What have been your harvesting highs and lows so far this season?

[janeyo]

I am being nosey!

I wondered what things you have all had great success with so far this summer and things you have failed dismally at?

Here's mine:

Caulis and calabrese - disaster. All had to be composted after a serious bug invasion.

Not been very good at growing spring onions!

Birds ate all my cabbage, and kale from the flower garden.


I have been really pleased with the lettuce - it keeps coming and coming and I am still cutting from my originals 12 weeks in!

My climbing beans are delicious and I wish they grew fast enough for me to eat them every day!

Really glad I got a greenhouse as enjoying the cukes and watching the peppers and toms get bigger - got 2 marmandes going red.

janeyo

Looking forward to reading everyone elses!

[helly]

HIGHS- Strawberries,Got oh to make a cage so that the blackbirds dont attack them this year,but dont call me greedy I leave the odd one or two out for a treat for them. Also peas,peppers and tried for the 1st time Chilli's. Also trying Fennel and going to cook it this weekend(they say its best with fish)

LOWS-
spring onion, Left them in the greenhouse too long and didn't harden them off first, also Pumkins,planted them in a different area this yearand the soil is abit sandy so only got one instead of the masses I had last year. Ah well live and learn

[Kristen]

Birds ate my Sprouting Broccoli. Silly me for not netting it.

My Gladioli are desperately late because I was busy with other projects.

Other projects have not allowed me to make enough other successional sowings.

I have had great success with Toms (1st truss finished, have started picking from 3rd truss) and Cues (have had loads) and sweet peppers too. Aubergines Diddly-squat so far. Courgettes so-so, but we've had enough, so the coming Glut will be a PITA I expect.

Melons are looking good, nice large fruit, but I have so far only got about 2 or 3 average to Set on each plant

Basil plants are monstrous. No point having them ready before the Toms that they will get "matched" to, so I'll sow them later next year.

Runner beans were sown too early. When I planted them out they were 6 feet long, and untangling them in the greenhouse was a nightmare. Plus they got set right back. I should have planted out 1/2 at the beginning of May and taken a risk.

I will plant Sweet Peas in the autumn, to reduce the amount of work in the spring

Whitefly in the greenhouse is now a problem. Should have planted French Marigolds (managed to find a garden centre that still had some today)

[Newbie]

Highs: garlic (it's huge!), turnip (1st time growing & so cute!), potato (millions of 'em!), tomato (1st time successfully growing them, though not ripe yet), chilli (hundreds of 'em), pumpkin (1st time actually getting one fertilised, size of my fist at the mo!).

Lows: Yellow courgette (germinated on 4th attempt & still tiny), Pak Choi (keeps bolting when plants are still tiny), Spring onions (take ages to grow & not worth the wait), Beetroot ( also taking ages, thought it was supposed to be quick growing!)

[Topaz]

HIGHS----- Melons a huge success with galia, ogen and sweetheart, OH has had one to eat every day this past week.I dont eat them just grow them for him.
Potatoes in abundance, runner beans, picking enough per meal and to freeze for the winter, tomatoes...sick of them but going to make pasta sauce this week...garlic, huge and beautiful,... onions both white and red....lovely in a cheese sarnie. Carrots..never had any success beofre a=but this year where stunners and all straight...apple cucumbers and mini cucumbers the plants went wild and through off fruit all over the place.

LOWS:caulis, they bolted and looked awful, pumpkin, it went yellow and rotted off the plant.

[Tam]

Good - broad beans, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflowers, calabrese, onions, beetroot

Poor - runner beans, courgettes, redcurrants (this was my own fault as I did not net
them and the blackbirds ate the lot) - I still like blackbirds as they keep me
company in the garden.

[Tracey]

Good: Potatoes, tomatoes, french beans, onions, calabrese, courgettes, parsnips, lettuce

Bad: carrots, broccoli, cauliflower (chooks still happy to feast on them, especially the bugs on them

Hopeful: sweetcorn, butternut squash

[jackie j]

Highs broadbeans, red and green cabbage, courgettes, sweetpeas, lettuce, chard, onions, peas, strawberries, and beetroot.

Lows carrots, tomato's couldnt get them started will wait and see what the ones I have got do.

hope my butternut squash will do well I have got two plants and so far so good just started to flower.

[Mikey]

Highs, getting my first allotment, and joining here

Lows, losing half my potato first earlies to slugs, peskie creatures.

[carlseawolf]

high - broad beans , garlic , cauliflower , cabbage red + green , apple tree , black currents , peppers, courgettes , runner beans , monge tout ,
brussel sprouts.


lows- carrots ( none )
onions ( 50% proper size )
pots ( small amount )
pears ( scab on one tree , two others failed to produce)
brocolli - small amount


waiting for - french beans , butternut squash, veg spagetti squash , mooli , sorenza.

[Headfry]

poor beyond belief.... onions and shallots they 'un grew' smaller than when we put them in
Wisley say it's poor storage of sets!

Poor- Climbing french beans (Cobra) think its the cold and the WIND!

brilliant- garlic, peas, beetroot, spring onions, currants, strawberries, potaotes, autumn sown onions, courgettes!

Promising- sweetcorn, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, red cabbage, kale, khol rabi, turnip, winter radish,

[pjh75]

Highs: mange tout, french beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot, turnips, chilli peppers, parsnips, potatoes, broccoli

Lows: courgettes, aubergine, melons, cauliflower

Still waiting: sweetcorn, sweet peppers, cabbage, chard, spinach beet

[ScottyW]

I actually planted a lot of stuff but we got a new little pup recently. She likes eating seeds I found out!

[SlugLobber]

Highs - Lettuces, Potatoes and Courgettes. All have succeeded in spite of weather and slugs. Parsnips getting there at second attempt. Parsley and basil have recovered, so fingers crossed.

Lows - Cucumbers, Peppers, Broccoli, carrots (have sown more to have another go), basil, onions, butternut squash, sweet pea, marigolds, pansies...I'm actually struggling to remember them all, but the slugs got everything listed and more.

In between - tomatoes (growing, but still stunted), dwarf beans (eaten, but recovering and have produced some flowers last week!), broad beans (poor growth, but producing the odd pod as a token gesture!).

I don't know how the kale and rabi will work out, yet. Just hoping that this nice weather will do its stuff!

[OverWyreGrower]

Highs: Courgettes (won a prize at the district show), lettuce, raspberries, strawberries, calabrese, potatoes, cauliflowers

Hopeful for: Sweetcorn, leeks, carrots, more potatoes, onions, garlic, other squash, grapes

Lows: Pak Choi and spinach (bolted when they were small), most things in my greenhouse due to the nature of the greenhouse this year.

My greenhouse is so old and tumble-down that it has been rubbish this year. We're hoping to take it down and get a polytunnel and smaller greenhouse instead!