{"id":70081,"date":"2021-06-25T08:05:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T07:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=70081"},"modified":"2021-06-25T08:05:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T07:05:43","slug":"fruit-and-vegetable-success-stories-what-were-growing-and-what-works-best-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2021\/06\/fruit-and-vegetable-success-stories-what-were-growing-and-what-works-best-for-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Fruit And Vegetable Success Stories: What We\u2019re Growing And What Works Best For Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s your best gardening success story? Mine has to be strawberries. I want to say they\u2019re practically foolproof but I have been known to kill some plants!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Saying that, once established, they are the gift that keeps on giving! When I planted my first garden at our house back in 2008 I planted some strawberry plants under my apple trees\u2026and just left them. Every year however, until they were finally crowded out by the apples, and then blackberries, blackcurrants, and gooseberries, they gave as much as their little strawberry hearts could give. I think we got our final strawberry crop from this particular set in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At the start of the pandemic last year, I bought more strawberry plants, and they\u2019ve been happily spreading across my garden, escaping their planters. I\u2019m currently considering cutting some of the runners and potting them up for sale, there\u2019s just so many of them!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also love soft fruits, and started growing two different varieties of raspberry last year, the normal red sort, and a beautifully sweet golden type. Prolific growers, the golden ones especially produced fruit well into Autumn, and in fact, I was still picking them in November. Both varieties are back with a vengeance this year, and their location directly outside my office means that very few make it into the house\u2026sad times.<\/p>\n

Apples, gooseberries, blackcurrants, and also redcurrants are guaranteed prolific crops in our garden. But on the other hand, I\u2019ve had blueberries for nearly as long, and have yet to get a single fruit from them. I\u2019ve expanded my soft fruit empire this summer to include loganberries, jostaberries, tayberries, mulberries (black, and white), gojiberries\u2026and probably a whole lot more I\u2019ve planted and forgotten the names of already!<\/p>\n

Here in South East London we have a mild climate, so I decided to try my hand at growing grapes last summer. My two vines surprised me by producing a very tiny bunch between them, before dying back. I\u2019d given them them up for this year, but I\u2019m grateful I didn\u2019t dig them up, as both have burst into leaf this summer. Will they produce grapes again? That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No piece about fruit and vegetable gardening can go past the old favourites – tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, and the gift that keeps on giving, courgettes (zucchini). I had a mixed result with tomatoes last year; I grew far too many varieties and way too closely together, resulting in losing a lot of fruit to blight. This year I\u2019m trying to trellis my tomatoes, so although I\u2019m still growing just as many varieties, I\u2019m letting them breathe, and I\u2019m also practising good garden hygiene by cutting off all the lower leaves. Peppers on the other hand cropped continuously until November, as did my courgettes, meaning, if I could manage it, those two ingredients found their way into just about every meal. Like the tomatoes, I had mixed results with my peas and beans, but I think that came down to starting too late in the season. This year I started early and have set up bean teepees and the runners are finding their way to their top.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried my hand at some new things this year, including globe artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, and asparagus. I\u2019ve even planted out some sweet potato slips, and I\u2019m hoping that our summer will eventually kick in!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve added some more fruit trees to our existing apples, cherry, damson, medlar, Kentish cobnuts, and pear: a Yuzu lemon, and an Australian citrus variety, the finger (or caviar) lime. Both of these have been planted in half barrels up the back corner of the garden, in order to take advantage of the all day full sun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also planted three types of self-fertile fig trees in one of my garden beds, and hope to train them over an arch. Our cherry and damson trees have joined the apples in being heavy croppers; the medlar and Kentish cobnuts also seem to be giving it their very best at producing fruit. Only the pear tree doesn\u2019t seem to be enjoying itself, and if it doesn\u2019t get any bigger, we may have to move it for a year and see how it goes.<\/p>\n

Do you grow your own fruit and\/or vegetables? What\u2019s been your greatest success, and why do you think that was? On the flipside, what have you grown and never want to grow again?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s your best gardening success story? Mine has to be strawberries. I want to say they\u2019re practically foolproof but I have been known to kill some plants!<\/p>\n

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