Allotments 4 All

Initial feedback on the growing season at our site

http://www.sunningdaleallotments.org/GrowingSeasonRetrospectiveV2.html

How about your experiences?

wot  - no broad beans on your site?

well spotted!

looks good, Bak  ;D
altogether, a fantastic year for most things, apart from the butternuts whiich died in the cold snap, still cropping tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers..lots of leeks, beetroot,calabrese, celeriac and celery,cabbages of various types and sprouts on the go..beans drying with psb to follow..carrots,squash, potatoes,onions and parsnips stored, freezers full of everything else, including our own squash drinks and stewed fruits,jars of jams,chutneys andpickles..plenty of goodies for us and our family

I only mentioned broad beans because they did quite badly this year for us. Two rows were half size....Apart from the tomatoes, which have done even worse than last year, it's been a really good year
Potatoes were great
Onions and shallots were good and have stored really well
Squash were amazing

 :)  I agree best growing year since  2006,...... 2007 and 2008 my plot was flooded for the summer and folk on our site gave up,

But this year fantastic, except for my pumpkins, only managed 3 small sugar, 1 crown prince and two tiny butternuts.

and I had Peaches for the first time outside, heaven, I will never eat a shop bought Peach again / shades x

I know what you mean, angleshades, we had 5 small peaches on our peach tree and 3 on our supposed to be nectarine tree ::).., absolutely fantastic taste  ;D

Some grew, some didn't... same old same old...  ;D

Season is still far from over so I have to reserve judgement for a while yet. Overwintered peas and broad beans took a hammering in the frosts and there were early spring losses. Summer drought caused problems but the grapevines are producing superior fruit.

Still waiting for Oca, Ulluco, Yacon, sweet potato, melocoton, broomcorn and I have lost my celeriac. (When I say I've lost them, I really mean I cannot find them).

In any 12 month period there is always good spells and bad spells but if you have enough variety, the weather will always be right for some.

Did I mention I have flowers on my Yacon... small orange "daisy-like"...
I have a picture in the camera...  :)

This is normal but they are not that attractive and I believe that they are also sterile. Incidently, now is a good time to take cuttings if you have suitable overwintering facilities.

Are they any easier than Sweet potato cuttings?

Well to date it has been a great year.  My only real regret is not giving my squashes a better start as they were miserably small.
But outdoors toms beat the blight, my cherry tree went beserk, courgettes by the van load, all sorts of lovely salad leaves and herbage, onions were good(ish), garlic better...
Of course this is also my first year on this site so I put it down to what I have learnt here rather than anything else! ;D
I still can't grow celariac though and my coriander always goes to seed

I'm still cropping:    Carrots, Beetroot, Red spring onions, Celeriac, Cucumbers, Red cabbages, Caulies, Butternuts, Tomatoes, Chilli Peppers and French beans.

Stored:    Spuds, Shallots and onions.

In the ground:     Winter onions, Parsnips, Sprouts, PSB, Kale, Leeks, Swede, Durham and Pointy cabbages.

Finnished cropping:     Sweetcorn, Peas, Runners, Strawberrys and Raspberrys.

Bolted:     Fennel and Chinese cabbage.


 
                         
                           

well I confess to not having taken very good care of my veg during summer so I only have myself to blame. Still, I had brilliant tomatoes, good spuds, a terrific onion/shallot crop that has stored excellently, artichokes, strawberries, parsnips, first time at aubergines and peppers. Quite good bean crop although I didn't do successive sowing, which was a mistake. I also got started a good herb bed, after many sowings, I finally have a rich crop of thyme, parsley, mint and finally got tarragon off and a few sage shrubs which I hope will endure.
But almost no courgettes, no decent beetroot, again almost no carrots despite a lot of effort. The gooseberries disappeared. The corn was catastrophic and many of the pumpkin plants didn't take off (well I got 4 big fruit in the end so it was OK).
I guess I just have to make more of an effort this winter to have everything ready so next year will be more successful, I must say it does get better all the time, as the song goes. But for a real bumper crop you have to practically live down there  :(

Apart from the potato/tomato blight situation I have done brilliantly on my allotment.  Great crops of carrots, sweetcorn, beetroot, broadbeans etc etc etc. 

Grown several things for the first time, which normally lost out to a lack of space in the garden.

Good first season at the lottie

I'm pretty happy...

Good spuds, courgettes in such profusion that the term "courgette surprise" has entered the vocabulary, and one of the plants is still alive under fleece....squash good across the board but needs more discipline next year, plenty of beans (note to self, more cobra and borlottis, don't bother with dwarf FB), lovely sweetcorn (grow more) , onions were good, plenty in store seem top be holding up OK, plenty of cucumbers and gherkins, wish I'd grown more lettuce as what I had was nice, beetroot restored my faith in its ability to tolerate my hamfisted husbandry....

Still coming .. leeks (trying to get round leek moth), red cabbage to be pickled for xmas, just started harvesting some early winter green cabbage (Wheelers Impperial, the first one weas yum...), sprouts coming, Pak Choi looking good, there's some late salads and radishes coming through plus possibly some baby carrots... Spring cabbage and caulis are in and better setup than  any of the summer/winter ones were... Jerusalem artichokes to come out, Oca is under fleece and has survived the cold couple of nights ok, hoping it gets another month yet.. Chicory will need lifting to force for chicons

Disasters: cauliflowers....outdoor toms got blight, gooseberries got mildew, celeriac is tiny, didn't manage much in the way of spring onions , all but the toms my fault...

And some buggers nicked my wheelbarrow.....

chrisc

Not a bad year in the end after a shaky start with the site being over run with Rabbits never know them so bad.Happy with me Spuds,Sweetcorn, Lettuce Beetroot,Onions, Beans,Cabbages,Parsnips,Leeks,Sprouts and Bramley apples n pears.Not so good, peas 3 different variety's 3 failures,Calabrese small heads that went to seed,me carrots nothing to shout about there, and definitely not going to bother with out door toms next year  for the 3rd year on the trot blight hit, and RIP me damson Merryweather full a blossom in the spring then just popped its clogs. Nicked Runnerbeans somebody got me first bioling,the odd Cabbage went,Rhubarb cut not pulled and some bugger had it away with ALL me blackberries n Jostaberrys.

Very good year all round apart from the Runner Beans which was all down to us not preparing the ground properly and then not giving them sufficient water.