How's your success rate been?

Hi my year has been poor. I have had problems with seeds not germinating and just general things. Beat myself up a bit about it but then stepped back and thought well what's the point some times things go ok but sometimes they don't.
Have had more luck foraging from neighbour fruit trees and bushes that they don't pick from. Have got yellow damsons to pick tomorrow as well as some blackberries. Then I have got some cooking apples lined up from a very, very old looking apple tree. Going to have to get a ladder for those or shove ones of the kids up
But like you am getting things ready for next year.
Am looking into different crops to do as well as the old favourites. So got my piece of paper out and just getting prepped.

You want to borrow Rosie for the slugs and Hibou for the voles.

As the beds become vacant, I am digging down about 9" round all sides and stapling tarp to the bed frames & burying it down to try and deter the voles as I have read they tend to venture in the top few inches of the soil.

I'm a little disappointed tbh mixed results

First earlies am pleased with them

Fruit bushes in large pots
No fruit from anything except raspberry a n strawberry.


New vic plum tree and green gage have fruit

Apple tree has produced more apples than last year .
Except the waspies getting at them

Later this year clearing ground out and the fruit bushes going into soil
Hopefully get better results





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My plot is new this year as well. Apart from the newbies next door accidentally spraying my summer cabages results have been pretty good. I have lost the odd plant to pests but I doubt anyone has had a 100% success rate. First year growing Firestorm runners and cant believe how heavy they crop.

if one thing really disappointed it was my garlic, nicely formed but small.

I really struggle to find failiure in anything so perhaps my view is not very objective but I am happy with my results thus far.

Oh, and by the way I have grown some prize winning weeds to boot....

This year has been very much about learning. French beans suffered from cold soil so will be started in pots in a coldframe next year. Mange touts suffer too much from weevils to be worth doing again. The second bigger cold frame has been a storming success, and is ideal for growing chillis once it has finished sheltering early plants. The old Lidl one is excellent. Carrots are brilliant, not having realised how much better home grown can be. Summer raspberries were so so, they grew to 3.5m, not the stated 2m. Lovely flavour. Blackcurrants were amazing, but too young to produce many. Rhubarb was fantastic. Strawberries good. The herbs were wonderful, they add so much to poached fish and other dishes. The lemon verbena is thriving. The opal plum produced about ten plums, a bit dull and tasteless. The quince in year four produced nowt. Outdoor Sungold tomatoes on track to produce loads, subject to not getting blight. Outdoor tumbling toms are bulging with fruit, but they are dull compared to the Sungold. Leeks, first time I've grown them, are doing very well. I have heavy clay soil, which is very fertile, but slow to warm.

Still picking out field bindweed, and in autumn I'll dig out as much as i can. It goes down metres.

Overall a very good year. The few failures are my fault, and I need to plant more closely, and more efficiently.

Cats are the real problem, one part of the garden is littered with huge piles of cat turd. Hard to believe such a small animal can produce so much excrement. I counted seven piles today.

The only thing that hasn't done well this year was my red onions. Whites were great, reds in same compost, same location same treatment poor indeed.

Not a good year at the lottie (my 5th year there and in many ways my worst). It has mainly been down to an unusually wide range and quantity of predators. But hope springs eternal and like some of you folks I am already planning for next year.

I don't want to list all my poor crops because it might make me cry!

But one success this year (at least so far) is courgettes (Striato di Napoli). Globe artichokes are also always good. And I have a ridiculously large number of as yet unripened spaghetti squash. What I will do with them, I've no idea.

I have had a frieghteningly good year! All seeds germinating well including carrots and parsnips, by growing early spuds apart from late Sarpo Mira blight resistant, I have avoided blight.The early rocket yielded well but tasteless, the Orla on the other hand are very nice. The tomatoes have definitely done better with one plant to a 30 litre bucket, and watering has been much easier (every other day) I have also been feeding them twice a week. Even had a few cauliflowers and cabbages which are something I just couldn't grow. Lots of carrot fly damage on the unprotected ones but fortunately I have netted most of them. I think many would envy me regarding pests, no voles, moles, mice and few slugs or birds, I have one resident blackbird family but we are mates. I think having 7ft walls all round helps. Lost a few lettuces with lettuce root aphids, something I have never seen before. The onions did so well this year, in the ground and in pots, but the garlic was small. had six raspberries off my three new plants and not a single gooseberry of three new plants. I think they are building up resources for an explosion next year lol. I just need more room!!!!

Overall I'd say a pretty good year so far. Biggest problem has been slugs even though we have a healthy population of frogs and hedgehogs in the garden. Probably lost a quarter of the potato crop to slug damage. Soft fruit harvest has been fantastic. Trouble is you can't make chips from blackcurrants!!

What an interesting question. It prompted me to make the list below: poor, fair or good for each item. Overall good, and pretty clear reasons for the not so good ones - mainly shading and pests.

Lettuce - poor
Mangetout - poor
Cabbages - poor
Figs - fair
Potatoes - fair
Garlic - fair
Grapes - good
Blueberries - good
Tomatoes - good
Onions - good
Carrots - poor
Beetroot - good
Courgettes - good
Radishes - good
Spinach - good
Broad Beans - good
Dwarf French beans - good
Celery - good
Agretti - good
Rhubarb - good
Horseradish - good
Chillies - good
Sweet peppers - good
Herbs - good
Aubergine - good
Turnip - good
Seaweed Kale - TBA
Broccoli - TBA

Mostly very good, I would say.

Vastly better than expected: Cucumber, calabrese, parsley, kohlrabi, tomatoes (over winter), cabbage, red cabbage, onions, salads

Better than or as expected: Potatoes, peas, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, leeks, blueberries, rhubarb, runner beans

Slightly disappointing: strawberries, red onions, spinach, carrots, turnips

Abject failure: pea early onward, cauliflower, aubergine

Oops - I forgot the courgettes, which are rampant, as usual

I'm having a good year probably because I've given up trying to grow Aubergines and Pak-choi. Every time i go in the garden it seems like there's toms, courgettes and runner beans to pick so I'm happy the garden looks a bit odd with all the netting but its the only way to keep my save my crops from butterflies, birds and cats.

Me too! Most of my failures I know, deep down, are my fault.

Summer cabbages eaten by slugs because I didn't pellet ( I know the best form of defence is attack but I don't attack them until they've attacked my plants!).

Summer cabbages attacked by pigeons because I didn't net... but until the dog died I had no need!

Leeks decimated by the new puppy!

Turnip and celeriac eaten by slugs because new puppy means no pellets!

At the allotment things are much better. Dare I say I'm sick of radish? 5 rows 10 feet long of carrot, turnip, parsnip seed were "marked" by thickly sowed old packets of radish seed and for weeks I've been eating them (there is some under the grill even now!).

Cucumbers are my only real disappointment, the greenhouse at home is now so shaded they are awful... I took two plants to the allotment 4weeks ago and left them to sprawl and I now at least have ONE fruit!