "So that was the special
taste, all that mud!", before she realised what she
had said. Wife and I laughed ourselves to sleep that
night. We did have a very appologetic and embarred
letter a couple of days later, and we still laugh
about it when we meet up. (By the way were talking of
a 60+ year old).

I terms of what to grow, I go for things that involved
very little effort (potatoes went out years ago).
Plant a row of seed, thin out and pick or dig up.


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On Friday, September 20, 2013 2:00:30 PM UTC+1, Baz wrote:
But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.
I wonder what others think.
Baz

Set things up right & you can just go out & pick each year.


NT

In article ,
says...

On Friday, September 20, 2013 2:00:30 PM UTC+1, Baz wrote:
But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.
I wonder what others think.
Baz

Set things up right & you can just go out & pick each year.

Rubbish.

So you are a troll then. Forget the leaf ID.

Janet

Broadback wrote in
:

On 20/09/2013 14:17, 'Mike' wrote:


We came to that conclusion years and years ago, that is why our
gardens are picturesque. When, and for how long, does a veg garden
look picturesque?

Mike



"Baz" wrote in message ...

But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from
supermarkets. The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost
the most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have
grown in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner
beans. They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I wonder what others think.

Baz
I agree with you Baz, with slight changes. I remove tomatoes because I
am never successful with outdoor ones I remove peas, because of the
problem with supporting them (almost as difficult as supporting my
wife). Also I would add French beans, I grew them for the first time
this year, they were a great success. I also grow a few lettuce and
beetroot. That is now my lot!


Broadback, have you tried growing Gardeners Delight outdoor tomatoes? I
have never had total failure. We have had a couple of poor crops in the
past due to poor summers but we normally have them in "swarms"
It was a slow start this year but now they are bottled, juiced and frozen
and I bet I have given away 5kg this week alone - all from 16 plants. We
always plant too many just in case we get bad weather conditions.

This is getting long winded now, but please read on.

Pea "Hurst Greenshaft" is THE only pea that I grow. OK it is not a true
garden pea, it is marrowfat(whatever that means). When young they are
delicious and 10-13 peas per pod. Eat them raw.
You must soak them in tepid water for 24 hours before sowing.IME.
Forget sowing at 2" intervals, or 2" deep, sow them thickly and shallow.
I sow mine so the seed is nearly touching its neighbour at about 25mm
deep.
As a matter of fact, I will be sowing this variety in November to
overwinter, just a 3m double row to get early peas,before I sow them in
spring. Always works for me.


Baz

Janet wrote in
t:

In article ,
says...

On Friday, September 20, 2013 2:00:30 PM UTC+1, Baz wrote:
But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from
supermarkets. The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost
the most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I
have grown in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner
beans. They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.
I wonder what others think.
Baz

Set things up right & you can just go out & pick each year.

Rubbish.

So you are a troll then. Forget the leaf ID.

Janet


??????

"Broadback" wrote

"Baz" wrote
But costly.
I have worked out that it would be far cheaper to buy from supermarkets.
The seeds cost next to nothing. (well mine do)
It is the manure and fertilisers, labour and pest control that cost the
most imo. Let alone failures.
I am not sure that I will continue growing some of the things I have
grown
in the past.
I will always grow potatoes, tomatoes, peas, broad beans and runner
beans.
They seem to be, for me anyway, reliable every year.

I wonder what others think.


I agree with you Baz, with slight changes. I remove tomatoes because I am
never successful with outdoor ones I remove peas, because of the problem
with supporting them (almost as difficult as supporting my wife). Also I
would add French beans, I grew them for the first time this year, they were
a great success. I also grow a few lettuce and beetroot. That is now my
lot!

We now only grow the blight resistant tomatoes Ferline, Fantasio and the new
cherry type Losetto (amazing cropper no-one would need more than two
plants). They have only got blight in the last few weeks and only today have
I pulled them up because it does not go straight throughout the plant like
normal Toms so you still get a good crop. Even better if you spray with
Bordeaux mixture as then they don't get blight at all.
Peas, we use some old wire fencing we were given to dump by a neighbour,
four old metal posts banged in and run the netting between, easy.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

So you are a troll then. Forget the leaf ID.

Janet



Wrong thread.

In article ,
David Hill wrote:

I use the same run for my peas, Heritage varieties that grow to 6ft+
they start to have peas around 3 ft up and carry on to the top, they can
be picked for several weeks so you don't have the same glut and back
ache as with modern short varieties.

I would dearly love to achieve the same, but for snap or sugar peas,
and add in mildew resistance :-(

Also, I can't find a variety of climbing blue French bean that
doesn't some cropping at the first spell of cold or dry weather
in September. As we are blue bean addicts, that is a pain. Can
anyone suggest any that might do better?

Lastly, what do the blight-resistant cherry tomatoes mentioned
earlier (I forget the name) taste like, and do they straggle or
are they stiff?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Nick Maclaren wrote:

Also, I can't find a variety of climbing blue French bean that
doesn't some cropping at the first spell of cold or dry weather
in September. ...

Sigh. Doesn't STOP cropping.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.