Allotments 4 All

so far the growing year in my garden seems to be really weird what thrived last year, beans, peas etc are struggling this year and vice versa
is it me or the weather?

It`s know as "The plain awful cussedness of fate", which also includes such things as Murphy`s 3rd law - "If a thing can possibly go wrong it will"

Its the weather very cold spring set everything back, last year we were picking runner beans this year they haven't got to the top of the sticks yet, my squash have just started to move and I am still waiting for the raspberries to start.

Weird is the word for it!

Dying, stunted & deformed Tomatoes, Runners & French not up the pole yet & no flowers, Broad Beans 6' tall, & covered in flowers but no Black Fly, virtually no Cabbage Whites, no Ladybirds, Leeks just haven't got away, Potatoes clean & good, Brassica the most prolific ever!

Oh, & not a Hoverfly in sight & some Toms not setting - eg Stupice with 90 flowers per truss only setting half a dozen??

My leeks more of a slow drip, but most things doing well.  Just picked my first handful of runners, still not many bees about.  Beetroot not fattening up, should have watered them more.  So far a good year.  Peas looking rather dry new growth looking very sorry for itself.

Last  year only one variety courgette did well, slugs ate most and a few struggled on so Lungo Bianco was the only one that did well, this year they all look like doing well.

The only thing you can count on being consistant year on year are the weeds ::) ::)

 :) well to be honest we at the plots were saying just yesterday how fantastic everything is this year and it must be because we had a 'proper' winter. :-\

never before have I had to freeze peas because I had so many,

best garlic and shallots I've ever grown,

fruit of all kinds fantastic..

had my first cucumbers over a month ago

tomatoes gone mad

people at our site are literally giving bags of stuff away, strawberries,beans,goosegogs,courgettes,

baring in mind for the last two Summers our plots have been under water due to flooding and we have lost everything, maybe we are just overexcited at actually growing something this year ;D/ shades x

I put it down to the two summers we have had this year!!

Can you remember two/three months ago we had a hot spell and lots of people thought summer had come early. So the tendancy was; for these people to plant out against the advice of others.

Then the weather changed it got decidedly cooler but (luckily) not so cold as to kill stuff off but I think it 'checked' plants at a crucial stage.

Then we got the super hot weather of the last couple of weeks.

So in my opinion the check and the stress has had an effect on the the plants, particularly the indigenous ones i.e. plants of British origin.

Plants of foreign extraction seem to have been less affected, the heat factor is bred into them!

If my theory is correct then the seeds merchants better get the finger out and produce seeds suited to the supposed climate change we are having.

As I said it is;...........only an opinion!

Its been a fantastic year so far for me and others on the site
Brilliant shallots, onions and garlic.  Broad beans by the bucket, sugar snaps and peas going mental, toms growing at an incredible rate, beautiful radishes, endless letuce....

but there has been some oddities.
The 40lb of cherries that the birds ignored completely until Sunday!
Cucumbers that started then stopped (Tee Gee's two summers??) then started again.
Black fly everywhere and then - gone!
No mass slug attack until the wekkend  :( - lost 5 lettuce..