Article Published in the KO-GO Khronicles July 2007

HOME GARDEN

By Bob Bayes
http://www.qualitygardens.biz/
qualitygardens2004@yahoo.co.uk


It’s hard to believe, but this is my 8th monthly article for the KO-GO. Regular readers will know that a couple of times I have discussed what I have been doing with my own garden and I think now would be a good time to review what has been happening in my home garden. What do I regard as my successes and have I had any failures?
This month I will look at what can only be described as mixed success on the vegetable plot.
Turnips: I would have liked to have sown my snowball turnips a little earlier than I did, but as they are a quick maturing crop, I thought it worth the risk. The majority of them did alright with only the last few running to seed before they matured. I still have some seeds and will give them another go in the autumn.
Peas: I saw some Petit Poi (forgive my French) seeds for sale whilst out shopping so decided to give them a try. I haven’t seen peas growing here before so was pleasantly surprised at how well they did. In fact I think that I ought to organise a delivery of some main crop seeds to come across with my September visitors.
French Beans? Spurred on by my success with the peas, I headed off to the farm shop to buy some French bean seeds. Was I sold French beans? I am not sure. I grew them as French beans and was quite happy with the variety ‘Gazana’. The variety ‘Stragasvoraki’ did not germinate well at all, so subsequently the crop was poor. I have since learned that I should have asked for ‘Frangofasoulo’. Does anybody out there know what I have been growing?
Cabbage: An unexpected success. A packet of seed that came across with a visitor, I sowed them in spring as they are a quick maturing variety and boy, how they have matured. I was disappointed with the germination rate but the cabbages that I have are football sized. I only wish that I knew what they are because I threw away the empty packet after the poor germination.
Lettuce: I grew two crops of lettuce and, as usual, grew far too much. Still the tortoises at Aquaworld appreciated it (as they do the outer cabbage leaves).
Garlic: You may recall that I ‘borrowed’ some garlic cloves from the kitchen and planted them out just before Christmas. Well some matured into quite nice plants with plenty of individual cloves. Some, however, just grew into what appeared to be a small onion (i.e. they didn’t split into cloves). I have subsequently learned that garlic needs at least one month of colder weather to initiate this process. Lesson learned, the next crop will go into the ground earlier.
Onions: When I bought the bean seeds I also got a few white skinned onion setts. These have done o.k. We are eating them now and they are comparable in size with what I see in the supermarkets.
Spinach: I grew too much of this as well. More tortoise food!
Potatoes: These have been a disappointment. I planted a variety, new to me, called ‘Kennabec’. Despite not having the soil preparation that I would like to give potatoes, they haven’t cropped too bad. However, they went over even before they flowered (not enough water?) thereby reducing the yield some more. The potatoes produced, although o.k. are not so white and firm as those sold in Mallia. Does anybody know the variety that they grow there?

At the moment, as well as the cabbage and onions, which are being cropped, I am waiting on peppers, tomatoes, melons and cucumber. I never got around to starting any early plants in the cold frame.
Like my old school reports, I can summarise my efforts as: Shows promise but could try harder and is easily distracted.
If you have any feedback on your vegetable growing efforts then please share them with the other readers on: Quality-Gardens-Crete.blogspot.com where you can also read my previous articles.
Next month we will take a look at how the bed I planted in May is developing.