Tales of woe - 2016

[SusieG]

Where do I start : I see it as more of a pain in the bum then tales of woe, so here we go :-

Apricot tree removed as it was finished off by a bout of canker (other issues before that)
Cut out a fair bit of canker on an established apple.
Golden chain tree finally gave up on growing.
Dahlias in front border not returned after being slugged so much last year.
This year winterkefe peas and giant stride peas doing really well, but the ducks got in the patch and took a liking.
Tuffy sweet squash, I was determined to save seed but the ducks again left me with one plant.
Ducks had an all you can eat munching spree for about 10 days so very few flowers left in back garden.
The nectarine trees I bought are peaches.
One peach tree slung due to bacterial issues.
Really really bad infestation of aphids.
One plum tree aborted all its fruit due to aphid (it looked so promising early on)
Vine weevil grubs in random pots.
As I replaced the beds in gh2 I no longer have a path but a liquid poo lake
Keep losing time in the garden due to illness.
Finally managed to get 6 nine star caulies to grow (no more seed left) and just discovered ruddy caterpillars on them
Root veg seed germination patchy
Flower seed germination almost non-existent
Mice or squirrels eating my strawbs at the white and green stage
Hot beds don't seem to be performing very well.
For 3 years I have not managed globe artichokes where I am.
The lawn area I am yet to do turns out is even worse to prep so will be getting copious amounts of topsoil in, but first I need to clear all the gravel.

I think that is about it at the moment I love gardening

Garlic has keeled over for no reason I can see of
Ants
Hayfever

But apart from that, all's fine ......

[Jonny.D]

Very few pears formed this year and no plums again

[muddled]

well, I feel better now!
Thanks folks

Mine are slugs....lots of slugs...one of whom happens to be my site rep
Magpies (although mama blackbird is still hanging in there)

and the affectionately known 'bed of death' where nothng thrives except for the beasties and I still cannot figure why

oh! and though not garden related...the chemist now stocks a different brand of morphine patches, the glue on which is so thick I am left with unsightly, square grey patches on my skin that can only be removed with nail varnish remover

[Containergardener]

Time ..to do everything, still loads of potting on of flowers yet
Garden a month behind its usual 1-2month behind everyone else's , Clem's just started flowering, roses could be out in October
Snails, slugs as always
Cucs, courgettes slowwwwwwwww
Runners are running but very few flowers yet
Toms in GH some starting flowering but rest way behind

Could be worse tbh

[Marb67]

Ok folks, I think I am guilty here of making too many doom and gloom posts. (Veggie Chicken, you are welcome to delete some of my recent posts and I can get them all off my chest here) You see I have had a pretty terrible couple of years with a lot of personal stress, loss and some health issues. My gardening (and creativity-music/photography) are my only means of trying to control/enjoy at least something so that is why I have been veering (I know a little too much) on the negative side, which sadly I tend to do naturally anyway. I start out positive in my garden (and I do expect things to go wrong) but when so many things seem to go wrong I get to a point of despair and this is my only venting place with fellow growers. I have also been guilty of being dismissive of people's help here of which I can only apologize. I get bouts of depression, especially when things go wrong as they seem far worse so perhaps when in that state of mind it isn't a good idea to come here.

Anyway, it's cold comfort to know I am not alone in these increasing problems so thanks for posting. Yes, so far it's not been a good growing year.

Aphids
Whitefly
Snails/slugs (although not as bad as they used to be due to frogs)
Flea beetle.
leaf miner in cherry tree/oxe eye daisy/honeysuckle/spinnach/beetroot/chard
Spinach poor growth and leaf miner
Radish bolting (although I will use the seed pods in salad)
Did I mention aphids ?
Some spring onions just went to nothing.
Brassica young plants going white, shriveling and dying.
Healthy chard diminishing after harvesting leaves.
Damping off in some seedlings
Last years healthy flat leaf parsley getting smaller and smaller and putting up flower heads.

Thankfully, I have never had blackfly on my broad beans but flea beetle in the tops every year without fail

[Snoop Puss]

Eeh, Marb. Between your list and Norfolkgrey's, I've definitely got nothing to complain about.

Bigmallly, looks like you'll be eating a lot of courgettes and not much else this year!

So big hugs and commiserations all round.

[Containergardener]

My chard has been rubbish this yr too.

I felt guilty too re posts of troubles Marb, I've posted re life stuff. Maybe (probably) it isn't wanted so just incase il keep quiet.
It's good you are tackling problems and you have gardening and other things to help. I'd be lost without gardening now.
Keep going

[maverick451]

Not been great for me so far, everything behind and slugs and snails and at numbers ive never seen before

Tomatoes are a month behind last year
Roses were doing great but the rain ruined there main june display
Petunia baskets the same
Slugs have eaten half my beetroot
Peas are struggling and getting eaten by snails
Runner beans are struggling and getting eaten by slugs and snails.
sweetcorn again not really doing much.

We need a couple of weeks of good weather just to get everything going.

[Guest]

I don't know about other peeps and I know it can cause issues for Mods, but I would rather peeps come here and vent if needs be than wallow in silence, although it is nicer if you share some happies aswell.

Oh and Snoop what you mean about my list, I just do large quantities of everything

[bearded bloke]

Well all I can say is that this year it's gonna be a monumental problem chosing a winner for the 'Best Failure' catogory of the VVS



* runs & hides behind Norty Step >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Farmer_Gyles]

Slugs ate all my brassicas .... I planted replacements, slugs ate them too ....
I planted 250 onions in autumn, I have about 50-55 left, although some are rotting
Garlic is nowhere to be seen
No carrots, no beetroot, no cucumbers .... and loads of other things are just non-existant ....
But I do have potatoes ....

[veggiechicken]

Thanks everyone for sharing your woes. In an odd way its quite reassuring when you know you're not the only one with problems!
As in the Rant thread, any Likes are likes of sympathy and support, not because we happy that you're suffering.

[Scoot]

Thanks everyone for sharing your woes. In an odd way its quite reassuring when you know you're not the only one with problems!
As in the Rant thread, any Likes are likes of sympathy and support, not because we happy that you're suffering.

Speak for yourself.

[Lumpy]

I don't want to be unfashionable so here is yesterday's 'What I did today'

What I did today was go into mourning...........I have spent the last few days closely looking at everything in my teeny weeny growing spaces trying to decide on the best action for the carnage before me so today I have.......

Ripped up all my turnips, half of my beetroots, all of the kale, salad leaves and spinach as it had all either bolted soon after it got to the 3 in high size (turnips and beetroot had so much top growth that there were no bulbs forming) or slug damage killed them.

Cut off ALL of my strawberries as they were either mouldy or so slug bitten they were useless.

Emptied the contents of 4 MFB's as the carrots had not germinated.

Threw away the 2 dead butternut plants (Butterbush) even though they have been under cloches as they finally gave up the will to live.

My tatties are 4 ft high (including their extra large buckets) with only just the hint of flowers and the toms have essentually stopped growing.............and I have now had 5 blight warning emails.

The DFB's and dwarf runners are stunted because of the cold and wet.........and let's not forget the slugs. They may end up in the bin in a weeks time if they don't put some effort in.

So, most of my veg has been ripped up or inspected for blight.

I am going to leave it for 7 days to see what the weather does and if it starts behaving I might re sow some bits and pieces if not this is me done for this year.

Now off to replace beer in the traps, lightly sand the copper tape, spread more slug barrier and throw organic slug pellets everywhere.

Signed

Completely pee-ed off from Lincolnshire.

[blondiewonder]

plum tree did not flower
over half the cherries on my tree just fell of in 1 day
just to be sure after last weeks bad rain and wind i thought i noticed blight spots on all 24 of my tomato plants so i pulled of as many of the bottoms leaves as i dare, finger crossed i think i caught it in time
I've jus repotted my swede seeding and buried their stems as the first lot grew very leggy, whether this will work is also a guess
strawberries all looked good and then approx ⅓ of them just suddenly died
no flowers on my mange tout yet
sowed a second lot of yard long beans as the 1st lot failed
lost 3 runner bean plants to the unexpected snow shower we had
and cucumbers are growing in the greenhouse but the stems do not look that sturdy, i've earthed them up so the stem can send out new growth but not sure this will work
i'm sure theres more but no one likes a moaner haha