It always ends in tears, so I've stopped..............

[Jungle Jane]

I don't worry about anything I grow,plant everything expecting failure & you get some half decent results. This was a good year for blight & green tomatoes. White Lisbon are a good spring onion,I space them so they don't need thinning,I'm not an expert but this variety seem to resemble spring onions rather than strands of grass which I tried one year. My Brussels sprouts have just veins on the leaves left,it's a laugh when I look at them,I hope the neighbours cant see them,I don't mind really,I'm harvesting caterpillars for the hedgehog

[Potstubsdustbins]

I have never managed to grow a decent crop of Chrisymas spuds, don't know why and now I don't care because I don't bother. Tried melons once total failure and a waste of GH space.

Grow spring onion Guardsman because I find that one easier than others, do alright radish French 3". Always have a good crop of outdoor toms Tumbler in hanging baskets, luckily I have a south facing brick wall and have the brackets high enough to avoid shading and of course the wall helps with heat retention.

Some of the things you fail at I have ......never even heard of never minded attempted to grow so you cannot be doing to bad.

[rary]

I have stopped ---- growing asparagus, as even though I have a reasonable number of stems to harvest I never get enough at a time to make a meal.
As for tomatoes I put mountain magic outside and got my first outdoor tomatoes

[Cadalot]

I grow at least 22 tomatoes outside every year and I always get a harvest and I'm hit by blight about 15-20% of the time.

I had gave up on Cauliflower & Broccoli this year my very first year they were magnificent, I have never been able to reproduce the quality.

Peppers take do long to grow good results during my second year not as good since but hoping for better results next year as I have the grow stations now and can start them off early.

Constantly informed by my daughters that my potatoes never cook as good as shop bought so now I see what they have bought from the shop and grow those varieties.

Always have problems germinating Parsnips only one fantastic year so far that I'm hoping to repeat nebt year

[lolie]

After many attempts, all of which end in tears and disappointment, I have stopped........


...... believing that radishes are easy to grow;

...... thinking that I can grow spring onions the size of the ones in supermarkets, mine are more like chives;



.........

I'm on my last attempt at both of these, as well as my last attempt at lettuce.

I've stopped trying to grow English spinach. Other people in Sydney can grow it but I've just accepted that there's nowhere on my property which is cool enough for it.

[Chippy Minton]

Funny that, we're giving up greenhouse tomatoes because they never do as well as the outdoor ones Red Alert seems to like the wet Cheshire weather, and tumblers like a sunny spot. We got a good few kgs (or lbs) from outside and about 7 individual toms from the greenhouse.

No more celeriac, it doesn't grow and no-one likes it anyway

Aubergines are on their last warning but we got 3 this year and the flowers are nice.....

I will get an orange pumpkin for Halloween I will, I will...

Caulis do best when they're disappointing and you swear at them and stamp your feet and shout because it's too late to put anything else in and stomp off and leave them for a couple of months.......

[Greenleaves]

My nemesis is Brussels sprouts...never get a decent crop...cauliflowers I have great success with so always grow plenty.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks everyone - its fascinating to see how our experiences vary - or agree

I want to add that :-

I've stopped growing spuds and carrots in the ground because of the mole/vole/slug damage and only grow in pots & buckets now which is giving me better quality veg.

[KevinM67]

However, I do, and am able to grow tomatoes outdoors every year so thats a plus.

This has been my most successful year with outdoor toms, despite the damp and dreary Summer.

I was forever fearing blight - but nothing. It must pass us by.

[Greenleaves]

I to am giving up growing spuds in open ground VC, I find an MFB provides enough for two as I just grow first earlies now and it also eliminates the volunteers

[Penellype]

I think part of the trick is to find a method that works in your garden or allotment and that involves lots of experimenting. I have 2 very different growing spaces - my garden is sheltered on all sides by walls, hedge and fence that are at least 6ft high. This seems to help with things like blight, and I can grow tomatoes to ripen outside as long as they are suitable varieties (Balconi, Sungold, Totem, Bajaja, Mountain Magic, Ferline, Crimson Crush have all been successful, but not really Shirley and not at all things like Marmande). Christmas potatoes are very dodgy though as blight usually arrives in late September or early October. At my friend's I have almost exactly the opposite, with a vegetable patch open to the elements with open fields to south and west. Blight arrives in late July or August and the only tomatoes I have managed to grow outside to ripening there are Mountain Magic. Potatoes started in the greenhouse in February usually mature before the blight strikes, attempts at Christmas potatoes succumbed to blight before the foliage was 6 inches high. Sarpo Mira survives to produce decent crops in early autumn.

I've given up growing potatoes in the soil - they get full of slugs and millipedes here and eaten by rats at my friend's. Growing them in bags or 30 litre pots seems to remove these problems almost completely. Carrots are the same, although they will usually get some slug damage unless the buckets are protected with copper tape.

I nearly gave up on melons, having tried them twice in my friend's greenhouse and in my little growhouse at home without so much as a flower to show for it. I had 2 seeds left this year, and my friend, who lived in the Mediterranean as a child, suggested that rather than trying to grow them in the greenhouse and train them up supports, put them in a sunny hotbed with a cloche over and let them scramble. From those 2 seeds I had 8 edible sized melons, 2 of which have ripened and been eaten so far. The others have been picked and are ripening slowly on a shelf in the greenhouse.

I'd about given up on trying to germinate parsnips until someone suggested putting them on damp kitchen paper and planting the ones that produce a root. This works extremely well, and also helps with other large seeds that can be reluctant to germinate such as beans.

If you like florence fennel, grow it for baby fennels about an inch across, which you can eat before they bolt. Sow them in mid summer as they are less likely to bolt than spring sown crops. Ignore the seed packet advice on this!

Spring onions do have a suicidal tendency, and I don't like them enough to keep trying at home. They do sometimes grow if I start pinches of seed in modules in the greenhouse, and the pathetic grass-like results are planted out into a raised bed. If you have a corner that you don't use, with a year or 2 patience they can actually grow into quite big spring onions.

Radishes are impossible, so I only grow them as microgreens.

Cauliflowers are the single most difficult vegetable I have ever met. I love cauliflower, but have never actually managed to achieve more than about 4 leaves before they curl up and die, so I've given up trying.

[KevinM67]

Interesting about the blight issue.
Like Penellype - I'm now growing in my back garden, which is surrounded by 6ft walls not to mention the surrounding neighbours' trees.

Pain in the backside with regards to the light/shade issues (you really have to think about what and where you plant things, plus how it fits into a rotation plan) - But, no blight this year, unlike when I had the plot in the UK where it was a race to get some red toms before the inevitable arrived.

[Greenleaves]

If you don't mind buying plants Penellype try growing Maybach.....very early and reliable

[Penellype]

If you don't mind buying plants Penellype try growing Maybach.....very early and reliable

Thanks - those look very interesting

[veggiechicken]

If you don't mind buying plants Penellype try growing Maybach.....very early and reliable

Or seeds..............Cauliflower Maybach - Overwinter for May cropping.