Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Tee Gee on June 26, 2007, 15:34:15
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I have gardened for 30years+ and I think this is the worst year I have had in all that time.
A number of records have been broken this year what with the mildest winter, driest March, Hottest April and wettest June and the poorest cropping I have ever had.
I am seriously thinking of giving up allotmenteering and if we get another mild winter I think I will.
This year as I have mentioned before my garlic crop was poor (too put it mildly) I picked my Japanese onions this morning and they were just as poor.
I have mildew on my onions, my beans (all types) failed as did my parsnips. I have had about one bunch of flowers off my sweet peas.
I was picking what few strawberries I have when I came across a cache of unripe berries which I can only guess has been put there by squirrels ( now I know why I have had so few) similarly all my gooseberries have gone.
This added to some bloody idle gardeners either side of my plot is just getting me down.
These two plots have had six seperate owners over the last three years and both are wildernesses and it it is from here I think all my diseases particularly the fungal diseases are stemming from.
Each of the new tenants that come on, state they want to grow organically which is fine by me providing they do it correctly, but the trouble is they don’t!!
Correct me if I am wrong but true ‘organic’ gardening is a much more difficult a task than non organic because you must know what you are doing and why!!
It is also more labour intensive (or should be) and that the crutch of the matter these people are not aware of this, then when their crops fail (and they do) the give up leaving their problems behind, or should I say ‘my problems' behind!!
The little cultivation they have done makes the ‘wildernesses’ more prolific meaning that weeds grow in abundance and it is the seed and diseases these weeds create that are my biggest problem.
To be quite honest I would prefer if the plots were left fallow at least there would not be the abundance of seed and disease habitats about.
A few of us on the plots were having a chat on the ups and downs of this year and on the one hand we are happy with hot wet and sometimes cold weather but when you get the months out of sequence i.e. June Showers and flaming April this is not conducive to good growing weather, so as I said if we get another mild winter I will be seriously thinking of giving up.
Apologies for my rant but I am totaly p****d off with gardening at the moment and just had to get it off my chest!
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Rant away TG, my wintering onions are poor as well, parsnips and carrots needed resowing to finish off full rows and with climate change we never know whats going to happen with the weather. But when you sit down and think about it I'm sure you will not give up allotmenting, and where would we be without your advise, if Henman can get through we all can, happy digging. ;D ;D ;D
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Hate to say it, but I'm having one of my best years ever :o
Peas, turnips, raspberries (oh, so many raspberries!!!) cropping heavily. Beans racing up the canes. All the brassicas doing well.
I really thought things would be bad given the weather but the only thing struggling have been carrots - which have all failed - and beetroot.
Sorry
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:( Oh Tee Gee, don't give up.......imagine how I feel, this is my first year...and I've got floods to contend with now as well :-[
but your an inspiration to me, and, I'm sure a lot of others on here too.................I read your pearls of wisdom all the time and have learnt more from them than any book I've got :)
so for me and all the other newbies, please don't give in . :-*
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Hi there
Rant away TeeGee but I know that you are made of sterner stuff than just to throw the towel in. As this is my first year growing in the Uk I have had quite a few problems but when I get down I think - well, its got two chances - Live or DIE!
I also have a wilderness next to me and at times it is disheartening but just think - next year is another chance to do better. Don't let others steal your enjoyment and be a bit kinder on yourself. Isn't there that poem about always planting 4 seeds - well this year nature wins! and you get the scraps.
Jitterbug
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Hello
I think everyone is feeling the pressure of this weather i thought it was meant to be flaming june not pi**ing june excuse me but i am really fed up with with weather and i feel very sorry for all those who's plot have been ruined.
This more like autumn weather not summer i think we had our summer in april.
I am on a losting battle with bindweed it's on the rampage i can't keep up with i have also 2 jungle gardens next door to me i have a selection of nettles and bramble and thisles and mares tail in my next door garden which is about 6ft high with this rain, i have taken 6 buckets of bindweed off my roses in the last day or 2.
I hope you feel better Tee Gee how you have had a little rant i don't blame you at all
Brogusblue
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Carrots & parsnips more or less non-existant, garlic half-size, autumn onions gone to seed, lettuce eaten by slugs, mangetout a right-off, gooseberries eaten by pigeons, strawberries finished, melons doing nothing.....
But are we down-hearted? Oh course, but......
Broad beans brilliant, more globe artichokes than we can cope with, loganberries loving it so wet, tons of sugar snaps, courgettes just starting, spring-sown onions looking good, already eating GH tomatoes......
And next year will be totally different! Don't give up, Tee Gee!
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Our loses far outweigh our sucesses this year, But not hit by the awful flooding (touch wood, not tempting fate etc.)
Please don't give up TeeGee, your website and advice has been invaluable to a newbie like me, and I am sure that others would agree....
Rant away, it does it good to get it off your chest. ;D
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TeeGee..
Don't do anything hastily please.
I think what is happening to many of us is a bit like grieving,at least that is how I feel, it has several stages, you are in an angry stage which hopefull will pass.
I would not presume to tell someone of your experience what to do, but I would dearly miss you and please just ask you to bide a while.
XX Jeannine
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er um i seem to be having a good year!! with my leg in plaster for the whole of april (yes very hot) every thing was late going in and whatever we got was going to be a bonus carrots ,parsnips,swede all germanated first time (rare)lots of strawbs goosegogs and rasberrys beans sweetcorn all fine got to agree about the winter all the cabbages got slugged and i have a nieghbour who adds loads to make his super dooper fertile and forgets it works on weeds as well
marg
and i second jeannine in what she says it seems you have to have bad times to apprieciate the good please don,t give up
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I'm with you Tee Gee... It's been a hopeless year!
I've never had it so bad... every kind of disease on everything and stuff that I've never seen before :o
BTW, don't give in!
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Bit hit or miss for me so far. Toms are only just flowering after growing like mad, then stopping stood still, no garlic due to white rot, 50% Japanese onions okay, rest rotten, spinach bolted whilst still only babies, carrots germinated patchy, more gaps than carrots - have resown so hoping for a late show, parsnips only germinated last week, peas eaten by the deer that is now residing on our allotment, the resprouted but are now going to be late, runner beans failed to germinate or were eaten when I wasn't looking, so have had to resow, they are now through and growing. Lost melons, marrows and crystal apple cucumber to slugs and snails.
We also have several plots that are head high with weeds and grass. It drives me bonkers as they both neighbour my 2 plots, and on a breezy summers day (when it isn't raining!) I can see all the seeds drifting over my allotment to keep my busy!
On the upside, I have plenty of courgettes, raspberries and strawberries. The spuds so far have been great, thanks to this rain, on my chard hasn't bolted. The same with the lettuce thanks to the rain and it looks like I have several tiny cucumbers forming. My broadbeans are finally filling out, fingers crossed the netting keeps the birds/squirrels/mice/voles/rats/deer away from them.
And of course, I can't do anything seriously on the allotment until late August early September, so it is going to be a jungle by then.
We all have good and bad years, successes and failures. For me, the failures make the successes even sweeter. You just wanna see the size of my raspberries!
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HI TeeGee,
Dont give up, and if you cant rant here where can you :-)
I have had an odd year 2 but at least i am not under water.
Cabbage i though i had planted turned into caulis.
Winter cabbage i was give a couple of weeks ago has turned into broc.
My over wintering onions dont look like there ready to pick as the tops are still quite green and in the last 6 weeks have grown more than 4 times in size. http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00326.jpg
Weeds are a massive problem on my plot but as you can see they have all be cut down and now i need to pull up whats left and put in more beds and new paths. http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00335.jpg & http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00334.jpg both post stimming
I have covered my carrots in a closh to warm them up as they have not really grown much in the last month since they germinated. Where as the parsnips i planted at the same time are over a foot high.
Tomatos are green and i have take 5 little red ones off for tea http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00336.jpg
First Crop of spuds came out today http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00332.jpg
First crop of beatroot also came out http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00331.jpg there a little slug attacked but i can cut that bit out
I feel flustrated that i cant get things the way i want them but i have leart to accept what i can not change.
Off to work out what to do with my mini harvest http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view¤t=DSC00337.jpg
Cambourne7
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It`s not much fun going out in the morning to see that the snails and slugs have wiped out yet another row or that the pigeons got amongst the kohl rabi or that the basil(something I do pride myself in) looks sick-but we carry on . Because, and sing along -----------
"There`ll be blue birds over--------------"
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Teegee, I know it won't make you feel any better, but to know that someone of your experience is having poor crops this year does make us amateurs feel better! I'm feeling guilty, too, though, cos I'm sure my neighbour feels the way you do about my weeds! I do try, though, just haven't got the time to get all of them out.
Daren't look at the long range forecast but there MUST be better things ahead!And what would you do with your time if you weren't allotmenteering?
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:) your just having a bad day Tee Gee,
my cut flower garden ie roses are under water
after a fantastic crop the rest of my strawberries have rotted
overwintering onions had white rot
Brussels and pots are now under water
broad beans flat to the ground
some apples have apple sawfly
french beans are getting eaten by slugs and snails
raspberries going mouldy
are you feeling better yet? ;D ;D
take care / shades x
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one fruit setting on 39 tom plants ................. but am i disheartened ?? not a bit.
have been cutting courgettes for a week now and am wondering where I'm going to put the new freezer that will be needed to store them all.
am not looking forward to being flooded out over the winter (a certainty by all accounts), so no over wintering onions for me this year and all the fruit bushes will have to find permanent homes on the plot rather than the lottie.
my expectations aren't high, so i'm still thrilled when I harvest anything at all.
can't you peeps with overgrown adjacent plots do some covering up of your own to keep the weeds down. I know it's not your responsibility but it does seem to be your collective problems. Or have a word with the C'tee and see if you all can't get some group support for dealing with the wildernesses to keep them in check. ???
and what exactly would you do in March if you didn't have a plot to fill ? :P
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Just give it another year and you will probably feel differently. We are all so grateful for the advice you give TeeGee. I have only been a member for 12 months now and I have learned so much from reading your posts. Your decision on my onion trouble has helped everyone on my allotment site. We are definely going to need your advice as to how to get going again after all this water has stopped pouring down on us.. Please think again xxxxxxx
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Garlic's good, overwintering onions are good, but I'm so far behind that a lot of things are a tossup. It's not the weather though, it's work. I'm just thankful that I've managed to do enough earth moving over the years that the flood last week flowed straight off: the worst thing I know is to have water standing on the plot for days on end. Cheer up, you're not the only one with problems!
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I'm really sorry you are feeling like giving up... :(
I too am having a bad year. There are much more snails and slugs around than last year and I lost so many seedlings. I sowed lots of beans and most have been eaten, only a few managed to survive.
Onions were terrible. They bolted very quickly and I'm left with a hundred onions with rotted stem in the centre and some suffered from white rot.
Garlics were unbelievably small. They yellowed far too early and didn't bulb up properly.
I had strawberries cropping abundantly but woodlice and slugs ate half of it.
I feel disappointed but refuse to give up. Gardening (particularly vegetables) cheers me up most of the time and without it I would be one depressed woman. ::)
Hope you feel better soon. Don't give up. :)
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You are right TeeGee, it has been a really odd year, with it's fair share of successes and failures. It is my first year with an allotment, and although I have grown fruit and veg at home for many years, this is the first time I've had the opportunity to do it on any scale. I expected to have failures because of my ignorance, and also successes because of beginners luck! Growing on a plot that has not been worked for a while was always going to be a bit of an experiment...
I can appreciate that when you have built up a such a wealth of experience that you share so readily with others having any failures must be harder to bear, but it also gives us all a reminder that sometimes it may be just down to weather and climate.
The pest issue is something else, I know what it is like to have a neighbour who does little than strim his plot every so often so the dandelions all flower and seed downhill on my plot................how I would love to get hold of that plot and look after it!! Again, I'm sure the odd weather conditions are contributing to conditions that favour pests and diseases of all sorts, I just hope that is not something we will have to get used to.
I find this forum so valuable because when things go a bit pear shaped or I don't know how to tackle something I can come on here and ask .........well just about anything without feeling belittled. I have found your site (in particular the comprehensive photographs) very helpful and insightful this past year. I hope you will feel able to continue, mild winter or not........you may not realise what a valuable resource you are!
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oh dear, I have just posted a garden catstrophe thread, without seeing this one. Yes, for first years it is disheartening to see everything rotting where it stands, I don't know if I'll get any decent spuds and they are usually something you can depend on.
Don't think I will get any toms at this rate.
Still, my parsnips are doing great guns!!!! and so are the beets. I too planted many things late and they seem to be doing better, as are my flowers that struggled in the Hot April.
But please don't give up TeeGee! I may resemble those organic allotmenteers next to you! As I haven't treated anything chemically, but I have tried not to let the weeds flower at least. Maybe our autumn crops will be better????
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I felt like that yesterday. I looked over at the neighbouring plot....they've got two started the same time as me 18 months ago. Both their plots are a wall of weeds mainly prickly lettuce (i think) It's the one I'm fighting as well as their plot seeded all over mine last summer. Any way I've seen these people twice. The weeds are taller than me (5' 8") and they are just starting to seed (seed like dandelion floats everywhere). I know where they're going to land!
The council has 'contacted 'them and suggested they strim the plot, the reply was they would spray it.......you can't spray weeds that tall and not kill everyone elses stuff as well. I wrote a letter to the council pointing that out! Anyway it's too late to spray as they are dying back now.
They've got an allotment somewhere else and they are shifting here and it's taking them a long time to do it. Meanwhile I believe we have a waiting list, just not fair on the waiting list either.
Hopefully our newly formed allotment association will make waves.
Good luck Tee Gee and please don't give up.
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Cambourne 7
Just looked at your pics.....you've got that weed, don't let it flower. It actually pulls out easily when the soil is wet but not when it gets older.
When you hit it with a strimmer it sends a big 'gob' of sap into your face (i do wear a face mask but it's mesh the sap goes thru').
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HI Kea,
Which pic had the weeds??
Not to worry i had the full face mask etc on !
I have to say I have had enough of weeding and i cant wait for my wood to turn up so that i can start putting more beds in and the smaller paths.
I have lost my get up and go in fact i have slept though my alarm clock 2 days running got up 2.45 today and 1.15 yesterday!! I am driving my hubbie and mate to a local beer festival then popping up to plot for more spuds for dinner tomorrow while its not raining.
Heres to a better day tomorrow for everyone!!
Cambourne7
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Hi Tee Gee, hope your season improves. I love reading your website - the tips, advice and pictures are invaluable to people like me who do not have your experience. I have learnt so much from the accumulated wisdom and experience of all of the great people on this site.
I will keep my fingers crossed that you get better neighbours - we met a couple at the w/e who are trying to get a plot on our site, but have been told there is a waiting list and yet the plot next to me has not been worked in the year and a half that I've had mine. It is very frustrating.
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It's all a bit of a mess, and when this years commercial harvest is in and spuds retail at £2 each and cauliflowers £5 each, we'll all be back on our allotments.
:(
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There was something on the news today about crops being ruined here in east anglia. God knows what crops are like elsewhere.
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Cambourne, I watched the news this evening and they implied that crops will be devastated by the floods in quite a few areas and therefore veg in the shops will be scarcer and more expensive. Makes me very glad to have my lottie (sorry to those of you who have lost yours to the floods xx)
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Tee Gee. I be t you don't give up, I'm sure you're made of sterner stuff than that!! If you do, you are under no circumstances to leave us or abandon the almanac. I'd be lost without it. When i got my plot and googled allotments and veg growing it was one of the first sites I saw and the crop rotation thing made sense for the first time. Doooooon't go!
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Give it some time Tee Gee and perhaps the next good cropping of a vegetable will trigger those old feelings of satisfaction at having produced something good, fresh and full of vitamins and only you know what's been on it. It has been a very intensive year this year. I've had to spend more time getting rid of aphids, removing wind broken stems from plants, cleaning debris away to avoid mould, slug hunting in the dead of night, re-sowing carrots, worrying if my runner beans are going to rot in the rain etc but it's worth it just to get that one veggie on the plate and say "I grew that". Who needs a gym membership when you can get a good work-out growing veggies.
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I have to say i have just looked at your website for the first time ...WOW.!!! :o
I now see why everyone says you have far too much knowledge to stop allotmenting. Please reconsider ....
As others have said, i as a newbie was disappointed with my results this year compared to my first season last year ....if you had problems with all your experience i know it is not just me or something i did wrong ..i need to learn the lesson ...the challenge of gardening is to take the good with the bad and fight back...
Thank you for sharing your years and years of experience ...i intend to send link to your site to my sister who is retiring to France and as a newbie gardener start growing fruit + veg from scratch..i am sure she will find all the advise she needs on your site ...
Thanks
Zoro
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HI Kea,
Which pic had the weeds??
Not to worry i had the full face mask etc on !
Cambourne7
Photo Weeds1 and Weeds2 It's the tall weed with the yellow flowers to the left of the front plot with potatoes? in it. That's all over my neighbours double plot and well over 5 foot tall. It's the one I've been fighting (with strimmer now!) on my plot. If your soil is wet and the plant is fairly young it just pulls out. I made the mistake of not worrying too much about it as it's an annual, well it sort of is but if you take the top off it grows back as a monster weed!