What are you growing this year??

[grahamhobbs]

Just to prove you wrong Mabu, can you let us know a bit more about the following that you are growing, eg. what sort of plant they are, ease of growing, length of time in the ground, and of course how tasty they are?

Yardlong beans
Achocha
Red leaf amaranth
Mulukhiyah
Perilla

[Mabu]

You seem to have chosen all my experiments in the garden!

Yardlong beans are an annual climbing vine that produces delicious long green beans, I used to buy them from the asian food shop so I figured I might as well try and grow some. I have them up in the polytunnel, they love heat and HATE wet leaves. They sprouted in 2-3 days and have been growing slowly in the cool, wet period we had here.

Achocha however is a completely different story, I've never had achocha but it sounded cool. It's a vine from South America that produces something like hollow cucumbers. It sprouted and kept growing... and growing and has taken over the polytunnel. It had better produce something special for the amount of space it takes up.

I put the amaranth in the polytunnel too, but I don't think it was necessary at all. It's a big leafy plan that produces endless amounts of beautiful green and red leaves which I use in stir fries and stews where they turn every thing else slightly red. Definitely recommend them, they're apprently really nutritious too.

Mulukhiyah is something my arab friend told me about, I'm still waiting for it to sprout so I don't have a whole lot to say. It's another really nutritious plant claimed to have soothing effects on the digestive system. It's a great soup thickener, kind of like okra.

Perilla or beefsteak plant is a popular asian herb which is claimed to help sterilize and preserve food. I sowed the seeds in march after keeping them in the fridge for months (as directed on the packet). Nothing came up for a month so I sowed some more seeds and now I'm getting these tiny little seedlings coming up which I have a horrible feeling might be something other than perilla. We'll see. One of the other more interesting plants from my list was introduced by someone else, their gardening aspirations were somewhat less than legal and have pretty much taken over my greenhouse and polytunnel.

[chickenchargrill]

I've just planted:

Garlic chives,
Hooligan pumpkins
Hestia
Dwarf french beans
Butternut squash
Sweetcorn
Cobra Beans


I already have growing:
3 types of pots at various stages
Peas x2 varieties
Beans (no idea what sort, my labelling has disappeared)
Carrots
Tomatoes
Courgette
Various herbs
Snow turnips
Onions
And surprises (seeds that Lulu has kicked about when we first got her that are now growing where they shouldn't)

[grahamhobbs]

Mabu thanks, please keep us posted later on in the year as to your 'experiments'.

[green_pea]

French beans
Broad beans
Hubbard squash
Acorn squash
Butternut squash
Swede
Parsnips
Carrots (2 var.)
Mange tout
Brussels sprouts
Purple broccoli
Cabbage (2 var.)
Perpetual spinach
Leeks
Onions
Beetroot (2 var.)
Tomatoes (7 from seeds from shop bought tomato, 1 money maker, 1 gardeners delight, 4 ukranian purple, and 4 siberian yellow cherry)
Sweetcorn
Patty pan summer squash
Courgettes
Lettuce (3 var.)
Rocket
Cucumber
Jalapeno peppers
Radish
Spring onion
Sunflowers/poppies for the seed
Alpine strawberries
Strawberries
Gooseberry (2 var.)
Raspberry
Blackberry (sneaking into our garden over the anderson shelter!)
Elderberry
Kiwi
Melon
Cress and mustard (do they count, or is that cheating?)
Herbs - coriander, lemon coriander, oregano, lovage, thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley, mint.

Not bad for a first attempt