Kevin Markland wrote:
As an
aside are there any must haves that are vastly better when eaten fresh from
the garden? We only have a small plot about 30 feet by 15 feet so it has to
work quite hard.

We've been very successful with courgettes/marrows over the
past couple of years (cheaper and sweeter than in the shops)
and we're going to try a couple of the more unusual squashes
this time. (Anyone know whether the growing season in
Glasgow would be likely to be long enough for Turk's
Turban?) Runner beans, as others have mentioned, are well
worth it, very productive and easy, and (since the shops
tend to go for size rather than tenderness), much tastier
and cheaper. And we've just set a couple of artichokes
going, so soon we should be able to eat those.

Last night we ate a wonderfully sweet parsnip and a cabbage
with our roast. Growing a small variety of cabbage (we used
Minicole F1) close together really works, as you get just
the right amount for one meal on one head (again, the shops
go for size rather than taste, and you end up using the same
cabbage for six meals). And the parsnip... well, there's a
bit of a story behind the parsnip.

It's the only one we had. We actually sowed them *last*
year, along with some carrots. We spent ages preparing the
soil, sifting the (large number of) stones out and adding
sand. Only a few came up, and eventually they all died. I
blame the rain; I think they got waterlogged (we have very
clayey soil, and it was a very wet year). We decided
carrots and parsnips were not the way to go. This year we
were surprised to see a baby parsnip making its way through
the broad beans we'd planted in the same bed (I don't
recommend broads in a small garden, by the way; they didn't
produce that well and all got rust). We decided to leave it
and see what became of it. The leaves got huge. When I
finally dug it up last night (and it took a garden fork to
do it), it was huge (about 3" across the top and about a
foot and a half long) and had three major legs and several
minor ones. And it tasted wonderful.

Rhiannon