Feeling fed up

[Thelma Sanders]

Sorry to hear that Annie.

If it's across your whole plot, how is your soil fertility? I have had good year (sorry), but it's noticeable the best beds have been the ones where I've gone full Charles Dowding.
(even so my leeks, parsnips and carrots have been a total failure).

You've probably had better weather, as well, cos you're in London and the OP is in Edinburgh - that makes a huge difference, apart from anything else
Good to hear that someone is doing well, though!

[Small pumpkin]

It happens. Gardening if a fickle thing, sometimes it�s good, sometimes it�s bad and often there�s no reason behind why it�s gone either way.
You take the good with the bad or you quit.
If I looked at the negatives in my garden this year I�d never garden again. Tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, aubergine, all brassicas, squash, pumpkins and courgettes have all been horrible in lots of different ways all with the same outcome of very little production. And I really don�t care, I�m still enjoying what I do.
9 times out of 10 there�s not a ****** thing you can do about it. Apart from whin obviously .

[bikermike]

You've probably had better weather, as well, cos you're in London and the OP is in Edinburgh - that makes a huge difference, apart from anything else
Good to hear that someone is doing well, though!

True enough, but presumably the OP is measuring against their previous year where they are.
And I had a shocker last year (mainly weather-driven), and this is the first year in 4 that I've managed to get squash of any sort going.

The Climate's not all good down here - my haggis have just refused to germinate at all. They sit in the packets playing bagpipes...

[Snoop Puss]

^Erm... You feeling all right today, bikerMike?

[bikermike]

s'okay, I'm just drinking what the haggis offered me...

[lottie dolly]

Some we win some we loose,none of us know whats going to happen from 1 year to another,although the trend does seem to be warmer and drier,had lovely strawberries,almost no black currants,blue berries the same,bean wise,the lottie ones are doing well,at home the cosse violet are producing well,as they do not grow longer but faten up and seed pods form,i just pick em whilst small and freeze,cues,squash are so slow,toms are still green,but plenty of them,both in and outside,as for the tomba,it's taking over the poly tunnel,but fruit is not getting polinated very good,the sweetcorn are starting with tasells,but the bottom ends have started growing thick roots from above ground to below ground,never seen that one before,the golden beets are lovely large ones,the red varieties are way behind,at least am getting a bit of something to eat,the lottie beans will left ,then shelled and frozen for putting in variouse dishes,and the white ones will be butter beans,potatoes are ok so far,son has lots of salad ones resprung from last year,i have been tolled help myself,so have started to prepare and freeze,if we feel wo begone by the weather,then the plants are sure be as well,take heart Annie,you are not alone,by sharing whats happening in our particular gardens,just showes us we not alone,i will not pull anything up till it is almost dead,or stoped producing,where there is life,there is hope

[Bren In Pots]

We all get good and bad years Annie it's the failures you remember though.
I've not had much successe with my strawberries only had an handful in total last year I had enough to eat each day and make jam. My courgette are giving me a bumper harvest so are the peas, can't say the same for carrots of chard. But so long as I get something to eat form my little plot I'm happy.

[rary]

This year the tomatoes that are doing well are ailsa craig I have had several tomatoes off them and they were the last seeds to be sowed I have other tomatoes plants, still green but don't know their name as I used wooden sticks for marking the name and was washed off when watering, my courgettes are good plants with no crop my cucumber is doing well, irony like cucumber I grow them for OH peas are doing well but the runner beans didn't make the starting blocks beetroot are good carrots, well they might grow yet
But wait to you see what I grow next year

[rary]

The above should have read I don't like cucumber
Auto correct must be female as it puts in what it wants

[annie8]

Thanks guys. I was just having one of those days when there seems a huge difference between what I had imagined when I made all my plans earlier in the year and what has actually happened.

I thought I was being clever with my tomatoes as I wanted to try growing outside. So I took the reliable smaller tomatoes like sungold, red cherry and gardeners delight, planted early anc them out them outside. I put Shirley inside along with a few of the heritage varieties I was sent as a wee experiment. But we haven’t had good weather for tomatoes here and I’ve had little success in either gh or outside. That said there is still time I might just get a late August /sept glut. I have my gh tomatoes in pots as it has a concrete floor. Thought I was being consistent with watering and have been trying to get good air circulation. Will start every day watering and see if I can get some wood ash.

Maybe I also just go back to tried and tested veg be varieties. Maybe I was too experimental this year.

[veggiechicken]

The above should have read I don't like cucumber
Auto correct must be female as it puts in what it wants

Actually rary, its men say one thing but mean something totally different.

[veggiechicken]

Annie, I've never had much success with outdoor tomatoes so the only ones that end up outside are the leftovers - because I can't bring myself to compost them. They either fail to crop or go down with blight - sometimes both.
The ones you have in the GH will do something this year, they're just a bit later than some of us down south. Don't give in to it, the first ripe tomato will make it all worthwhile.

[greenishfing]

Yes, it's definitely a weird year. If you asked my husband he would say it's awful ( the perennial pessimist). But I don't think it's bad at all ( the eternal optimist).

Potatoes large, negligible slug damage or scab.
Peas, best crop ever.
Courgettes, coming out of my ears.
French beans, just starting but lots to come.
Tomatoes, ditto
Peppers, ditto.
Beetroot, ditto
Cucumbers, good.
Sweetcorn, looking promising.
Lettuce, rocket and radish, hit and miss.
Plums, hopeless
Cherries, hopeless
Strawberries, hopeless so far.....
Aubergines, great
Melons, hopeful.
Pears, looking good. (Last year was a write off)
Garlic great. Last year hopeless.
Onions, very good.

Every year some things are good, others hopeless. I never dwell on my failures or I'd give up.

[rary]

Annie my greenhouse has a concrete floor also and I grow my tomatoes in a raised bed made with decking planks 2 high I started with some soil then a layer from my compost bin and covered by cardboard which was covered by old flower basket compost then seaweed which was covered by 3bags of cheap mp compost, I then aquired some old fy manure I put that onto a third of the bed with a plank of wood to hold it in place I posted the other day about the different taste of the tomatoes and I think it was Snoop pointed out that the side with the manure in it would hold more moisture so have applied more water into the other side and the tomatoes are fine now, ad for planting outdoors the only tomato that I have had success with is mountain magic but ad it is an F1 I no longer sow them

[bramble]

My cucumber and squash has tons of leaves and no fruits.
Mixed salad leaves went to seed from the heat.
Fennell didnt develop due to dry weather and not enough watering.
Onions developed white root so no more growing onions for me.
Corn not doing much.

Things that did well for me this year.
I had a great crop of potatoes.
Tons of gooseberries from just one bush..
Lots of sstrawberriex which grow in partial shade.
Garlic chives and radish also still doing well.l
Tomatoes coming in now but the larger varieties are still slow.