Tweet
North East Scotland is not an area normally associated with warm and dry weather, but this season saw me gardening in short sleeve shirts rather than water proofs. We had rain as I did not have to top up the water butts at all, but the raised beds needed watering often.
Most things grew, the raised beds were again a success, carrots in particular were good, along with the leeks and onions. I grew pot leeks for a change and we still have a couple left to harvest. The trench celery was also a hit, not grown that before either, both will be grown again next year.
I have a smaller area that I still grow in the ground, tatties were good again, even if I did lose a label and not sure what some of them were. The parsnips were perhaps my only disappointing crop, tasty, but small, we still have some left to harvest.
Fruit wise was my real disaster, the apple trees were removed last month, scab and some canker meant no fruit at all. I might try again at the other end of the garden in the spring with new trees. The gooseberries were also hit with problems, so they were cut down to the ground and the new growth looks promising for next season. Not a total wipe out, the black currents were very good and so were the strawberries and we got a few raspberries from the new plants too.
In the greenhouse, everything grew well, my tomatoes all did well, the "breakfast" ones were an interesting new variety to me, I will grow those again too next year. Most rewarding were the Hungarian hot wax chillies in pots, bumper crop from those this year and I have had a go at saving seed for next year too. I grow sweetcorn under glass as in a normal summer up here, the crop won't ripen, that again was a success as were the butternut squashes.
Now making plans for next year and will again be looking for something new to grow for the first time, possibly try some beans for drying, just hope we get some sun.
How was your year?
Most things grew, the raised beds were again a success, carrots in particular were good, along with the leeks and onions. I grew pot leeks for a change and we still have a couple left to harvest. The trench celery was also a hit, not grown that before either, both will be grown again next year.
I have a smaller area that I still grow in the ground, tatties were good again, even if I did lose a label and not sure what some of them were. The parsnips were perhaps my only disappointing crop, tasty, but small, we still have some left to harvest.
Fruit wise was my real disaster, the apple trees were removed last month, scab and some canker meant no fruit at all. I might try again at the other end of the garden in the spring with new trees. The gooseberries were also hit with problems, so they were cut down to the ground and the new growth looks promising for next season. Not a total wipe out, the black currents were very good and so were the strawberries and we got a few raspberries from the new plants too.
In the greenhouse, everything grew well, my tomatoes all did well, the "breakfast" ones were an interesting new variety to me, I will grow those again too next year. Most rewarding were the Hungarian hot wax chillies in pots, bumper crop from those this year and I have had a go at saving seed for next year too. I grow sweetcorn under glass as in a normal summer up here, the crop won't ripen, that again was a success as were the butternut squashes.
Now making plans for next year and will again be looking for something new to grow for the first time, possibly try some beans for drying, just hope we get some sun.
How was your year?
Comment