We're not at home to Mrs Smug

It is fair to say that my relationship with vegetables is a little strained.  When younger I ate very few vegetables unless they came from a tin.  As I got older this situation did improve but I still eat virtually no salad at all (I can manage to odd lettuce leaf or bit of rocket but nothing else). I've been growing a limited amount of vegetables for quite a few years now and that has changed how I feel and how I cook.

Usually I grow potatoes, some onions and garlic and a few peas and french beans.  Last year I successfully grew some sweetcorn and had success with purple sprouting broccoli.  I also grow courgettes but for once I struggled with them last year, the usual glut never appeared. Still, it was a good veg year for me.
Spurred on by this I am growing pretty much the same things, spuds, peas, beans (broad and french), onions, garlic, and courgettes.  I am also growing cabbage and spring greens for the first time and purple sprouting broccoli.  This has caused a bit of a problem, I haven't actually got enough room in the veg beds for as much as I want to plant. This has caused me to step back and reassess. 

After years of always thinking that growing potatoes is the thing to do, I am now wondering if this is the case. They do take up a lot of room and whilst home grown ones do taste wonderful they are not exactly expensive to buy.  Maybe I should grow less so that I can grow more peas and beans and sweetcorn?  If the spring greens are successful I will want to grow more of them. I also haven't mentioned the asparagus, I did have two crowns, I think one has died but I did get two spears from the other.  I would like to plant a couple more crowns.
So this is all good, except, except......
.... I'm slightly worried about becoming a bit smug about it all.  I don't want to be a veg-growing bore (oh have you seen the size of my pea harvest this year, oh no, I never buy onions I grow all I can eat, this year I am only growing the heritage Mexican tree-climbing tomato from seeds I have flown in from Wales etc).  I know it is worthy to grow your own veg, but I think it probably shows a weakness in my character because I can't get that excited by veg and maybe because at times it feels like it edges over into being smug. So every time I write post about my amazing veg growing prowess you have my full permission to remind me not to be smug and present me with a tin of processed peas. 

Comments

  1. Smug it up! Why not? The first year I grew peas, we ended up with 17 of them. Not 17 pods, but 17 individual peas. I've done better in the years since but never well enough to be smug. So enjoy your smugness if you can. I'll just be envious.

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    1. That matches well with my 2 asparagus spears, but I was very proud of them :)

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  2. I have never been any good at growing veg, I would like to be , but everything so far has been liable to bolting. I am trying leeks in the vain hope that welsh soil will make them feel happy. I am envious of anyone that can tend a veg patch and eat well from it.

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    1. I'm not sure 'tending' is quite what I do, largely neglecting and then thinking I'd better do some weeding. This year there has been an outbreak of poppies in the veg patch which I am not clearing away very well. But it is fun and I do like it when I manage to produce something edible.

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  3. Please feel free to be as smug as you like ( Rushes off to delete my entire blog!! )

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  4. If you want more space for spuds and asparagus (and other stuff too) get an allotment! After around 3 years on the waiting list we finally got half a plot... Garden is totally neglected at the mo as we're having to clear plot of couch grass and bindweed Eeeek! But will be better next year as we gave up on the spuds in garden last year. Mmm, garlic and shallots! Lottie has some lovely poppies on it which is a bonus - we've been weeding around them, but yesterday OH managed to tread on one. His feet too big! LOL

    So far at lottie we have some broad and french beand, courgettes and a few peas. And a few flowers by our "pond" which is a bath in front of the patio that came with the plot. LOL.

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    1. Actually that should be runner and french beans - obviously even more confused than usual this evening! I was too late to plant broad beans this year, so saying we had them at the lottie was real wishful thinking! (I really love broad beans, and shop bought ain't the same as home grown!)

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