Our garden has been an interesting exercise this year. There is no doubt that our roses have been spectacular, and we have new buds coming on Peace and the Ancient Mariner.
Our carrots didn’t amount to anything, but our onions were brilliant, and I now have a picture for you of them all dried out and in the bag waiting to be used… 22.2 lbs of them.
When Hubby planted our ‘leafy veg’, he chose cabbage, cauliflower and swede.
The onion bed was shared with a row of cabbages and another row of cauliflowers….. except they weren’t.
Our first thought was that we had lost our cauli crop, but that didn’t explain what was growing in it place, which have turned out to be swedes. Hubby believed he had started those off in the greenhouse, and because they were getting too crowded, split the crop and put half a dozen outside, so we have two crops.
This has turned out to be our cauliflowers, and I noticed today that we have some flowery heads in some. I’m looking forward to harvesting those as I can make cauliflower cheese which I know Hubby can tolerate in his somewhat limited diet menu.
Today we decided to harvest our cabbages which have been looking very stocky though the outside leaves were a bit mangled thanks to butterflies laying their eggs on the underside despite us having netted the area. Next year we shall invest in a finer weave of net/mesh to thwart the little blighters!
Anyway, I have been running our freezer down thinking I’d have loads of cauliflowers as well as cabbages, but that is not the case and according to the experts, swedes are best left in the ground until needed. We have about 8!
We also have some very excited parsnips going nuts in the greenhouse so they will be harvested shortly and I expect I will freeze most of those.
A couple of weeks ago I was given some huge sticks of rhubarb, and thus promised a cabbage in exchange when it was ready. A dog walking friend has lost her entire crop of veg other than onions and tomatoes, so thinking we actually had a lot more than we did, I offered her one as well. Our neighbour likes cabbage but couldn’t eat a whole one, so we decided to split one between us.
These are the three we harvested today, and we have another that is coming along nicely for a later date. I boiled our half to go with our savoury slice and sauteed potatoes for lunch and it was delicious. I have enough left over to mix with mashed potatoes to fry in tatty cakes, and just have to decide what to put with it.
pensitivity101 
The crop looks absolutely stupendous 💜💜
First time we’ve grown cabbages, as this one was lovely. Hubby can;t eat it in large doses as it’s high in iron and vitamin K which affects his warfarin, but once in a while or small portions should be OK.
Yes indeed it should little occasionally 😉
My mom had a very nice vegetable garden when I was little. I loved those fresh-picked green beans, corn, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, beets, etc. (she had pretty much everything!). Alas, I didn’t inherit her green thumb nor her energy, and the one time I did try to grow green beans, the bunnies and squirrels ate the sprouts as soon as they appeared. We also tried to plant maple trees from the seeds. They took off beautifully in the pots, but when transplanted the squirrels ate every one of them – even though we put little plastic cages around each little tree. After that, we gave up trying to grow anything other than grass and weeds.
I sympathise. Our carrots were pants this year, and our green beans also a dead loss, the same as last year. Onions we seem to have a knack for though.
A good haul
most definitely!
awesome you’ve got so many vegetables! How exciting! You’ll be cooking for a while!
I love to cook Carol Anne. The problem is there is just the two of us and we don’t eat that much. Sadly Hubby cannot eat tomatoes, and we have loads of those coming! Just as well I love them.
Yeah, just as well then 😀
Gardening is such an experiment for us. We had cabbage and broccoli last winter. Our tomatoes are doing great but forget peas and beans. Even our cucumbers were a sad disappointment this year.
It’s very hit and miss here as our soil is clay based, but we’re learning. Beans are a dead loss, so we won’t bother with them next year.
We are having a bumper crop of green beans – thanks to the mushroom compost! The cherry tomatoes are coming faster than they can be eaten (or harvested)! we are over run with kale and arugula. Sadly the spinach likes cooler weather and with the heat it is not doing well despite being slightly shaded. At least we got a first harvest… It is nice to share with neighbors… I hope your swedes do well!
We seem to be doing very well at the moment. Have some new spuds to plant up when we’ve made a space and a tomato plant has suddenly tunred up in the middle of the spud patch!
Wow! Excellent crop!
Thanks Jen!
😊👍