Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: bruno on June 19, 2012, 18:35:11
-
Blight (again), Allium Leaf Miner, Rain, Cold, slugs etc. not the best year so far !!! Is it all worth it ???
-
It's the weather which has got to me. I've never seen such miserable broadies, and everything else is about a month late.
-
To right and another cool windy weekend ahead!!
Am planning for what jobs to do in the autumn now.
-
garlic very rusty and leaves drooping so I lifted today and tidied them up to dry in the garage. They look fine but I doubt they will store well now. Squashes and courgettes just sit there and are doing no growing at all. I have never had such sparse and pathetic broad beans.
It is such blooming hard going and soul destroying this year
-
At least the temperature's supposed to be up in the mid-teens for the next week at least. Something other than weeds might actually grow.
-
My broad beans are best ever, the other kinds of beans are really struggling. So much better today.
-
Why do we do ut, cos we like the challenge of growing, takes us back to our roots..so to speak. I am hoping we we will all talk about the awful season of 2012 in a few years when things are all bright and beautiful again.
Sadly our minds live in the here and now and it is miserable like this I agree, but ut has to change.
XX Jeannine
-
Obsession.......spent the day on the lottie.............soggy strawbs...........Courgettes just about staying in there.
No sign of my peas or beans.
Good thing is met some really nice people.....had offers to help me make a fruit cage......you can;t get kinder than that.
So many slugs and snails was picking em up with my fingers..........sticky buggers.
-
We got a break in the rain today and went but we gave up, the raised beds were Ok but the paths were a stinking mess of fermenting staw that was actually bubbling, it was like the muck that you see cows and pigs in.
I refused to let John build the hoop house standing in that, it seemed insanitary to me.
On the good side, the raised beds were growing well, the peas were just loving it and depite the rain the second lot of beans were up three inches.
It was us that was not enjoying it !!
XX Jeannine
-
..because when we get it right and results and tasty and plentyfull it is best feeling ever.. ;D
And what else would we do with our 'spare' time than plan all the good things ahead....prepare the ground for it and then 'playing' with the seeds and plants.
It is not all about the 'end' but the journey in between too.. ;)
-
The first lot of broad beans sown in feb are great second lot sown in april are rubbish.Squash just sitting waiting for some sun.Beans have had to be sown over again.
Its a good job that we remember the good times when we had an abundance. Look forward to next year.
-
The first lot of broad beans sown in feb are great second lot sown in april are rubbish.Squash just sitting waiting for some sun.Beans have had to be sown over again.
Its a good job that we remember the good times when we had an abundance. Look forward to next year.
My second sowing of squash are rubbish. Hopefully after this upcoming rubbish weekend things will.improve.
-
I thought it was just me struggling to grow anything this year. All my ridge cucumbers wilted and died, the courgettes are looking a bit limp too. The early potatoes are very slow growing. The only things growing well are the strawberries, they are my 3 year old grandson's favourite!
-
IT is a bad year!
I was very grumpy on the lottie at the weekend when I saw what the slugs had done to my french beans!!! The only thing that 'had' been growing well!
The only thing doing well are onions...potatoes and garlic...
....fingers crossed for no blight!!!
Carrots still refusing to come up ( 3 sowings!),l beetroots just about trying ( 2 sowings ) and only 3 out of 15 sweet corn have germinated!!!
It is a tough year.
-
I planted out angelica and the slugs murdered it. It had nice big roots, so it should have come back, but didn't. They almost did the same to some Wesh onions I planted out, but two seem to have survived, and are re-growing.
-
breaks your heart as well as your back, I've had all the same problems as everyone else and I started later this year...even the fruit trees have little on them as they never got pollinated ...as we say always next year
-
We had this debate about sowing spring onions for while ago..usually I module sow because they fail to germinate if sown on ground...well...week ago I just emptied couple of old spring onion packets and scattered them on soil with option that either they do or not..nothing lost.
And FIRST time ever!..with all the slugs and snails we have trouble with this year..with all the rain..with cool weather...that bit of soil looks like its growing GRASS :o..looks like every single seed has germinated.. ::) ::)
At least something goes well this year..... ::)... ;D
...thats why we bother..something will do well if others don't..mother nature takes and she gives..
-
lovely two days of sun, at last but it is ending tonight so I had to get busy re damage limitation. Picked all the red strawberries and put shredded card under all berries. Finished digging up lady christie first earlies, got a cage plus enviromesh up (same bed) and filled the 8 x 4 bed with leeks. Dug up the rest of the shallots as I don`t want to risk white rot and anyway they are freezing well and just strewn in the garage for now.
Looking on the bright side, celery is romping away. Parsnips are liking the wet. Brassicas are very healthy. Runner beans climbing and our massive crop of blackberries will swell
Just got to go with the flow!
-
Come on, folks! Cheer up! It's not summer yet until midnight!
-
We finally got to our plot today, no rain, lovely sunshine. Still muddy and mucky underfoot.
I sat there for a while while John was assembling a hoophouse,.
There were birds everywhere, an eagle floating on a breeze so close I could see his white head, large American robins as close as two feet away with no fear, and I felt good as I contemplated what I was going to do w tithe garlic scapes I had just harvested.
The rain is disgusting but like child birth we quickly forget when we look closer at what is around us
Wishing you all well
XX Jeannine
-
I bother becuase gardening is ace, i don't think this year has been so bad - the winter was a mild one so all the jobs could get done early everything bar the beans has romped away and i've been having strawberries for breakfast and fresh savoy cabbage and broadbeans and garlic in my tea.
And there is so much to look forward to, months of roast tomatoes, sweetcorn raspberries and delicious meals. Its summer and im brown as a bean becuase there have actually been many days of sunshine. The flowers i planted two years ago are looking fabulous and everywhere new ones open to delight.
Long may it continue.
x sunloving
-
Is there sun in Lancashire then.............sunloving ? ;D
I too am disappointed with this years weather related failures it's not so much all that prep and work resulting in nothing. I could perhaps be sanguine about that if I could just repeat and try again but the season has moved on it has become too late to grow those things and ground and time is wasted until next year.
-
There is always something to sow and grow..and summer is still young..plenty of crops can be still started and harvested this year..or over wintered for next spring.
I refuce to give up for the doom and gloom..even if it is pouring down while I'm typing this message.. ::)
-
There is always something to sow and grow..and summer is still young..plenty of crops can be still started and harvested this year..or over wintered for next spring.
I refuce to give up for the doom and gloom..even if it is pouring down while I'm typing this message.. ::)
That's no good if those crops are not what you wanted to grow in the first place I'm sure I could grow no end of fast maturing stuff that I don't want to eat, one can't grow everything.
That's no compensation for those crops that take a whole spring, summer and autumn that I have invested all my effort into, since March. I try to grow what I choose to because I want those varieties of food plants, growing brussel sprouts is no way a worthy replacement for the loss of tomatoes.
Being disappointed is a perfectly valid feeling :P ;)
-
There is always something to sow and grow..and summer is still young..plenty of crops can be still started and harvested this year..or over wintered for next spring.
I refuce to give up for the doom and gloom..even if it is pouring down while I'm typing this message.. ::)
I agree with that very much. As usual the answer is - diversity. sow/plant small patches of many different crops and within crops, it possible, several varieties. Accept that some of the garden will be a loss every year and enjoy what works. I find I need to sow a lot and plant a lot to get a lot - so that we have plenty and can forget about the losses.
There often isn't much rhyme or reason why something just doesn't work one year and works wonderfully the next. But it doesn't mean that it isn't worth sowing again next year. Every variety deserves at least 2 goes before it goes in the archives as 'did not do well'.
A big plus is adaptability of seeds and plants. Plants grown from my own seeds are always fairly tough and can take quite well the conditions in this garden. Commercial plants often may yield more if everything is just so, but in an average year, in a windy garden with cold, clayey soil, they often don't do so well the first time round. However seed saved by other home gardeners is often very good in this respect. I love growing swapped seeds - in many cases somebody else has provided a useful 'hardening' short cut. Many commercial seeds are grown where labour costs are very cheap - usually in hot countries. Is it any wonder these seeds struggle here with the first bit of 'weather'?
Why do we bother? You can't get depressed as a gardener. Years ago I was grumbling to myself 'why do the weeds grow like crazy, but I can't seem to get lettuce going?' The answer was to start much earlier, so the lettuce is out when things start growing again. Now lettuce grows like 'weeds' here. Ditto peas. I still need to learn about a lot of other crops which can be a problem (for example carrots, which will germinate in July for a late crop but usually fail in spring).
This year isn't a write off - maybe we will get really good runnerbeans with all that moisture around, the French beans are struggling a bit and many things are late. Still time though ;D
-
We have a 8x8 plot for local nursery kids, they planted strawberries, the slugs got them , the planted pots [late] the rain got them, the peas never showed and yesterday they put in some cabbage.... the pigeons got them...
Unfortunately the teachers don't have much of a clue and don't ask advice... seems wrong to tell than what they should be doing ?
-
Martin, you have to be realistic. The UK is marginal for so-called warm weather crops. Outdoor tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, most squashes are actually marginal. We are at the most northern place that you can grow these things at all. And this means that some years they will be a write-off and, if you placed all your eggs into the 'marginal' basket, then you have to allow for failures.
How marginal some crops are (and it is generally those crops that cannot take frost) was brought home to me when a Scottish gardener swapped her pea for my bean seeds. She wanted to try many different beans, because French beans are marginal in many areas of Scotland, but peas usually work. She discovered that my beans weren't very good either, and that in her climate broad beans and peas give much better yields. Britain as a country is actually located far north and there are consequences for what we can grow always, most times or sometimes.
What you can do is improve their chances by sowing early, hardening off well and by crop protection.
-
Martin, you have to be realistic.
Britain as a country is actually located far north and there are consequences for what we can grow always, most times or sometimes.
This is true. I am in Southern Britanny and actually I am almost 600km south of Cardiff and about 900 south of Leeds!
So in truth the temperatures I get here can be vastly different to yours, even if we have a mild maritime climate that does not run to many extremes. In general I am two weeks ahead of the UK schedule. I have no greenhouse or shelter so everything is outdoors, and I have a large patch of aubergine, peppers and tomatoes and successfully grow all kinds of squash and pumpkin with little or no shelter. My toms and peppers are already flowering quite prolifically, although the aubergines are a little slower.
SO don't be disheartened, the more you grow things suited to your climate, the better it is. It is a little too hot here for rhubarb, although this year it has been great as it too has been very wet here, and often by June it is getting too hot and dry to successfuly grow other things that you Poms grow all thru summer, like radish, lettuce and later peas.
-
I am with Galina about diversity. Somethings do well and somethings fail. It is also worth making several sowings sometimes one batch fail for no apparent reason.
I had been feeling rather despondant and then the sun came out yesterday.
When I was young it was normal to grow marrow on a compost heap for the extra warmth. Growing peppers was almost unheard of and tomatoes were for posh people with green houses. I had never heard of courgettes or squash.
-
I've tried variety of crops but it doesn't suit me, I find it tedious to have little bits of this and that, rather I've over the years cut it down to what I really like to grow and want to eat. I would be perfectly happy with three or four crops out of five or six to be successful.
The very nature of gardening enthusiasm is also various and encompasses people like me.
Galina is right I'm in the margins for the things I want, that's my biggest problem.
-
I'm so depressed right now, it just won't stop raining. I'm tired of being cold and wet all the time. Everything is late, the plot is slug and snail central, and jobs have been backing up so much I've ended up doing some jobs like taking down my broad beans, in the pouring rain. To add insult to injury I took this week as holiday so I could catch up on some of the outstanding jobs. I'm writing this with the rain lashing down outside and the central heating on.
KittyKatt
-
I am just back from more damage limitation.
Strawberries did a lot better lying on shredded cardboard,
phacelia sown instead of beetroot on ex shallot bed after last shallots dug up yesterday
aquadulce bought for sowing in root trainers, I will be bringing them on as long as possible before planting out and they will go on the dug in phacelia
No point sowing more beetroot seeds as usual, nothing much is germinating on the allotment
I may well have the start of blight on my kestrel spuds, I am not sure as they are small brown patches like rust and it is only the kestrels.
I am realistic about my squash, it may well have been a waste of time, effort and money. Same for outdoor cucs. However I spotted a marrow :) and I almost never grew it
-
Two more weeks and the nights will be pulling in.
It's being so cheerful that keeps me going ;D
-
I'm so depressed right now, it just won't stop raining. I'm tired of being cold and wet all the time. Everything is late, the plot is slug and snail central, and jobs have been backing up so much I've ended up doing some jobs like taking down my broad beans, in the pouring rain. To add insult to injury I took this week as holiday so I could catch up on some of the outstanding jobs. I'm writing this with the rain lashing down outside and the central heating on.
KittyKatt
thats the main problem , the coldness of the weather !
The wind has damaged some of our sweetcorn so covering them up tonight for next two days, they have got frayed edges from the wind
-
To be fair to myself for minute I haven't had any failures just yet, true stuff is behind but I got my first flower on a courgette plant today. My runner beans and climbing french beans are just starting to flower even thought they are only half way up the canes, and the mange tout looks OK.
I had my first crop of chard yesterday though some of it is trying to go to seed already !! and I've eaten my cavalo nero thinnings, I may yet still do OK.
One thing I've have never failed at is chilis but my poor old stunted plants are way behind it's hard to believe in them.
-
Oh Dear, it is so to hear such hard stories and I feel for everyone.
We are on flood watch right now and after going through that in Hull I don't fancy it.
We have a third day of good weather but still the river is at it's peak and is still getting highter from run off higher in the mountains.
I totally agree wuth Galina but also recognise it is hard when one can't grow the choices we want when we want them.
I try to compare to other regions where they are battling severe dorught or buds we have never heard of.
The way our weather in West Canada is now, and I swear it is duffernt from 20 years ago, it is getting difficult to grw many things I used to.
In the UK you can get your spuds out much earlier than I can, we are warmer than you but our rainfall is the killer.
Regarding the school kids, my only advice I can come up witj is to do a bit if gardening in large pots, there are many mini varieties of veggies you can grow that the slugs would not be able to get at easily. The children would still enjoy it and you would geta harvest.
I can help you with a list on suitable veggies of you want to have a go.
XX Jeannine
-
Why do we bother ?
Fresh air, exercise, taste, learning, science, friendship
:)
-
^^ what he said and:
Because what DOES get to harvest is fresh, tasty, nearby and doesn't involve a soul-destroying trip to a supermarket.
-
I suppose I could take heart from others' experiences, but that wouldn't feel right.
Thing is, I'm losing varieties I have been freely given by people on here, and have promised to return as seed.
French Beans of several varieties seem to be so late they are missing. Other Beans are getting hammered by slugs.
Sweetcorn is on its second sowing and not doing well at all.
All the Garlic is covered in rust.
Some Giant Swede plants have gone straight to seed. Pumpkin and Courgette plants are literally shrinking before my eyes.
On the bright side.
There's a Pea glut coming. Mange Tout, tout.
The Brassica I saved from the aphids are romping away now.
The Potatoes are waist-high at one end and almost all are flowering now. (The first earlies are mysteriously small and late though)
The strawberries, the ones I can manage to beat the slugs, pigeons, small birds and other varied fauna to, are big, red and juicy. One of them took two whole bites to eat today.
My Onions are great too. Fair doo's.
And Carrots. Yum. Another big handful of baby Carrots came home with me today. I must order Carrot seeds by the pound next year.
Next year.... That's why we do it. 8)
-
It's because us gardeners, flower and/or veg ones, love a challenge. We do it year in year out and we take what we get with what we put in and what the weather throws at us and soldier on. De facto ::)
Ninny
-
My biggest success this year has to be Winter Lettuce! I started it off in the greenhouse in September last year for growing as over winter greenery. It did pretty good & was quite tasty.
I then spotted that two of the cut off stumps reshooted and they are stll going! Reckon I can keep it going until this September.
The seasons are so strange & erratic that I've decided not to stick to 'usual' sowing planting times anymore & just trying anything if it shows a couple of days of warmth. Whenever that is.
-
I actually turned the central heating on this morning....wasn't it the solstice....yesterday ???
-
Having been very upset by the awful weather forcing me to face the reality that I need to give up my large allotment as soon as the fruit has been harvested (long story but have moved away & dont drive,arthritis, thefts from plot, etc) I am now feeling that fabulous excitement again as I have built raised beds in my tiny back garden & the soil has arrived today ;D I guess that't why we do it, that wonderful feeling of anticipation when we sow seeds etc. I know the chances of anything doing well in this crazy weather is slim but today at least I am filed with hope & enthusiasm. Such a relief as I had thought about giving up growing my own all together :o xJane
-
For the first time in my experience, slugs are eating potato leaves! And only Rocket! Charlottes and Desiree are unscathed. Even nettles are attacked.
Very disappointed that, in a bed that is basically a large compost bed, carefully nurtured but very slow growing squashes and courgettes have been rootled about in by some animal and only two out of 14 are surviving, and some of those were replacements. Badgers or foxes looking for worms?
Overwintering onions and shallots my best yet; broad beans very gappy, and a lot of plants I filled the gaps with have failed, but I have had some good pickings. Peas have done well - several pickings there and am somehow managing to keep up the successional sowings in pots and gutters.
Considering how many beans I have started off, I haven't got the wall of mixed beans I imagines, but five small wigwams are reaching the tops of their poles, and others are on the way.
I have not had to buy lettuces and other salad leaves for 5 or 6 weeks.
I am discouraged but not terminally so, though this wind is shredding everything, especially the corn.
-
Have covered up some of our corn as it hates the wind
-
The reason why I bother is I love my allotment and my allotment plot. This year has goto be the worst EVER!
My tomatoes are growing backwards, there has been a mass invassion/incursion of slugs and snail that just devistated my fathers peas, the plot has a natural pond on it that was not there a few days ago. Its cold, its wet, its horrible! But hey its Gardening :D and I love it :D
Theres still time to get some cool catch crops like lettuce, raddish, carrots, french beans, runner beans, chineese cabage ;) and loads more...
Why not sow some wallflowers for your garden :)
Lots to have a go at yet.
I have sort of lost faith in this year and looking more to next year by improving soil and doing a few other projects.
I have a saying :) There is always next year ;)
-
This year has been a pain so far but I'm hoping the seasons have just shifted and October is going to be the new August in 2012.
-
Alex you might be onto something there. Last October towards the end of the month I remember sitting outside till 12:30 am having a BBQ as it was really warm.
The only downside is deminishing light levels.
-
Went to have a look yesterday and there are ups and downs.
Doing very well
Peas, rhubarb, broadbeans, potatoes (until the blight strikes), courgettes, onions, currants, raspberries, herbs.
Hanging on
Sweet corn,brassica seedlings
Oh dear!!!
Strawberries, dwarf beans, and runner beans.
Still love it!!!
-
One positive about all the rain- it makes weeding easier. I think I'm going to try to clear the neglected patches that I've been putting off, then I'll have achieved something this year even if my veg are rubbish!
-
"I have sort of lost faith in this year and looking more to next year by improving soil and doing a few other projects"
Good, cheering attitude, and my own. It is painful to give up on some of the ambitious plans one always has in the early spring, but taking catch crops and improving the soil and general design are perfectly good substitutes really.
-
Thinking back to when I was growing veg in our back garden, when times were very hard, we had 3 children and there was recession after recession. I never grew the likes of squash, chillis, peppers. That was when sweetcorn was exotic. I grew veg that I knew would survive, the basics. Perhaps we have gone too far into the unusual, we had bad years then too but there was always something in the garden
-
i feel your pain people but in opposite ways been too dry and hot here in Michigan and hard to water every day and i lost a few things due to hot weather hope the weather get better for you all i know i lived there 42 years and uk weather can be bad :)
-
:-\ oh dear heavy rain is back in Kent again for at least a week. Yesterday I shifted soil into 3 raised beds & sowed loads of seeds (it was a lovely sunny day), I felt very enthusiastic about my new venture of a mini plot in my back garden......today I fear the intensity of the rain will have pushed the seeds so low that they will never germinate ::) but al least the beds aren't looking water logged like the grass etc. This year has truly been awful!!!!
Think I will sow more of the same seeds indoors in pots so I will have plants to fill the gaps etc. Ho Hum... xJane
-
Because it's far from the madding crowd.
-
The reason my plot and garden as looking so sad is because my son was diagnosed with a terminal illness and I have lost the joy of growing for now. I am holding on to the plot and hoping for sunnier skies. I am not foolish enough to think that there aren't some broken hearts out there amongst you all but if all is well count your blessings. Things can always improve with the weather.
-
Worldor as I mother of three sons I can only begin to imagine the horror of what you are going through, my heart goes out to you & your son x Jane
-
I was going to have a moan about my dispiriting trip to my plot this afternoon, but having read your post, worldor, you've put it all in perspective. I too am a mum of three and was just thinking how much I'm looking forward to my youngest coming home for the summer next weekend. I will definitely count my blessings and I send you and your family my love xx.
-
Because it's far from the madding crowd.
Love that quote :)
Ninnys
-
The reason my plot and garden as looking so sad is because my son was diagnosed with a terminal illness and I have lost the joy of growing for now. I am holding on to the plot and hoping for sunnier skies. I am not foolish enough to think that there aren't some broken hearts out there amongst you all but if all is well count your blessings. Things can always improve with the weather.
So sad for you. x
-
The reason my plot and garden as looking so sad is because my son was diagnosed with a terminal illness and I have lost the joy of growing for now. I am holding on to the plot and hoping for sunnier skies. I am not foolish enough to think that there aren't some broken hearts out there amongst you all but if all is well count your blessings. Things can always improve with the weather.
I'm so sorry worldor, I didn't read your post before I did mine. Our son grits his teeth and we growl back, it's time we stopped that and as you say, count our blessings. There will be sunnier skies and I hope your son and you enjoy them whilst you can.
Ninny x
-
Thank you all.
-
Hold on. My daughter died of leukemia five years ago- And the plot helped. You can get rid of anger digging. Cry in peace. Tear out weeds - you can imagine tearing out your frustration. Just keep going. It does actually help - although not much where you are now. I feel for you. I’ve been there.
-
Yes. When I was in my angry stage I did go down and plant some seed potatoes. It was the strangest thing. I went down to the plot alone and bashed the holes out and chucked the potatoes in crying all the time. It seems that it is like grieving and you go through the same stages. I have accepted things now I think and feel deadened inside. No tears, no joy, no anger. Not sure how I feel to be honest. Sorry about your daughter. Life can be so cruel can't it.
-
Worldor, one of my best friends sons is goig through the same as you, he is in his 3rd year, we are pretty close so I know to some extent how you are coping, my friend had tremendous peaks and lows in the beginning but then she seemed to get very numb. She tells me she wakes up some mornings with that|"something is going to happen feeling" and is off kilter all day.
It is a dreadful thing to have to go through, I wish you strength and shall be thinking of you.
XX Jeannine
-
Thank you Jeannine. Pass on my sympathy to your friend.
-
Worldor, please don't stop 'bothering'. Your son needs your support now, but your plot will give you support too in so many ways. When you are ready come back to the world of growing. And there is always support in lots of ways from this forum. The sun WILL shine for you again, I promise....as I hope it will shine for the rest of us real soon.
Caro
-
Well I was going to complain about the bad luck I have had
in the garden. 3 lots of runner beans grown in the green house, all of which rotted. Dwarf french beans planted outside, most of which eaten by slugs, a large border of sweetcorn which I doubt will ever produce a crop! Confined to home for the past 4 weeks due to a leg infection and wishing I could get out in the greenhouse let alone the garden. .
Then I read your post Worldor and realise that life is too short to worry about a few crops that have failed!
I am thinking of you at this worrying time for you and your family. I hope that you can find solace in your allotment.
-
Thank you all for your supportive replies. Carry on enjoying your growing. Hope the sun shines for you all soon.
-
Sorry to hear your bad news and my thoughts are with you. I'm going through something similar but with my Dad. Been feeling really down in the dumps but managed to force my self to the lottie today and actually got away from it all for an hour. It's amazing what a bit of sunshine can do on an otherwise gloomy day.