Blog: Review of the year – which varieties performed well and which didn’t!
Finding out which tomatoes and vegetables for small gardens actually work on your plot can be a trial. Don’t be concerned if it takes you many seasons to get there – I’m still learning after 40+ years!
Most of my veg are grown in pots or very small raised beds, so I have no room for passengers. The most important thing is learning what crops well, keeping that in your repertoire and replacing those that fail. Don’t feel you have to grow all new varieties. From bitter experience, being seduced by the seed catalogues often means poor harvests across the board. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t play fast and loose with the odd new veg! Look at it as a learning experience and an added bonus if you get an unexpected yield.
Here’s how my veg did this year:
Tomatoes
I’ve been growing my favourite vegetables since I was eight, usually cordon (intermediate) varieties that need tying in and side shooting. This year, for the first time, I grew only one cordon – the lovely Rosella – in the greenhouse. I always grow it, as it can’t be beaten for taste and yield.
The rest were all bush tomatoes in the conservatory, as it meant I didn’t have to climb ladders to pick and tie them in (because of my balance problem). What a result! Tumbling Tom Red, Losetto and Garden Pearl all performed brilliantly, as did Rosella.
In fact, this is the best crop of tomatoes I’ve ever had. I even moved some of the bush tomatoes outside when things started to get full in the conservatory, and they kept on ripening, a first for me. Tumbling Tom Ted is an early variety, so fruiting started in June and we’re still eating the last fresh fruit, mostly from Rosella, at the beginning of November.
What would I grow again? Rosella (of course), Tumbling Tom Red and Losetto. Garden Pearl had the smallest yield and poorest flavour, but was still good. I’ll probably replace that with another bush variety next year.
Tomatoes and veg for small gardens – cucumbers
A first for me, as I’m generally not a fan, but these were on trial from Burpee Europe. Party Time and Honey Plus Hybrid are snacking cucumbers, self-fertile with none of the difficulties of the usual varieties. My daughter absolutely loved them – I grew four plants in the conservatory, and they absolutely overwhelmed us!
Party Time looked and tasted like a regular mini cucumber, whereas Honey Plus Hybrid was pale green, with a definite sweetness. For a non-cucumber eater, I could eat it happily, especially in tzatziki.
What would I grow again? Both varieties, but I’d cut down to one plant of each.
Courgettes
Depending on the weather, courgettes can be very hit-and-miss vegetables in North-East England. Our often cloudy summers (rolling in from the North Sea) don’t encourage strong growth and flowering. I always opt for parthenocarpic (self-fertile) varieties that do well in chillier climates.
This year’s variety, Shooting Star from Fothergill’s, is British-bred and a climber, with lovely yellow fruit and a slightly nutty flavour. They don’t fall apart when cooked and are ideal for stir-fries or pasta sauces. The plants are still going in early November, and I picked the last fruit on October 31 – quite something! The only downside was that they were much bigger than I expected for a supposedly small variety.
Would I grow it again? Yes, definitely, but I’d plant it next to a solid trellis. Plants did suffer from some powdery mildew but that’s par for the course and didn’t affect yield. Two plants are enough for one family.
Tomatoes and veg for small gardens – garlic
As my vegetable growing space has shrunk over the years, so has my ability to grow garlic. However, this year’s autumn-planting variety, a softneck called Marco, got the prime sunny spot and gave a good harvest. There was also the wonderful bonus of scapes (flower stems), which are delicious and very under-appreciated in the UK.
Would I grow it again? Definitely.
Peppers and chillies
After a good year of crops, here comes the downer. My peppers and chillies were awful, ruined by first aphids, then virtually stripped bare by caterpillars of an unknown variety. It’s especially galling because I’d bought a Pepper and Chilli Collection from Mr Fothergill’s with three peppers (Yellow Bell, Antohi Romanian and Friggitello) and three chillies (Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax and Red Cherry. There was also a free packet of de Cayenne and two overwintered Biquino Red.
I sprayed them with several types of organic sprays and manually picked over the plants, but to no avail. There were about 50 plants – there’s only so much you can do! There were minimal crops from the peppers – none of them failed. De Cayenne, Red Cherry and Biquino Red, which performed really well last year, were disaster areas.
Chillies, Hungarian Hot Wax, and Jalapeno gave middling crops, enough fruit for me to freeze for winter.
Would I grow them again? Peppers don’t seem to like me very much, so I’m steering clear. I’ll probably do one chilli next year, but something different that’s a reliable all-rounder.
