Change in growing methods???

[Hi_Hoe]

hi all

Im not sure if this has been touched on before, but i was wondering wether other growers on here have been thinking about adapting their gardening to suit the ever changing British weather.?

By that I mean selecting seeds/ plants etc which are more tolerant of wetter climates, less of something and more of another, or perhaps delaying sowing times??

Given that climate change is happening and our summers from here on in are thought to be becoming cooler and wetter, the chance of dismal faliure (not for everyone, i agree) like 2012 could be more the norm than the exception- which is a worry.

I dare say commercial growers are already looking at different ways to adapt in order to adjust their growing to suit, and us mere gardeners shouldn't be far behind. Perhaps more of a reliance on larger polytunnels may be in order!!

The term paddy field springs to mind!!!

[Hi_Hoe]

[goodlife]

Well..I'm trying to change to some extent...
Last year my tomato crop was totally fiasco...first time ever! I was so fed up that this year I'm going to half the amount of tomato plants I usually grow and as I seem to be more consistent with pepper and chillies..switch over to more of those is in agenda.
I tend to save most of my seeds anyway..resulting seeds that are more 'hardy' than those that are bought...lot of bought seeds are produced in climates totally different to ours.
As for timing of sowing ...for what I've noticed where I live...weather is totally lottery 'game' from one year to other..so instead of sowing one crop all in one go (unless for seed saving purposes), I sow and grow in manner 'little and often'..if one lot fails, there is always chance with another.
I started bulking up my soil levels couple of years ago and this is on going progress..plan is to 'grow' deeper 'higher' more friable soil structure. Not that I've got problems with soil debth..but deep down there is red clay and when the weather is wet like past summer for long periods of time....it makes growing hard work. No more raised beds..I've been there and done that, but more soil and I can leave the original soil undernearth undisturbed and carry on growing on 'home made' layers. More of ..'no dig' aproach. In theory it works both ways....during dought (hah!), as deeper layers of 'original soil' will keep the moisture 'in' and during wet year, plants still have less wet top layers that hopefully keep them from rotting away. Other than covering the plot with glass and polythene and growing everything undercover, as far as I can see that's all I can do for now...I've got sufficient amount GH's and such and as yet I want to keep some outdoor growing space.

[PAULW]

A couple of years ago donty mon was encouraging people to plant a mediteranian garden with olive trees and drought loving plants should think he will have to rethink that one, you have to realise mother nature is a fickle mistress just when you think you have got the hang of things she will throw a googlie in there just to show who is really in charge.

[ed dibbles]

Good advice Goodlife about staggered sowings. I'd also advise growing as many different kinds of crops as you can so that if one crop fails another may do well. Same goes for more than one variety of the same veg.

Also keep sowing throughout the season. Veggies can be sown/planted every month (apart possibly december). I had some good chinese veg last autumn for example.

Even though it was very wet last year didn't deter parsnips, salsify, celery/celeriac etc (british natives you see). The oca and perpetual spinach didn't mind the wet condition either. So a good number of successes amongst the failures.

This year we could easily plan for a wet year only for it to turn dry again. Or not as the case may be.....

[Hi_Hoe]

A couple of years ago donty mon was encouraging people to plant a mediteranian garden with olive trees and drought loving plants should think he will have to rethink that one, you have to realise mother nature is a fickle mistress just when you think you have got the hang of things she will throw a googlie in there just to show who is really in charge.

If only we had a crystal ball!!!

(mediteranean Britain does sound nice ho, dunnit?!)

[Tee Gee]

Well..I'm trying to change to some extent...
Last year my tomato crop was totally fiasco...first time ever! I was so fed up that this year I'm going to half the amount of tomato plants I usually grow and as I seem to be more consistent with pepper and chillies..switch over to more of those is in agenda

.


I am too!

Like you my tomatoes were rubbish and my peppers were brilliant so I too will be upping the peppers at the expense of the tomatoes!

I tend to save most of my seeds anyway..resulting seeds that are more 'hardy' than those that are bought...lot of bought seeds are produced in climates totally different to ours.

Most of my pepper and tomato seeds are from stock I have saved over the last few years and I find they perform quite well. Last year was the first time I have ever had blight on my tomatoes but not to heavily so I harvested a few tomatoes off each plant.

As for timing of sowing ...for what I've noticed where I live...weather is totally lottery 'game' from one year to other..so instead of sowing one crop all in one go (unless for seed saving purposes), I sow and grow in manner 'little and often'..if one lot fails, there is always chance with another.

I do the same and have started using plug trays to germinate my seed, then potting the plugs into 3" pots this allows me to up the heat on some and keep others as cool as I dare and in this way I can control the plants growth a little.

Meaning that I grow on the plants that are best suited to the planting out conditions the weather throws at us. It's a bit hit and miss as it means that I have to grow a lot more plants.
I am lucky in so far as if I have early/ late plants I can't use I work a deal with the village hardware store and he sells my surplus. This usually covers my increased cost!

No more raised beds..I've been there and done that, but more soil and I can leave the original soil undernearth undisturbed and carry on growing on 'home made' layers. More of ..'no dig' aproach. In theory it works both ways....during dought (hah!), as deeper layers of 'original soil' will keep the moisture 'in' and during wet year, plants still have less wet top layers that hopefully keep them from rotting away.

I have mucked my beds every year for years and they are in fine fettle and I rarely have to water in dry seasons and it drains freely but is retentitive in wet seasons.

But I don't like the " no dig" system it goes against all my thoughts on soil improvement!

Plus I don't bother with raised beds when you consider most people use either 6" or 9" boards which rot, I have found with constant mucking over the years my beds tend to be 4" to 6" higher at the start of the season even without boards.

The other thing is when digging, be it raised beds or not most people dig one spit deep so what is the point of going to the expense of boards, the cultivated soil is the same in both instances.

OK if the soil is shallow or of poor quality then raised beds are an option, but I don't have that problem so no raised beds for me!

Other than covering the plot with glass and polythene and growing everything undercover, as far as I can see that's all I can do for now...I've got sufficient amount GH's and such and as yet I want to keep some outdoor growing space

I have plenty of covered areas but there is a lot of stuff  such as potatoes and brassicas  that I think are easier grown out in the open!

So like you Goodlife I think growing a few of a number of varieties of one genus is the best way forward. As I see it in some years one variety will grow better than others, plus I tend to grow quick maturing stuff as these lend themselves to successional sowing much better.

[antipodes]

It must be said that this year was one of the worst I have had over the past 5 seasons of growing. I remember several years ago sharing a garden with a friend and we planted loads of things, spuds, beans, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, and the summer was hot and pretty dry and we had almost no water yet teh harvest was spectacular, I was giving things away.
No more of that these days, for teh last two years, no tomatoes, it's terrible.
Liek Goodlife, I am surprised at peppers and chillis doing so well, I always thought they needed loads of heat but they give right into the cooler autumn. This year I will plant no more than 8 tomatoes, I was so disappointed last year. I will put them far away from each other in case of blight.
Potatoes and onions do exceptionally well and for this season I have ordered a lot more seeds for lettuce, beetroot, radish, oriental greens, which like a wet cool spell. SO I guess, yes I am adapting what I grow!

[Hi_Hoe]

Saw Countryfile last night - the poor dairy farmer who had to sell his herd 'cos of the wet weather- it must be soul destroying!

I couldnt help but feel though, that the weather presenter who was co presenting - i forget his name- didnt seem too enthusiatic- in fact more evasive- about the weather conditions yet to bestow us this year! I think he knows something, and I hope i read his face wrong!!

Does anyone know where i can get lots of see thru umberellas cheaply!!

[Obelixx]

I'm planning to move my veg plot.   Currently it's a series of raised beds on the north side of the house which get loads of sun from March to end of September and full sun in June as there's no other shade but the house.  However it's been really cool and wet and windy this year and not brilliant the year before and it's also very cold in winter so I've had no winter veg survive since 2008.

The new veg plot will be raised beds again but on the south and east side of the house where there's more shelter and more sun and also nearer my recently relocated greenhouse.   It may not happen this year as we're doing renovation work on that end of the house but I've already moved the black and redcurrants to the long raised bed along the back boundary and will use the remaining beds for salads and as a nursery bed for garden plants and cuttings.

The only good crops I had last year were some beetroot (at the third attempt), fennel, salad leaves and cavolo nero.   Carrots, Swiss chard, purple sprouting, peas and tomatoes were all a dismal failure.    Chillies and cucumber in teh greenhouse did OK but toms were a disaster there too.

[Digeroo]

For me the hot year of 1976 was the worst growing year, apart from tomatotes and courgettes most things just shrivelled up and died.  And the year we had a pet rabbit was a challenge indeed.  I was delighted when a fox finally got it.  Those that did survive were watered with washing up water.

Every year is different and I have never found anyone can predict the weather.    I use the little and often approach too but also grow a range of crops and varieties.   I have never been able to predict which batches and which crops will do well.   I had a total failure in carrots and beetroot last year yet a few inches away on the next lottie they had great ones, while my sweetcorn was fine and theirs a total write off.   Tomatoes what are tomatoes?

If it rains this year once the strawberries have set, they will get covered.   I normally plant potatoes at the bottome of a trench but this year they will get planted on top of the soil and maybe even on a raised pile of soil.   

I gave up on celery last year, but as it turned out that was a big mistake.   After two years with hardly any rain we had the wettest ever.

The weather forecaster on countryfile was talking about the warming of the arcitic causing the jet stream to weaken and so extremes of weather are apparently more likely.  But as far as I am concerned there have been extremes for all of the past 40 years I have been veg growing. 

I do not know about umbrellas but 99p store cloches are quite good.  1.5mtr long.

[MattD]

Hi-Hoe I think you capture the issue very well in your first sentence

adapting their gardening to suit the ever changing British weather.?

I think the challenge with our weather is its unpredictability more than the absolute levels of temperature or rainfall.   I have no idea what our average temperatures or rainfall are month by month - but I am almost certain that it's never what actually happens on a month in any specific year.

Perhaps things have been getting slightly more extreme, but then a few years ago I would have sworn blind that spring was getting earlier and earlier, but this year I reckon, using the highly scientific 'first daffodil properly in bloom' measure it's slipped almost a month.  Perhaps my early daffs have died out though.......

(I just want to add that I believe in effects of man made climate change on a global basis - just not sure I'd want to predict specific differences to UK in my lifetime)

So the focus should be on resilience and backup plans, more than hoping we will be growing oranges and olives in 5 years time.  Effort put into improving soil quality is surely always worthwhile, perhaps water storage or retention, and not letting your plants get 'soft' by over watering them in the first place.    Lifebelts for those at risk of flash flooding....

And just be grateful that you probably don't have to survive on what you grow on your plot - I wonder how I'd have faced my family if we'd had to live off what I managed to grow last year.

[Hi_Hoe]

Thats very kind of you to say so, MattD, I completely agree with you!!

The issue of exactly what the temperature, or rainfall (albeit lack of in some instances)  at any given point isnt the crux of what i was touching on, its more how we deal with the curve-ball that mother nature throws us!!  .

Adaptability is the key, and your right in saying that we should all be thinking about back up plans (as i  often do anyway). Ive personally struggled with a (small) number of crops over the last 2/3 years and am already thinking of ways in which to improve conditions and hopefully yield with said crops. (Carrots being one - rubbish the past 2 yrs). Im defo looking at my soil morer than usual this season Im already aware of a few issues that I could improve on. 

There was a thread on here a while back where a lot of us were saying that "this is the worst year ever" etc - myself included - and a number of people simply gave up and i feel for their plight!. I for one may moan at times, but its not in my nature to say "right thats it, lets sod this off" at the end of the day - I prefer to find 9 ways to acheive something over 1 way to not (if that makes sense?)!

I guess thats how progress is made!

Also like you, Mattd, I think if me and mrs were Tom and Barbara, we'd have starved to death a fair while ago!!!

[Pescador]

Hi-Hoe,  I was looking for that thread about the "worst season ever" and "I'm giving up", but cannot find it!!
Don't suppose you've got a link to it?

[Hi_Hoe]

Hi-Hoe,  I was looking for that thread about the "worst season ever" and "I'm giving up", but cannot find it!!
Don't suppose you've got a link to it?

Sorry, i cant find link either! Thought it might be in my comment history thingy but

I seem to recall it was about what crops we'd failed on last year or summat along those lines!