Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: Hazelb on August 01, 2012, 14:37:06
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I'm sure I can't be the only one. :-\
I always get a wobble late summer and soon change my mind as i start harvesting the veggies .
But this year...blight, rot, lack of germination and a slug plague.....not a lot is coming good.
I'm doing a bit of week killing at the moment, then I might dig the plot over and have a long holiday from it.
I will have some purple sprouting and leeks to harvest, but not much else.
Nice days have been so few and far between this year, when one comes along I want to go out and make the most of it or just potter in the garden, rather than spend half a day on the plot.
I'm sure I'm not the only one?
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its not been the best of years
but see my post here
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,73402.msg750698/topicseen.html#new
next year could be loads better ;)
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No you're not the only one!
There have been several threads on this topic recently.
It's been the worse year that most gardeners can remember, especially for growing vegetables what with poor germination, too many slugs, now blight and the constant dreadful weather...
Some people have already given up for the year, and many have started thinking about next year when, hopefully, it will be better!
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For me, I think it's the poor germination that's been the toughest. I've lost count of the rows of carrots /beetroot and chard I've sown.
It's finding all the 'goodies' in amongst the weeds that keeps me going every year.
i think I'll try and put most of the plot to bed for the autumn. Weed, cut the paths, dig over the bits that aren't doing anything...
I hope next year is a brighter one.
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I think we all need a bloody great big A4A group hug as I too have had so many miserable days over the plot when it should be therapy of the growing kind.......well not this season,,,,utter crapp!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well,,here ya go......im throwing me arms out wide to scoop you all up and give you and me a d**n good shake to rid us of the miseries...... ::)
GazNjude
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Thanks guys,needed that as just heard one of my oldest chums is packing in,we went to little school together then rediscovered our friendship at the plot.....may I add myself to the group hug and here is to 2013...when we will all have prob covered our entire plots with polytunnels ;D
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Hazel I sow nearly all my vegetable seeds direct in the ground and almost nothing has germinated this year as either they've been washed away in heavy downpours, rotted in waterlogged soil or if they have then been eaten by slugs.
I've no beetroot, carrots, chard, courgettes, French climbing beans, lettuce or spring onions from at least two sowings of seeds.
I've just sown a third lot of runner beans in the hope that I may just get some pods in late October.
Fingers crossed for next year!
I've probably got the most colourful plot on the site though!
https://twitter.com/Sofaflyer/status/226324298493747201/photo/1/large
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Hazel I sow nearly all my vegetable seeds direct in the ground and almost nothing has germinated this year as either they've been washed away in heavy downpours, rotted in waterlogged soil or if they have then been eaten by slugs.
I've no beetroot, carrots, chard, courgettes, French climbing beans, lettuce or spring onions from at least two sowings of seeds.
I've just sown a third lot of runner beans in the hope that I may just get some pods in late October.
Fingers crossed for next year!
I've probably got the most colourful plot on the site though!
https://twitter.com/Sofaflyer/status/226324298493747201/photo/1/large
nice send some seed my way please ;) :) :D ;D
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Yes, I never used to like pot marigolds, thought they were too garish and invasive, but now I know they are slug, pigeon and crap summer-proof and they brighten up my plot , I'm a big fan! ;D
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Yes, I never used to like pot marigolds, thought they were too garish and invasive, but now I know they are slug, pigeon and crap summer-proof and they brighten up my plot , I'm a big fan! ;D
Hang on! aren't the flowers edible as well? ;D
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I have been reading this thread and the other one on the go on a similar theme.
Well I have had my plots for around twenty five years and for the last four or five I have threatened to give up, but come the end of the season when it is time to winter dig( something I like doing) and its time to order the next seasons seeds I have changed my mind.
OK this year because of the low light levels I think it is the worst season I have ever had, but that's not why I am thinking of giving up!
I don't mind competing with nature as I like this challenge!
No! It's the cra**y compost we are getting that's putting me off.
This is the third season on the bounce I have got off to a bad start and I put it down to the stuff we are being sold as "compost"
Then when you find that unbeknown to you, farmers are using weed killers on there land and it ends up on your plot this is the last straw!( and straw is often the operative word)
I have decided to give it one more year but I am going to do it " my way" and that is;
To hell with the PC crowd and the politicians I am going to buy bales of peat( in fact it is already ordered) and make my own compost.
OK it might work out a bit more expensive but when I calciulate what I have lost this year and add it to what I paid for the cr*p it might work out cheaper in the end.
What annoys me about the whole issue is; it is not a level playing field,commercial growers have access to composts that the general public don't.
Commercial growers who have a licence to state their produce is "organic" can use and have access to chemicals that complies with the licence so again it is not a level playing field ( not that I am in the habit of using chemical)
So basically it is all this inequality that's hissing me off not the weather!
I have lived man and boy with the fickle "British Weather" so I think I can do the same for the rest of my life, so I do not consider that as an issue for giving up.
So here's hoping 2013 is a more successful year?
So I hope all you people that are thinking of giving up.....think again!
I'll get off my soapbox now....Tg
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Hello Tee Gee.
It's always worth one more go. Where are you getting your peat from? What will your compost mix be?
Regards
Bluecar
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I can remember TeeGee almost adamant that he was giving up and I can remember trying to persuade him not to.
This year has been a difficult year for most of us but lets all see what next year brings eh! ;D
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I thought it was more or less my fault. As a complete newbie I made many mistakes. Putting out stuff and asking myself the next day: where did I put it? Cannot find a sign of them anymore......Unexperienced, not aware of slugs, rabbits and the fact that in the North 'spring and summer' are a bit late..... :). And yes, the red onions I picked up yesterday are rather small....and yes, I thought it was all my fault.....not putting compost in and so on because I thought that here we have rich soil.
Reading all your comments on a 'bad season' I just think: what will next year bring? Not making the same mistakes as I did this year, getting a bit more experienced, knowing a bit better which seeds to buy, planting out in time, better control of slugs, maybe a better summer, less rain.....I am very curious what next year will bring and am dreaming of enormous crops, gardens full of flowers............. :)
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Then when you find that unbeknown to you, farmers are using weed killers on there land and it ends up on your plot this is the last straw!( and straw is often the operative word)
As you all know I habitually rant about weedkillers which I do not want.
I am very lucky because I have access to a very good horticultural supplier, who sell professional quality products at a very competative price. Not only that once you have bought something you drive up to the warehouse door and they load it into the back of your vehicle, no lugging it round the car park. Self service is highly over rated.
Han I hope you continue to enjoy the challenges. I also have pigeons, deer, dogs, and someone with size 10 boots to content with as well as very gravelly/stony soil. I know the foot prints in the middle of my beds are not mine, firstly they are too big and secondly I do not plant/sow something and then put my bit foot in the middle of it.
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I thought it was more or less my fault. As a complete newbie I made many mistakes. Putting out stuff and asking myself the next day: where did I put it? Cannot find a sign of them anymore......Unexperienced, not aware of slugs, rabbits and the fact that in the North 'spring and summer' are a bit late..... :). And yes, the red onions I picked up yesterday are rather small....and yes, I thought it was all my fault.....not putting compost in and so on because I thought that here we have rich soil.
Reading all your comments on a 'bad season' I just think: what will next year bring? Not making the same mistakes as I did this year, getting a bit more experienced, knowing a bit better which seeds to buy, planting out in time, better control of slugs, maybe a better summer, less rain.....I am very curious what next year will bring and am dreaming of enormous crops, gardens full of flowers............. :)
Han - no NOT your fault, it affects us all. I have had (touch wood so far .....) slightly fewer problems than some, because I sow very little direct. Plant out, a bottle cloche over each plant until they run out - tedious, lot of work ....... but this year it might have just been very necessary. Doesn't mean that I don't have voles biting off beans which are fully up the poles, right at the base killing the plants in the process :-( and all my outdoors tomatoes had to be harvested (only 2 were red, the rest still green, but they are now indoors ripening on the windowsill, the blighted plants have been destroyed). Potato blight fortunately came when the potatoes were big enough to harvest and some blight resistant ones are surviving, but at one end of my potato patch harvest was so poor, I can only think they rotted when the plot was under water :-(.
Carrots eventually germinated, but i don't know what happened to my parsnips first AND second sowing. One was fresh seed from the seed circle, the other a commercial packet, because I wanted to try out and contrast with my variety which I had been growing for years and saving seed. I am sure it was the weather and not the seed :-(
Lettuces were/are good, but each one was planted out as seedling plant with a bottle cloche.
Chard is fine (self seeded). Courgettes and squash is late, but finally doing something. Yes, each and every plant had either a large bottle around it, or (I don't have many really big bottles) a ring of crushed eggshells to deter the dreaded slugs. I save all my eggshells for this purpose.
Yep, some weed killer damage from next door too, guess with all the rain more people did more weed killing and it does drift. I no longer get horse manure from any source, but make as much compost as I can and use chicken pellets, fish meal, hoof and horn, dried blood etc Reasonable deals from Hants potato day and also Wilkinson has these on offer at times.
Peppers in the cold frame are flowering and late. Tomatoes in the greenhouse are ok, but very late too.
Gazza, thank you for the group hug - wide open arms here as well to make it go round everybody and hoping that nobody will give up - please, hang in there ....... (..A4A....)
Please don't think about 2013 yet. This is an opportunity to try autumn and winter gardening. Look at what you can sow now. Salad stuff for over winter, turnips, radishes, orientals, autumn peas ... try it. Chicory and endive, but also lettuce and lamb's lettuce, the orientals, Chinese cabbage is very nice, another lot of beetroot. Keep sowing and if you can cloche stuff or have a poly or greenhouse, then you should be able to harvest fresh salads and new veg for Christmas dinner and overwinter for a good flush of greens just when everything starts growing again in March.
In the south another lot of dwarf french beans will work too.
This season is not over yet, by a long way. :-)
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Yes it has been a bad year but.......
Carrots all grown in raised containers are excellent.
Lettuce all good
French beans gorgeous
Runner beans slow but coming on really well now
winter onions really good
Beetroot very good
Cabbages wonderful.
Sweet peppers good
Peas a success.
Cucumbers slow poor yield but at least I am harvesting them.
My failures....
Squashes
Sweet corn ...I doubt if I will harvest any :'(
Summer onions awful!!!
Greenhouse tomatoes now blighted :'(
Potatoes rubbish
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Quote;
It's always worth one more go. Where are you getting your peat from? What will your compost mix be?
I get all my composts,fertilisers etc wholesale!
I am part of an allotment association where providing we place an order in excess of £300 we get discounted rates (Trade)
Similarly with seeds we get our seeds through 'Leisure Gardeners Association" (Kings seeds)
My mix is as written on the packet of "Chempak Potting Base"mix
I also visit the Harrogate Autumn show each year where a number of seed merchants sell there seeds off a £1 per packet, which is often cheaper than Kings.
So as you will have noticed I am always on the look out for a bargain.
I don't particularly go after the cheapest seeds, I tend to buy F1 varieties which when discounted works out around the cost of average priced seeds.
For seeds like Beetroot and salad crops I buy the cheapest I can get,whereas with Brassicas these are always F1
So that is basically how I deal with my purchasing!
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Hazel this is my second year of completely blighted tomato crop, so I am disheartened but certainly not ready to throw in the towel! I had my onions and garlic, not the best but still pretty good, my potatoes which we got an excellent crop of, despite a bit of blight, annd a good crop of beans which is only just starting. I also had excellent lettuce and baby leaf and mizuna and beetroot, and late carrots are growing for the first time! Ok, courgettes and cukes are pretty much rubbish, and no toms, and probably only a couple of aubergines at the rate they are going, but it's always up and down.
I do agree about the autumn and winter garden though. get your self plenty of leeks in, they are really resistant to most things, sow winter cabbage and some hardy scarole type lettuces and swiss chard and late beets and your Pak choi type thing and you will still have veg for a while yet. And hang in there!
I second the group hug!
<<<<<<< o>>>>>>>>>
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plenty of leeks in, they are really resistant to most things
Except moth and rust. ???
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:o don't do it think of all the work you have put in getting that ground right next year has got to be better ;)
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I keep changing my mind about whether to hand back my allotment keys this winter or not. Many sensible reasons why I should give it up to do with bad health, moved far away, don't drive, constant break ins at the plots, etc. I have moved all my raised beds to my garden in preparation to leave the allotment but it is the condition of the soil after all my hard work that is making me want to have just one more year on my large plot.....I just don't know what to do so will leave the final decision until later in the year xJane
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so my allotment plan at the moment. ( today! ::) )
Decide which crops are worth saving, and dig over areas where only a few patchy bit's of stuff have germinated.
A dam good weeding around the crops I'm keeping, maybe sow a few late lettuces.
And erect a little plastic 'green house' I just bought for £7.99 to dry my onions in!
.........it will also come in handy for raising seedlings next year ( grown in my home made compost! )
..and a bit of sun
That should sort it!!!
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(http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/hug/spread-love-with-hugs.gif) (http://www.sherv.net/spread.love-emoticon-846.html)
for everyone who has got down over our inclement weather ( or for any other reason) x
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(http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/hug/spread-love-with-hugs.gif) (http://www.sherv.net/spread.love-emoticon-846.html)
for everyone who has got down over our inclement weather ( or for any other reason) x
Horse manure? Who wants? I would like to get rid of manure of a 1000 stables? :) :)
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if you can drop at my plot Gloucester please do
;D
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Hello Tee Gee.
Thanks for your reply. Apologies if I'm sounding a bit thick, but I assume you buy the Chempak Potting Base and then follow their suggested mix. Is that right?
I agree with you - it is worth investing in the F1 Brassica.
Looking forward to a better 2013.
Regards
Bluecar
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Yes!
Regarding 2013;
My spring cabbage and Caulies are ready for planting out, but i won't do that until after I have watched all of the Olympics.
Then it will be a case of harvesting things as they come ready,then preparing the ground for next year, as it becomes available.
Plus I will have to prepare my seed list for next year before mid September so I know what to buy at Harrogate.
Then I will have November to January off!
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I gave up on mine a couple of weeks ago , Greenhouse is the only thing keeping me going , suddenly i have got a glut of toms but cucumber and peppers have only just started flowering , as for the rest on the site -slugs have had most and the wind and rain finished the rest , time to cover up most of the plot just leaving enough for some winter veg and hope next year improves .
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Have been reading through comment on lack of results this year, - looking around on our site, I could see that I was not the only one with a lack of any crops, weeds are really thriving and enjoying it all, (their seeds do not rot in the wet); one plot holder had a stream flowing through his plot and dug out a water channel.
It seems like quite a few people are thinking "what's the point etc", so may not carry on next year, I'll give it one more try next year, dig over now, and cover it all with black membrane.
Anyway - it seems we are not the only site then, nice to know etc, even the pigeons have given up on us.
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So those giving up are willing to lose that first taste of broad beans (raw). The luscious taste of forced rhubarb. The melt in the mouth taste of the first summer summer cabbage. fresh strawberries. Firm brussels that taste so nutty. Soft juicy beetroot. The strong smell of fresh carrots. The sweet taste of your own parsnips. Crunchy onions/shallots. Fresh garlic. Lettuce an d spring onions. Leeks to die for.
Not to mention the fresh air, exercise and new friends you meet at the alotment or the ones that thank you profusly for the spare items you give them.
Ah well never mind. I understand that the supermarkets are at least trying to get the veg on the shelves within two days of butchering the plants.
Best wishes
Bill
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I think things are starting to pick up at least in our area, some of my friends even have red tomatoes!
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I don't think we can hope for better weather next year,instead we have to expect the same,or worse,and prepare ourselves for it....not really worked out how just yet mind. although we are going to make some salad tables to try and beat the slugs,and same for the strawberries too
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The one thing we can say is that thanks to global warming, and the so-and-so's devoting so much money to denialist propaganda, it's unlikely to be a run-of-the-mill year.
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Last year was the driest since whenever, this year has been the wettest. I hate to think what next year will bring.
With the jet stream so far south I can only assume that the granaries of Cathage are soon be reinvigorated and we will be in the ice age by Xmas.
But I am looking forward to summer on Friday.
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So those giving up are willing to lose that first taste of broad beans (raw). The luscious taste of forced rhubarb. The melt in the mouth taste of the first summer summer cabbage. fresh strawberries. Firm brussels that taste so nutty. Soft juicy beetroot. The strong smell of fresh carrots. The sweet taste of your own parsnips. Crunchy onions/shallots. Fresh garlic. Lettuce an d spring onions. Leeks to die for.
Not to mention the fresh air, exercise and new friends you meet at the alotment or the ones that thank you profusly for the spare items you give them.
Ah well never mind. I understand that the supermarkets are at least trying to get the veg on the shelves within two days of butchering the plants.
Best wishes
Bill
I would have loved all of the above but apart from my tomatos
i have 90% of what i have planted destroyed by not only the rain but by slugs etc this time last year i was giving away loads of veg because i had so much this year on the same plot i have got zero - i am now planting some winter veg on some cleared ground and once the veg in the greenhouse is finished i will put some stuff in there and hope for the best
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I am very depressed by massive weeds everywhere and being exhausted by so many visitors and huge family meals that I have yet to recover the energy to tackle the weeds. But:
Visitors helped me dig some potatoes and we have used them every day for weeks
Many puddings made using fruit from last year that would have cost a fortune if I had bought them
Sweetcorn almost ready to eat; courgette plants suddenly immense and productive
Sacks of huge onions and potatoes at the ready with masses more potatoes to come
Runner and climbing beans coming into production, peas still trying hard
Beetroot big enough to eat at last
Have sown "self watering" boxes with salad leaves of various sorts outside back door and they are doing well, especially land cress and water cress.....
So it's not all bad, though I am not going to list the dismal failures and slugged squashes......
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I'm sure that the somewhat improved weather has cheered most of us up!
We've suffered a lot this year, the same as everyone, with not being able to work on the soggy ground, the slugs, and the lack of sunshine.
But much of the fruit has been good. We have an apricot tree, inherited from the previous tenant, about 20 or 25 years old. It has never produced a ripe apricot in its life - until this year. We've picked 7 fruits from it, and very delicious they were. So it just shows that even in a poor year, extraordinary things can happen.
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Well I haven't thrown the towel in - but had a huge clear out over the past few days. Cleared the toms from the poly tunnel - lots of leaf this year - virtually no fruit. Cleared most of the onions - most had rotted. Left some that had gone to seed - cause I like the seed heads!! Cabbages - well lets say that the hens have had a lot!! Not many left now. Carrots - harvested about 6 yesterday - from what seemed like 600 rows. Peas - have been ok. Got a lot of a purple heritage variety (cant remember the name) hanging to dry off for next year. Lettuce - had some success - but most (that the slugs didn't get) have bolted. Celariac looks promising. Shame that no-one else in the family likes it except me!!!
So most of the lottie is now "cleared". Some of my hens - those that don't constantly escape will be "free ranged" in an attempt to reduce slug numbers. I need to think about sowing more in modules rather than direct into the ground. Some of my neighbouring plot holders have had more luck that way. So next project is to build a "staging" area at one end of the poly tunnel - perhaps with some shelving where I can start off more plants indoors.
Have to say that I feel totally flat this year - but think that we are all going to have to learn to live with the fact that the good old British weather is even less predictable than it ever was - and react accordingly. Happy days!!
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Well, things haven't been so bad here on Yorkshire's east coast.I got a decent crop from my overwintering onions and the spring sown/planted onion seeds and sets look fine, although swamped by weeds.
Beetroot seems to have relished the seasons weather and have romped away. Had a couple of stonking caulis (first time at growing em) but had to venture out in the dark with a headtorch on a couple of slug killing sprees (seemed to work though)
Climbing beans and courgettes cropping nicely at present. Garlic grew monstrous, leeks are just big enough to eat now and although blight struck, I still got a half decent crop of spuddies.
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I need to think about sowing more in modules
I lost almost all my winter brassicas to slugs but cabbages and psb. So I bought modules from guy at the local market. Very impressed with the results. Each plant was in a separate little pot in compost so hopefully no probs with picking up soil based problems. They took off like rockets once planted in the ground.
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Well I haven't thrown the towel in - but had a huge clear out over the past few days.
Have to say that I feel totally flat this year - but think that we are all going to have to learn to live with the fact that the good old British weather is even less predictable than it ever was - and react accordingly. Happy days!!
I followed this advice too. So much has failed, and while I was on two weeks holiday it decided to become a heatwave and many things have died off. I sowed lots of new stuff before going and almost everything has died. So I have dug over a large area and sowed some radish, late beet, autumn lettuce and some more cabbage and pak choy and bought in some leeks and winter cauli plants (all my Candid charm seedlings died and I used up all the seeds). And the rest will stay fallow now. For winter I have leeks, greens and sprouts, and the pumpkins have not turned out too bad so far, that will have to do.
Worst year ever think. we have harvested almost no veg from all the investment in time and money. except for onions garlic and potatoes. I have not even had one courgette.... first time that has happened. It is making me go off the idea of sowing my own as I was starting to do, and just buy in plants that are already well established.
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Well I haven't thrown the towel in - but had a huge clear out over the past few days.
Have to say that I feel totally flat this year - but think that we are all going to have to learn to live with the fact that the good old British weather is even less predictable than it ever was - and react accordingly. Happy days!!
I followed this advice too. So much has failed, and while I was on two weeks holiday it decided to become a heatwave and many things have died off. I sowed lots of new stuff before going and almost everything has died. So I have dug over a large area and sowed some radish, late beet, autumn lettuce and some more cabbage and pak choy and bought in some leeks and winter cauli plants (all my Candid charm seedlings died and I used up all the seeds). And the rest will stay fallow now. For winter I have leeks, greens and sprouts, and the pumpkins have not turned out too bad so far, that will have to do.
Worst year ever think. we have harvested almost no veg from all the investment in time and money. except for onions garlic and potatoes. I have not even had one courgette.... first time that has happened. It is making me go off the idea of sowing my own as I was starting to do, and just buy in plants that are already well established.
I know exactly what you mean:
I've had a few potatoes, garlic and onions...and not much else! The slugs even managed to chop their way through a fully grown courgette...I've never seen that happen before.
I'm holding on for runners and leeks and some PSB if it makes it through the winter!