Topic: WORST YEAR EVER IN ALLOTMENT

[strawberry1]

If anything, the soil in the raised beds is coping best and they are draining fine, trouble is that slugs are hiding all along the sides. We are still getting enough veg and strawberries to be 100% self sufficient (8 x 100 total plot) and I am thankful for no whitefly or white butterflies. Cabbages are coming on a bit quick but we like cabbage. Courgettes are very small but nice in salads

I am mentally writing off the squashes but have lots of good celery instead. Had two dry days to today so did a hoeing session and very satisfying too. No point despairing as best to go with the flow

[kippers garden]

Courgettes are very small but nice in salads

Never thought of putting small raw courgettes in salads...do you just slice them or do you grate them?

[Suzanne]

Courgettes are lovely in salads just sliced - also nice as a courgette salad - sliced using a potato peeler then dressed with vinagrette, or cooked with carrots (potato peeler strips again) and sliced spring onions as a vegetable tagliatelle, served with salmon.
Sorry this should have been on the recipe page.

[strawberry1]

Thin slices and they are lovely. I spiralize big courgettes for salads

[lin]

I never seem to lose my enthusiasm, what didn't grow last year is growing this year and vice-versa. The only sad thing is that no-one on our plot has any pears, me included. They are my favourite fruit and there's not one. And the cherries had black aphid attack and I hate squirting so just accept it. Very slow on the squash / courgettes but hope there is still time.

On the other hand, my broad beans are brilliant, aphids too but I squished them or sprayed with wash up liquid. Strawberries ... a punnet a day and enough to make many different jams, including a mix of gooseberries, redcurrants and strawberries which is delicious... and for some reason my goosegogs are the largest ever and most prolific.

Potatoes good too and turnips ... and I am growing oca for the first time so that should be interesting to see whether they are affected. I have had my plot for 12 years now and always get enough to feed me and keep me from having to visit a gym for fitness... there is a positive side here in wet Manchester! Lin

[lottie lou]

Not a lot from my lotty this year except weeds, weeds and more weeds.  Planted a couple of sharks fins squash yesterday in the garden on the compost heap, surrounded it with slug pellets.  Could have cried this evening, bl***y slugs had left all the pellets and eaten through stem.  Seriously thinking of giving up.

[strawberry1]

I put milk cartons around every baby celery plant. The cartons are silver coloured inside and waxy outside. Not one celery plant has been touched by a slug or snail. I may well do this to lots of baby plants in future, keeps the wind off as well and gives them a heads start

[irridium]

Glad you're flipping it on the upside, Robert! ;)

I've not been too pleased with the lack of expected crops this year and this is the total opp. to last year's first foray in lotti gardening, where i was eating gluts of -

Little Gems, Broad Beans and Mange Tout.

A week later would be the first crop of pots, tho' as most of them are flowering by now. It was only 2 weeks ago when I mistakenly dug a massive potato, it prompted to dig a haulm up and found to my dismay how tiny the tubers were. I'm not so sure whether it's worth my while to dig mine up now as I do think they're not ready yet, despite how big and tall the stems are (CBA to earth them up again when the soil's so wet!)

The Raspberries I've plenty of (new last year, so had v. little) and have had a handful to eat, tho' they're not as sweet as expected (lack of sun :-\) I'm still waiting for the rest to ripen when the sun can stay present for long enough. Foolishly, I'd direct sown most of the salad stuff in March, but they failed due to the extreme heat, and since then, I've had about 3 further sowings but only the last lot have germinated (lettuce only).

Onions have been appalling this year as they're still disappointingly small. At least half have gone to seed, tho' last year's very few of them did, and that was later on in the summer towards cropping time. Has anyone's gone like that as I don't know whether it's the rain that's done that, or fluctuations in temp.?

Beans have all been v. bad. I was particularly pleased with the Broad Beans last year, that I deliberately sown 3 x the amount. The first batch was done in Feb. and grown to a decent height, but they most of them got munched on, and the subsequent batches grew about a 15" tall and flowered profusely, but not really podding up properly. The Mange Tout Golden Sweet I did last year was one of the first successful gluts I've ever achieved where they grew and grew and I couldn't manage them on my own and had to give them away per picking... The first French Bean were spotted 10 days ago, but I think that's got slain by the slugs or something (not noticed them on the plot. and didn't have any probs last year. And I don't use pellets) but it only reached a max. of 8" tall. I've since re direct sown, and replanted a few to fill the gaps and they're still only 4" tall.

The only successes on the plot are my ornamentals (inc. Sweet Pea Cupani - first bunch this week!), Blueberries, Jerusalem Artichokes (5' tall!) and my Parsnips (modular sown)

Oh yeah, if you guys remember my request for some seeds which included winter squashes? Well, I was so fired up for lots of squashes growing merrily along my hedge (about 5 varieties) well, I was so disheartened by their lack of growth and colour that I've had to sow again for insurance. This was my new obsession for this year, but it looks like I failed from the word Go when they got planted out... :'( :'( :'(

As some of you have been feeling so glum about not doing much on the lottis, it has made me feel so much better about mine where I've lacked the will to weed.

One good thing about mine is that I have now in possession of a new brassica frame that's 7m x 1.5m long (thanks to Shirlton for her reccomendation of Veggiemesh!! ;D ;D ;D ;D and Buster's advice ;D ;D ;D). Makes me so proud to see that when I go down there!

ps. got lots of goosegogs atm but they're still not softened enough to pick. when can you tell when they're ready. Should they be a lttle less hard than previously, and the taste more ripe like?

[George the Pigman]

Well so far, given everything, it could be worse.I think the fact that in the Midlands (Birmingham with clay soil) we had a drought last year and the water table was very low helped to absorb a fair bit of the rain. However now it is saturated. The main problem to date is that while I have had a fantastic yield of strawberries many of them have simply rotted with mildew becasue of the damp conditions.
I planted out my squashes/pumkins last week before we had an inch and a half of rain in 3 hours and to my surprise they are still there!
The worse year was 2007 - the potaoes just rotted in the ground as the water table was an inch below it!

[macmac]

Toms and cues in the greenhouse slooooooooooooooooow
Blight on the potatoes,the OH cut all the tops off but don't know if we'll crop much.
Had a handfull of tiny courgettes.
About 6 marble sized beetroots.
Lettuce fab,that is the ones that germinated  :( 'have sown so many seed....
A few hispi protected from pigeons now being ravaged by slugs.
strawbs 1 in 3 either "wet" or slug damaged.
Rasps mildew.
i'm thinking of taking up painting next year,this gardening lark is sad  :( :( :'( :'( :'(

[goodlife]

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. got lots of goosegogs atm but they're still not softened enough to pick. when can you tell when they're ready. Should they be a lttle less hard than previously, and the taste more ripe like?
Mine are still green and hard, but I'm using them already..and thoroughly enjoying them too. I actually think they taste better for cooking when still green.

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i'm thinking of taking up painting next year,this gardening lark is sad Hmm...maybe Dan could start new forum.....painting 4all... ::) ;)

[lottie lou]

Well be careful if you are thinking of painting the outside of your house - took OH and his men 4 weeks to do a three day job

[lottie lou]

Hells bells, why can't I get this "quote" thing right

[Jeanbean]

Been a mixed year for us. First earlies came up and then the Swift disappeared. Not sure if we drown them with straw when a frost was forecast. Smothered them in stable straw. Perhaps there was too much pee on the straw and it burnt the tops?  :'(Courgettes have been the best ever. Healthy looking green leaves and bushing nicely. Harvesting some each day. Pumpkins all forming. Squashes growing well up a ladder construction, marrows- one almost ready to pick. Runner beans have flowered well and the first beans are forming.  Brassicas look great. On the down side the raspberries that gave us such a good crop last year are slow. Could be down to my enthusiastic prunning last year. No blackcurrants- same reasons as raspberries. Limited strawberries but we did move 100 plants this year, so taking that into account, was to be expected. little or no gooseberries even tho' plants are at least 4 years old but could be my prunning again. Slugs and snails in their thousands. Had to use the blue pellets as I can't stand on the slugs  like I do the sanils. All in all a reasonable year so far.

[campanula]

gardening on sand in East Anglia meant that last year was a killer while this year has pros and cons. On the plus side, the best ever broad beans in 10 years. Fantastic, no blackfly, huge tasty crops.
Potatoes looking great too (although have been out with the bordeaux)
Squashes are very variable - the bob-bon and autumn crown look iffy while the kuris are massive - rampaging around the plot like it was september.
Sweet corn doing surprisingly well too (good old Kelvedon Wonder - hardly ever lets me down)
Not bothering with peas but daughter nagged me about mange-toute (pas) - useless but pretty. Vigorous and apparently pigeon proof too.
Onions - the whole site has white rot so I grow mine in my old cold frame, as though it was a bulb frame. Works too but only enough room for 80 onions and 40 garlic (which has not split and has galloping rust - still well edible though)
Tomatoes - the less said the better - a disaster - germination poor, then the cotyledons rotted off while tru leaves refused to form so no hope there - the shame of it - I had to (ahem) buy some in to make up the numbers to 44. Still looking pathetic but Cherokee purple and Ferline doing OK, Worst are matina - feeble small and leaf-curly
 most of the allotments are down to fruit and flowers and that has been variable too. Had no raspberries for 5 years now (slacker neighbours with virused plants) but finally have hope for next year. strawbs - millions but not exactly mind-blowing - so jamming then.
Currants - always ambivalent about these as there are 20 blackcurrants and redcurrants and frankly, the picking and jamming is a bloody nightmare.....but we live off jam and toast so it must be done....but not just yet.
Plums - bloody leaf curling aphids - trees look awful
peaches - curl again
cherries - the worst disaster on the plot - I have 2 trees and they are usually my best fruit - huge delicious, longlasting, NO jamming - this year, bloody pigeons eviscerated the entire trees - leaves and all - am still in shock. I usually net before the blackbirds get in but the little fruits had barely formed before the trees were left bald. I am going for full-on netting next year, no matter the cost or nuisance
blackberry - the sodding council strimmed! my bushes - livid with rage - they said it was blocking their path. Their path! on my plot! the furious e.mails and letters are still flying.
The rest, a shamefully large amount of space is flowers and roses so its good and bad but generally better than the veggies and heaps better than last year.
Sorry to come back after a long flower-loving absence (veggies mean chips, I am northern/irish), only to whinge and whine.

[goodlife]

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Sorry to come back after a long flower-loving absence (veggies mean chips, I am northern/irish), only to whinge and whine.
Ah..aren't we all doing same..whinge, whinge and whine.. ;D Anyway..plenty of room for more..and welcome back  ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Whinge, whinge. I'm way behind with everything, and nothing's growing. My climbing beans are exactly the same size they were when I planted them out, the sweet corn and squashes aren't growing, but the weeds are going mad.

[PeterVV]

So I am not alone then? there are plots around mine where people have given up and the grass & weeds are nearly chest high, paths the same , get soaked just getting to my plot, most of my broad beans got snapped or uprooted in storms ( my fault for not staking and pinching the tips out ), the sweetcorn is literally half the size at least that it normlly is this time of year. worried about my spuds, so going down tomorrow to uproot a plant that has survived ( not many, half rotted away underground ).
I would imagine the same story with other heavy clay plots. Beans too are half the size they should be , nothing is as green as it should be either.  Sigh

[electric landlady]

If nothing else it has made me feel better to know it's not just me having a mare!  :)

• No carrots have germinated at all, despite 2 sowings...
  Only a few lettuces and they are usually my fail-safe crop
  Tomatoes, courgettes/squash and sweetcorn really struggling
  No plums, cherries, pears or damsons at all due to late frost getting all the blossom
  One of my gooseberry bushes has died
  Marestail is popping up everywhere
  Red ants have eaten all the strawberries (didn't even know they did this)

BUT on the other hand

• Spuds looking good
  Onions getting bigger (slowly)
  Spring onions, radishes, dwarf beans and beetroot racing away
  7 courgette/squash plants have managed not to rot, so I may get a crop eventually
  Celeriac looks really healthy - I've never grown it before so no idea if it's doing well or not but it looks as though it's enjoying itself
  Lots of fat blackcurrants
  PSB seems to be on steroids
  Remaining gooseberry bush has a good crop

So although it has been a terrible year so far, it's not a total disaster...and 2007 was worse...and if we can still manage to grow things in weather like this, we must be doing something right  ;)

[Gordonmull]

Last time I was speaking to him, early last month, a mate of mine down in Chesterfield said hasn't grown anything. The only thing he's got, he says, are the onions in his garden. He was totally flooded out. Makes me feel a bit better (for me anyway). Still he had a laugh and told me at least this year I was doing better than an experienced gardener!  ;D

I don't know whether this is beginners luck or not, but I've had no failures, OK a bit of rotting on the strawbs, a few onions that rotted off, a couple of lettuces that rotted and a few beetroot seedlings that damped off in the soil, but nothing disasterous.

I do feel sorry for the folk who's hard work has gone to waste though.