Topic: Was 2012 really that bad?

[grawrc]

I thought 2012 was a ghastly year. Yes I had some great crops (along with some spectacular failures) but the weather was foul and gardening wasn't a pleasure. For me it's the doing of it that is most important and that was not good at all.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I had endless problems, and the plot was so waterlogged for a significant part of the year that crops wouldn't grow. My beans went in at the end of May, for instance, and didn't start growing till midsummer. Were the people who did better away from streams?

[cudsey]

hello. I am a newbie to this forum but thought I would join this chat I live in Barnsley S Yorks I have had my allotment for 8 years did not find 2012 as good as other years especially potatoes but I still have some parsnips in which have been quite good    also leeks and winter cabbage which will hopefully come out this week because I want to start warming the soil ready for some planting - weather permitting

[galina]

Wasn't THAT bad .................  BUT it definitely wasn't a year for what is called 'warm-weather crops'.  And waterlogging and flooding made even 'cool weather crops' tricky.  Granted, everything that usually suffers because we are so dry (normal years) when my 600 gallons of stored rainwater only goes so far, did well - if it wasn't flooded.  But last year even the courgettes didn't give their usual bounty - and that is saying something.  Outdoor tomato growing was near impossible too.

Peas and lettuce and chard were good.  Potatoes were partly lost to flooding, partly better than usual because of better watering.  Beans were very late and not all varieties liked the extra moisture.  Broad beans excellent here too.  Winter squash was very poor and the melons were a write-off.

Growing a wide variety of things helps in an unusual year.  There is always something that makes it.  Just never know what we are going to eat.   

[galina]

hello. I am a newbie to this forum but thought I would join this chat I live in Barnsley S Yorks I have had my allotment for 8 years did not find 2012 as good as other years especially potatoes but I still have some parsnips in which have been quite good    also leeks and winter cabbage which will hopefully come out this week because I want to start warming the soil ready for some planting - weather permitting

Welcome cudsey.  Hope you will feel at home here very soon. 

[goodlife]

It was 'that' bad....wasn't totally cropless but I've never had it as bad. Got some potatoes, some onions, brassicas did ok...all the very basic crops didn't fail. My tomato crop (indoors) was almost non-existing, cucumbers didn't do much better neither.
BUT....chillies and peppers did well...and the painted mountain corn!?
I did have temptation moment of locking the allotment gate and chucking the key away until start of another growing season...but I'm slowly getting over it and started tinkering with the compost again..
Now we need to get rid of this white stuff...

[Borlotti]

Yes, enough said.

[keejaay]

I live in the Rhymney Valley South Wales and to be honest it was a total washout had a few runner beans and some toms but compared to the year before it was a disaster - closed the allotment in mid sept and apart from some winter veg and a few things in the greenhouse i have left it alone until yesterday - hope this year is better for everyone

[waterlooroader]

I took my lottie on last year so I was mostly pre-occupied with clearing the ground and getting it to look more like a lottie and less like a jungle!

However I grow in my garden too. Unfortunately I have a brook running under my back garden, meaning that if we get a lot of rain it gets VERY wet. What did we have a lot of last year?

However I did manage to get a 7 pound yield of green shaft peas and some decent swede from the garden. My tomatoes weren't too bad either (Grown in a raised planter) although I had to pick them when still green and finish them in the kitchen as it was starting to get cooler. Unfortunately, as for my courgettes, beans, corn and potatoes (Blight hit the spuds hard) the least said the better!

[susan1]

Yes 2012 was a really bad year for me I had major surgery twice so didn't get to lottie. Much was all left to hubby hoping 2013 is going to be better year, but as of now not so had minor surgery in jan and also my daddy died ....

[pumkinlover]

Welcome Cudsey and waterlooroader! lets hope we all get a better 2013!

[grannyjanny]

Like Susan my OH had major surgery twice within days, a 3 day stay became a 12 day hospital stay & visiting nurse or hospital for 6 weeks post surgery, add to that the wet weather & for us it was a carp year but onwards & upwards this year.

[mormor]

I’m green with jealousy because of all the things you still have in the earth!  My plot has been deep frozen since Christmas. I had covered leeks with leaves and dug them up - but the tops were frozen and slimy.  Br. sprouts Ok - and that’s it.  And it’s snowing now!  I long to start again - but the earth is like concrete.
And the weather forecast?  It may get above freezing on Thursday - daytime. Frost again at night!
HELP!

[kippers garden]

It wasn't a too bad year for me either, I did get less than I normally would, but it was still good.  Obviously slugs were a problem and my potatoes took a big hit, but most things were ok, though with somethings I had to sow two or three times to get a crop e.g french beans.

It appears that different places had problems with different crops depending on rainfall, temperatures, sunshine etc in 2012.  I think the safest plan is to grow a wide variety of vegetables, as there will always be some that do better than others, depending on the weather conditions.  That way, you will always have something to harvest after all our hard work.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I had a look at Brown Envelope Seeds' site earlier. They have no French beans at all as the crop failed last year.

[Annemieke]

For the first time ever we are short of potatoes now; in the past we had more than enough potatoes till the new ones came in, and usually plenty to give away as well. This year, for the first time, we have to buy in cabbages. In fact I can't remember a year when we had to buy so much in.
I used to be proud that we could feed ourselves, in spite of not having a greenhouse or cloches.

[Mrs Tweedy]

Well it certainly wasn't a good year but we did less badly than others on our lotty, in part due to the raised beds the OH made.

We have just come to the end of the spuds..... really hate buying spuds, just don't taste the same.
We still have leeks and celeriac left, a few runners, loads of parsnips and quite a few bags of frozen broad beans. Still have three trays of squash left.

We had crops from most of the veg we grew except the aubergines.
We had broccolli, broad beans, french and runners, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach peas, mangetoutes, cabbages. Grew swede and parsnips for the first time and they were really good. Loads of beetroot although the successional sowing didn't work 'cos of the weather they all arrived together like the carrots and they were very late.

Got quite a few strawberries from the garden, but they didn't have the sweetness of last year. the raspberries were quite good.

It was very disheartening at times when plants gave up the ghost but we are so bloodyminded we just kept replanting until we got something. Despite the blight we even got a few lb of tomatoes.

[willsy]

It was terrible, in fact so bad I decided to get away from it all and went on holiday with daughter and Grand daughter. Had nothing at all to shout home about, potatoes did produce but not as you would expect them to, but had some good runner beans. Praying we all have  better luck  this year, but not holding my breathe. Keep plodding on regardless. Just love the outdoors, that  when the weather permitting. Getting things going in my small electric propagator and things shooting up already.Just need some sunshine now.Happy planting everyone.