Kedi-Gato's Veggie Patch

[kedigato]

We tried growing runner and green beans for the first time this year. The green beans were a flop but the runner beans did fairly well.


Here you see the runner beans starting to grow up the trellis -




- and here still going strong -




- and even flowering later on -




- and actually producing beans !!!

[kedigato]

We had good luck with both courgettes and pumpkins last year that we tried again this year. I bought 2 yellow courgette plants and they turned out to be round ones. We had never seen such before and thought that they were perhaps pumpkins, but they really were courgettes.

The bees went mad getting the pollen out of the flowers. Sometimes up to 6 bees in one flower!

[kedigato]

[kedigato]

This is the first round courgette that we harvested -

[kedigato]

Another of our courgettes with a small green African pumpkin. The neighbours gave us some of the young plants.

[kedigato]

- female flower with young fruit starting to grow -

[kedigato]

I found one hiding under all the leaves -




This is the last of the harvest -

[Admin]

They are brilliant photos and the veg looks great and so do the bees..

[windy]

Wow KG, great veggie patch. I'm very jealous...my first attempt at veggies has been a resounding failure :sad: Only my self-planted pumpkin did well this year...but next year everything will be better...eternal optimist me :jester:

[kedigato]

Thanks Wf and windy.

Windy, get a couple of courgettes next year as well as pumpkins, it's well-worth all the water they need. They might interest the kids, you can almost see them grow!

We still have 3 small pumpkins on the vines, must be a small varity as they refuse to get any bigger. Hubby is going to pick them soon so I can puree them to freeze - takes up much less space than freezing them in chunks.

I'll freeze them in 500g containers, I use empty margarine pots for freezing. It is surprising how long they last and used again and again, and they stack well. I save the 250g and the 500g sizes.

[windy]

Great tips there KG....can see you being my vegetable guru from now on

[Admin]

The runner beans look good i have allways done well with runner beans too.. i am not going to have much space but will see if i can squeeze a small veg plot in...

[Admin]

well it was lovely looking back on these old photos from last year i hope you get a good crop this year as well..

[Deleted]

Kedigato,

Wonderful photos. Congrats on such a healthy crop. Mine veggies last year didn't so so well.
The length of your beans is fantastico!

.jeanne.

[kedigato]

Thanks windy, Wyldeflower and Jeanne.

The beans were tasty but they got woody quickly. I just took the large beans from the inside out to use in the end, and they cooked surprizingly quickly and tasted good. I still have some in the deep freezer.

I found a different sort to plant this year, said to be stringless and don't go woody.

Going to have courgettes/zucchini again this year, will be the third time. That is really something to plant and you only have to watch that the slugs don't get the young leaves and you'll be OK.

Windy, don't forget to get a plant or two. Perhaps a yellow and a green one?