The harvest is in and it’s time to plan for next year. My SOS usually features the garden but there has been some action on the veg patch this year. Onions: fail. Dwarf green beans: not bad. Carrots: a handful. Tomatoes: slow to ripen but the outdoor ones have done well and no blight! Strawberries: better than last year. New potatoes: not many. Courgettes: just enough. Each year the list of what to grow gets smaller. No more leeks for me, no more swede and no broccoli, psb or otherwise. I had a go at red cabbage again this year and the slugs have stripped every last leaf from all six of my seedlings. That could be a last outing for cabbage. Enough words, time for some photos.
One
San Marazano tomatoes, which are delicious for making a passata. A regular favourite for growing in the greenhouse.
Two
Parsnips growing for later in the year. These are ‘Tender but True’.
Three
These are Pink Fir Apple potatoes, another great favourite and the crop wasn’t too bad. Last night they were cooked jacket potato style and Sunday night they will be roasted as wedges.
Four
I have two patches sown with Green Manure this year. Both sown in September. They will stay in the ground until November. My plan is to dig them in just as the manure for feeding the veg plot arrives.
Five
Carrots. WilI I, won’t I grow again. These are Nantes, they have a fantastic carrot smell and taste very good too, so on balance I will grow again. Perhaps I will sow later in the season so that they are ready for eating now. The danger is that the slugs start nibbling away at them underground.
Six
This is as far as the melon got. I tried hand pollinating this year to get some to grow before the bees arrived to their job. It was not successful. I am going to accept that my greenhouse, which is in shade until the afternoon, is not the best place for melons to grow.
n20gardener 
Good afternoon! Your melon still has a beautiful volume: bravo!
I hope it will be sweet and tasty.
I cross my fingers for my parsnips… which for the first year give me decent leaves. A little more time and I’ll dig them up to see how they are …
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Thanks for sharing the photo of the Pink Fir Apple potatoes. I have grown these for the first time this year – in bags – and I haven’t harvested them yet (they are in the greenhouse drying out) so as least I won’t think mine are deformed when I dig them out 🙂 I’ve never had success with carrots (they are in pots this year) maybe they’ll do better in the allotment next year. I have something in one of my raised beds that has leaves like your parsnips – I thought it might be celery. I’d better leave it/them were they are and hope for home-grown whatever on Christmas Day
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I am a carrot growing failure, and not much better at melons! You took lovely photographs.
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Thank you, we can but try, and try again!
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Better haul than me. I’ve just got lots of unripe tomatoes to make chutney left.
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I never quite manage to make the chutney! Yesterday was quite warm here so I’m hoping that will have helped – haha!
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I’ve got no motivation to get on with it but we’ve had a bit more sun so a few more will ripen. Maybe at the weekend.
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Lovely photos. I gave up on veg growing in the garden. I got so little return for the effort put in. Ornamentals all the way for me.
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I feel I may be on the same path!
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It’s always a success even if you only have one meal from your own grown vegetables for it gives you their genuine and proper taste. We grow little bits of this and that. With only the two of us, that’s all we need. Asparagus was great this year, a perennial bed going about 20 years now, and otherwise most things were good – except dwarf french beans which were a total failure though climbing french beans were excellent. It’s nice to have something fresh from the garden.
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I think I will hang on with a few selected veggies. I had a beautiful asparagus bed on the allotment that I gave up when we moved here. Next year will be the third year of a new asparagus bed but all is not going well. I think there is not enough sun on the spot I chose. I will have one more go at establishing asparagus as that is a truly wonderful crop to have in the garden. As you say, bits of this and that do us fine too.
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Sugar Snap peas are one of our favourite – a small space giving a lot of peas. Purple sprouting broccoli another. Garlic is indispensable!
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Well done on your autumn harvest. I find vegetable growing challenging. All that fertilising and watering and then watching it be eaten by pests, but each year there are some successes to keep me trying. Your carrots look very tasty and I’m impressed by the melon.
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You sum up the quandary perfectly. Those little successes keep us pushing on.
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Parsnips are one that I have not yet tried. There are not many that I have not tried. I should try these, since I would likely prefer them to other roots.
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They are my favourites, so I am biased in my recommendation, but isn’t that always the case?
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Not necessarily. I recommend zucchini for summer squash because they are so productive and so reliable, but I am none too keen on them.
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Veg growing needs a lot of determination! I decided that apart fro herbs, salads, chillies and tomatoes I won’t bother. Saying that I have just sown some spinach in a crate. In the ground everything gets eaten.
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I really tried with salad leaf this year and did have some success but it didn’t often coincide with our need to have lettuce! The basil has been great though and still going strong in the gh.
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Ah, now my basil has been a total failure again. I think I will give up on that one!
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