I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions as
to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

On Apr 30, 6:13*pm, Moonraker wrote:
I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions as
to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire



if you are running out it's because you don't grow enough.
Grow stuff that freezes well.
Peas beans cauli etc.
Also fruit
Some suff can be converted to soups & then frozen. Tomatoes, cellery
etc.

Most roots will store or can be left in the ground until needed.

"Moonraker" wrote

I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid Winter
then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions as to which
veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring months please? I
have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages by greedy mice. Any
regimes far all year round supplies?


Look around the seed catalogues. We grow spring cauliflowers, probably the
best to grow, try Walcheren Winter Armardo April. There are others that
mature at different times so look around. Leeks can still be dug in late
winter as can parsnips and carrots.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 30/04/2012 23:00, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Moonraker" wrote

I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions
as to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early
stages by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?


Look around the seed catalogues. We grow spring cauliflowers, probably
the best to grow, try Walcheren Winter Armardo April. There are others
that mature at different times so look around. Leeks can still be dug in
late winter as can parsnips and carrots.
Many thanks for all the food for thought as well as my stomach!

--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

Swiss chard is pretty tough, but will only do you for the occasional meal.

Again, if you have cover (cold greenhouse) there are a lot of winter salad crops available, but the main problem is that everything grows so slowly at that time of year, so in practice it doesn't work very well. Not in Yorkshire, anyway.

Jerusalem artichokes can be left in the soil a long time without coming to harm - again, there's a limit as to how many you can eat!

My Jan-March eating from the garden is mainly apples stored since November, and after that we hit the frozen fruit - mulberries and strawberries - and the medlar jelly. Hardly staples! But if I didn't have so much shade from the fruit trees (not to mention next doors grove of mature birches, the other next door's lime, and my own cherries and hollies) I would be able to grow more beans and add them to the deepfreeze.

In message , Moonraker
writes
I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions
as to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?

As others have said, what you are hitting is the 'Hungry Gap'

Do you have space for a poly tunnel? This will enable you to extend the
growing season quite a bit
--
Chris French

Moonraker wrote:
I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions as
to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?

I had red kale, curly kale and leeks all available well into spring this year, although we didn't really eat much of them. And the old greenhouse grow bags were used to get some lettuce/salad leaves going - they didn't really get going until Feb/March, but there were enough to pick a few leaves off during winter. Sprouts would be the other obvious one, but personally I have terrible trouble getting my sprouts to grow.

Which reminds me - beansprouts can be grown at any time of year ;-)

On 01/05/2012 17:16, kay wrote:
No Name;957583 Wrote:

I had red kale, curly kale and leeks all available well into spring this
year, although we didn't really eat much of them. And the old
greenhouse grow bags were used to get some lettuce/salad leaves going -
they didn't really get going until Feb/March, but there were enough to
pick a few leaves off during winter. Sprouts would be the other obvious
one, but personally I have terrible trouble getting my sprouts to grow.

Which reminds me - beansprouts can be grown at any time of year ;-)




Oh dear. I grew some of these in my early 20s. Once they'd grown (and
because I'd nurtured them), I thought they were to cute to eat. Just
couldn't bear the idea. I went out for the evening and, when I got
back, my mum had eaten the lot!

I'm not quite so soft now and I love eating beansprouts.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Spider wrote:
Which reminds me - beansprouts can be grown at any time of year ;-)
Oh dear. I grew some of these in my early 20s. Once they'd grown (and
because I'd nurtured them), I thought they were to cute to eat. Just
couldn't bear the idea. I went out for the evening and, when I got
back, my mum had eaten the lot!

I set some up in a coffee jar for my neighbour and told her what to do with them. 2 weeks later she leaned over the fence and asked "what do I do with these now?" - they were about 12" tall and growing out of the jar.

On 02/05/2012 16:42, wrote:
wrote:
Which reminds me - beansprouts can be grown at any time of year ;-)

Oh dear. I grew some of these in my early 20s. Once they'd grown (and
because I'd nurtured them), I thought they were to cute to eat. Just
couldn't bear the idea. I went out for the evening and, when I got
back, my mum had eaten the lot!

I set some up in a coffee jar for my neighbour and told her what to do with them. 2 weeks later she leaned over the fence and asked "what do I do with these now?" - they were about 12" tall and growing out of the jar.





:~) I can relate to that! With my mum around, mine stood no chance of
reaching 12", but I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't
scoffed the lot. We lived in a flat then, so I could hardly have
planted them. Even now, when we grow runner beans, I say "sorry" to
them before plunging them in boiling water!!

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On Apr 30, 6:13*pm, Moonraker wrote:
I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions as
to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?

Nettles are one of the first veg to become available in the year.
There's a huge number of things you can make with them, you wont want
them every day. There are dried peas & elders, dried fruits, bottled
cabbage, carrot, cucumber, pepper, and a great range of frozen eats.


NT

On 30/04/2012 19:13, Moonraker wrote:
I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions as
to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?

As others have mentioned: Leeks, curly kale, spring greens.

I'll add: Asparagus (cropping now) and land cress for salads.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

Moonraker wrote:

I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions
as to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early
stages by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

Plant spring cabbage in your greenhouse following the tomatoes.
Purple sprouting broc harvests early in the spring.

Rog
http://rog.pynguins.com

In article , Sacha wrote:
On 2012-04-30 18:13:11 +0100, Moonraker said:

I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions
as to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stages
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?

I'm no veg grower but isn't this why people bottled and pickled? Fresh
veg is so hard to come by in winter months in any liberal sense!
Brussel sprouts? Cabbage? I'm sure things are available but I think
wide choice is going to be a bit tricky!

And salted and dried. It wasn't known as the hungry gap for nothing.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.