Topic: WORST YEAR EVER IN ALLOTMENT

[PeterVV]

I have heavy clay soil, and as we have had so much wet weather this summer, things are hardly growing, rotting, or getting eaten by slugs and snails. My squash plants and courgettes got eaten before they had a chance to grow, half of my postatoes have rotted away, despite me digging emergency trenches to try to save them for drainage, my sweetcorn and beans are hardly moving, the only thing that is growing is my strawberries and blackcurrants, had loads of them.....

[Flighty]

It's almost certainly been the worst year for many people. Not surprising as it was the wettest April to June on record -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9365467/Wettest-April-to-June-since-records-began-and-more-unsettled-weather-to-come.html
and the coldest, dullest and wettest June -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9368041/June-was-wettest-since-1860-and-dullest-for-20-years.html

Hopefully it'll be better next year!   

[Hazelb]

I'm with you there!

The only thing working for me so far...new potatoes!  had my first ones at the weekend.  ;D


I had hopes for the onions, but I found one rotted off at the weekend so I'm not sure what the others will do with all the wet weather forcast!

I've resorted to chemical warfare with slug pellets...I hate doing it, but it's my only chance of getting anything off the allotment this year.

very, very bad year.

[pumkinlover]

I'm not doing too well either, but the main problem is me :(
I've just lost interest this year- I feel that I am going through the motions and I've never felt this disheartened before.

[Ellen K]

I'm not doing too well either, but the main problem is me :(
I've just lost interest this year- I feel that I am going through the motions and I've never felt this disheartened before.

+1  :(

[Flighty]

I'm sure that many of us have lost interest this year.
Even my heart hasn't really been in it much lately which is most unusual.  :(

[antipodes]

Oh dear I am very sorry that many of you feel discouraged. Here it has been very wet too, but not so much as to completely ruin everything. I am sure that the risk of blight on the tomatoes is quite high, but I am persisting with them anyway, and they are already tall and have flowers and even some first fruit.
However for the most of it, the crop is very good. I have the biggest potatoes I have ever had! The maincrop plants are about a metre high!  I  have also been able to have the "green" ploants work for the first time in summer: this year we have been able to keep having lettuce and radish and other salads which never usually work for me. I have even managed to germinate some spring onions!!! 
Which teaches me that in the past I have not been watering enough!

[Doris_Pinks]

I am feeling the same, its actually not raining here yet today, I have a day off, but it looks like rain is threatening, and the wind is chilly, and the thought of dragging myself up to my overly weedy plot where everything is hibernating, is not on the cards. I feel like hibernating myself!

But on the plus side, for the first time since I got my plot 15+ years ago, my house was actually tidy in June ;D, and it looks like it could be the same in July at this rate ::)

DP

[Digeroo]

No last year was the worst ever for me.   More or less no rain for five months was quite a challenge. 

Oh yes and the year we had a rabbit which ate almost everything.

[non-stick]

Each year brings it's challenges - we've also had rabbit problems from the nearby cemetery but that's got better. Last years long dry spell was a challenge and then there is this years rain plus the pigeon population has exploded.

Still the successes make it worthwhile and Mrs Stick was very content picking her "little jewels" the other day as they sparkled in a rare spell of sunshine - Redcurrants

[TheEssexYorkshireman]

I'm having a dreadful year too, even my French beans are non existant yet last year I had them coming out of my ears!!

[pumkinlover]

It's a relief to know that I am not alone, but this year it is the fifth miserable summer.
Personally I hate HOT weather and watering, but just a bit of sun and enough time to get the weeds up and still some planting to do would be nice. It's especially bad when it is your day off and it is raining :-[

[Hazelb]

On the plus side I am hoping to get on top of the persistent weeds ( couch grass, mares-tails and bind weed)

re-plumb my waterbuts, sort out the fruit patch and put up some shelves in the shed..


...ready for next year  ;D

[Flighty]

I've had my plot five years but since I don't like summer much, especially the humidity and poor air quality, I generally do little more than water and weed only when needed through June, July and August. 

[Pescador]

I've still got plastic cloches over my cornichons, my courgettes aren't even flowering yet, last year I was harvesting them by now.
However the spuds are looking fantastic at the moment; lifted one root of Charlots yesterday and got 1.7kg!
Desperately need warmth and sun for peppers, runners, courgettes and cornichons though.

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

I'm new to my allotment still and haven't (yet) lost my enthusiasm. Plus I don't have previous years to compare to. I expect I would have found that long dry spell last year bad. Locally we had a quarter of an inch of rain from February to June.
That said, I'm mildly optimistic. I've already lifted 11 lb of new potatoes and I have plenty more fattening up (Casablanca and Foremost). I've brought back another bag of lettuce leaves and herbs like rocket, dill and flat leaf parsley and picked our first strawberries. The runner beans have their first flowers and a couple of globe courgettes are almost cutable.
The broad beans are slow and one sowing had poor results, the climbing French beans haven't learnt to climb yet, they've hardly shifted, slugs ate my outdoor cucumbers- a gift from a friend and pigeons ate my mizuna and leaf radish (bless 'em - I didn't think much of them as fodder) and I hoed off the remnants this morning. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is blight on the potatoes but have to keep my fingers crossed on that one.
All in all from a start in mid April, I'm quite pleased - so far.
(I'm on the Suffolk coast on lightish soil that is still damp from the rains though the surface is starting to dry out now)

[Trevor_D]

I'm glad it's not just me. It never stops raining; the grass is permanently knee-high, however often I strim it; if the cold and wind don't get the plants, then the pigeons, slugs and snails do, and on and on and on. I've been so disheartened, which is why I haven't been on A4A as much as usual. Added to which, we've had family problems, and a row with some of the Committee led to OH and I resigning as Chairman and Secretary.

BUT: I've got the best gooseberry crop for years, the early spuds are doing well - even though they're late - and I lifted the garlic yesterday and it's fantastic. So - perhaps all isn't lost after all. I've made Gooseberry Jam and Rhubarb & Ginger Jam.

All we need now is some sun!!!!

[pumkinlover]

I think we need a group hug!!

[shirlton]

Had to put canes up and plant in the rain this morning.

[staris]

very poor year for me can't even get my beetroot to grow, sweetcorn looks very poor and had to resort to growing a squash plant in the polytunnel or i won't be getting any squash.
my potatoes have grown well, to well for my earlies  :)
it's not getting me down though i recently decided to do away with all my raised beds so i'm in the process of digging my paths up so plenty to do  ;D