Tales of woe - 2016

[Containergardener]

Agree^^^^
I only got going in April with help from OHs uncle supplying some plants. Do what you can , that way get the best of what you've got. Use your time for next yrs plans. I'm already planning

[ESBkevin]

I might as well have a moan and get it over with.

Slugs, now on the second application of nematoads and this time they were in damp soil (did I say damp)!
Peach leaf curl, spread to the cherry too. I spray but it keeps raining all the time.
No plums again.
No pears this year either.
Onion sets are bolting and have blight (on all the plots here), garlic has the blight bad too. Again spraying is all but a pointless exercise.
Peas. I'm on about the fourth sowing and I get little to nothing germinating and the few that do are stunted in growth.
Runner beans, we decided to only plant a dozen or so this year because we always have too many, as an experiment we applied mycorrhiza to half and not the rest when planted. Well we have about half of them left and interestingly they are all the innoculated plants, so what happened to the others?
Strawberries - they are planted through cardboard and woodchip and then have fresh straw to keep them up. But they are rotting on the plants and the slugs (remember 2 applications of nematodes plus blue pellets under the cardboard) are having a field day under the nets protected from the birds!
Parsnips yet to show.

On a positive note the strawberries are producing well, picked the first two raspberries yesterday, the greens are all well netted and pelleted and doing well so far (not many white butterflies seen yet in this wet weather anyway). Potatos look good, carrots are plentyful, spinach and beetroot looking great and no blackfly on either set of broad beans.....! I have plenty of manure, woodchip and compost stockpiled for whenever as a mulch (in case it dries up) or to dig in for autumn. finally I planted a wisteria twig near the front of the house and innoculated it with mycorriza and it's romping having doubled in about 4 weeks.

So good and bad, but luckily we don't have to live off our gardening efforts.

[Dorothy rouse]

At sometime in the past three days my 1m sq raised bed of healthy carrot seedlings have been decimated, and now I have none!
Not a happy bunny!

Same here! And they were covered with Environmesh ! Sneaky slugs I reckon!

[elleme]

Oh good, a thread where I can have a good moan! I haven't been down to the plot for weeks as was injured, so inevitably was greeted by 2ft high couch grass and masses of horsetail. And my knee's still recovering so didn't really want to dig that much. It's been raining heavily so is slug heaven out there.

French beans I planted have disappeared due to aforementioned slugs. I can replace with some I sowed indoors on a windowsill, but have no faith they won't get slugged too. Are runner beans less tempting, by any chance?

Broad beans - slugs had a good go too, although I still had enough to harvest.
Giant red mustard gone to seed, but hey ho, didn't like the taste that much anyway so will not grow that one again.
Chard also gone over, but they were overwintered and it's time to plant more.
Strawberries mostly slugged too. Sigh.

Moan moan moan...

On the bright side, slugs didn't seem to like the mangetout quite as much, so I had plenty to pick. Wish I'd sown more, wonder if it's too late to sow another row? And as I've a big plum tree and a cherry on my plot I've got those to look forward to later.

[Penellype]

Sorry to hear about your knee elleme - I hope it gets better soon.

Unfortunately slugs seem to like runner beans just as much as the french ones. They have defoliated the ones I planted at my friend's even though they were a couple of feet tall when I put them out.

Not too late to plant mangetout I wouldn't think - I have some newly sown peas on the go. Worth a try anyway.

[SusieG]

are runner beans less tempting, by any chance
moan moan moan...
.

>>>>>>>>>>no they're not .....!!!!!>>>>>>>>>>

[Lumpy]

Sssshhhhhhh I'm going to have a go at putting more seeds in over the weekend.

I really hope slugs can't read.

Hoever, carrots are looking great with large frothy foliage - shame there are no roots.

All the parsnips germinated and are very large for this time of year - I think they too have no roots.

My DFB's and Runners (dwarf) are small but OK. I think it must be something to do with all the slug barrier stuff I poured onto the surface of the soil - it now looks like the moon's surface but...............no more slug damage.

[elleme]

I had hopes for the runner beans due to my dad's recently planted row all looking ok save for one plant. Evidently false hopes! Mind you, he has more beer traps than plants.

[Ryez]

My lettuce is officially going in the bin today. It looks like a disgrace. That's 3 months wasted. Will sow more tomorrow

[Bren In Pots]

A sunflowers fell over it looks like its gone rotten about half way up the stem.

[Ryez]

A sunflowers fell over it looks like its gone rotten about half way up the stem.

Yes, quite a lot of my lower lettuce leaves and some of the potatoes leaves are literally rotten from the rain!

[Penellype]

My lettuce is officially going in the bin today. It looks like a disgrace. That's 3 months wasted. Will sow more tomorrow

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Looks a great deal better then the ones I am growing at my friend's! Most have only the central rib left on the leaves, if that.

[vixylix]

The only bag of potatoes which hadnt collapsed has been decimated by something - there's about half a leaf left They're taking up so much space and look such a mess I'm tempted to pull them up and just have lots of new potatoes this year!

My best tomato plant (Venus) which had looooooads of lovely tomatoes on has totally snapped off at the base. There's leaves on the broken stem so I've left it - not sure there's much chance of it doing anything though?! I've also planted up the broken top - I think there's even less chance of that surviving!

Its all feeling painful this year

[roitelet]

Miserable garlic. The leaves have been decimated by rust and the bulbs are not much bigger than a golf ball.

[cilla]

Broccoli all dug up and thrown today. Then I see on my cucumber leaf miners. Who invited them! So much rain that the pots are struggling to let all the water out.
However the plus side my lettuces were picked, first this year and were really tastie however the rockets had been attacked by flea beetles. Maybe now the broccoli has gone they will too. Oh well you can wish!