Since it is Sunday - anyone fancy a chat?

[shirlthegirl43]

Hope everyone is well. Hope nobody else is as cheesed off as me.

I am totally fed up with trying to grow stuff - I seem to have been battling hard this year and getting nowhere. I keep reading about courgette gluts, only Madmax likes courgettes so I only raised one plant. Result, one courgette.

The weather has been useless, my beans look gorgeous and are flowering like mad. However, the flowers get blown away before any insects manage to pollinate them so no beans.

I have decided not to bother with brassicas any more as they have vanished - not sure why. Going to give it one last try next year - all shallots, onions (maybe) and peas.

Oops, sorry, rant done

[amandaandherveg]

Right with you Shirl.

It's rained every day for a week and the forecast is the same for the next week. My flowers are flat, my windowboxes and hanging baskets are pathetic, my toms are tiny and green and the greenhouse was 14 degrees with the door closed yesterday and 11 degrees outside. Humph!

[shirlthegirl43]

Love your wrinkly pooch pics on that other thread - they cheered me up!

[sharonr]

Not done as well this year either. Last year I planted 15 runnerbean plants and by now I had a freezer drawer full of them, this year I only have half a drawer with 21 plants. First it was blackfly now some of the beans are small and yellow.
Cabbages are full of holes, I keep getting rid of the catterpillars but theres more where they come from.
My peppers were doing well in pots, but now they are in the garden the slugs keep getting them. Their not touching the chillis though.
The only thing doing well are the sweetcorn plants one plant has 3 cobs on it.
Roll on next year, hopefully the greenhouse will be up by then.

[amandaandherveg]

Thanks Shirl, we love our wrinklies.

[shirlthegirl43]

Well done on the sweetcorn! I am growing minipop this year (everything else died) and the plants are now nearly 2 foot tall. Not holding out a lot of hope for a crop from those either unless summer is still on its way.

[Jardiniere]

somebody said on a thread a week ago maybe that they were new to gardening and wasn't it exciting? I said exciting and heartbreaking in equal amounts......i've lost my potatoes and tomatoes to blight this year but had success with cucumbers and chard which i had never grown before and with courgettes, beans and melons. But no peppers and only one aubergine.....we had a really wet late spring/early summer and now its really hot as it is meant to be and i'm not complaining - especially when i get invited into friend's pools but its been too hot to even weed sometimes.....takes ages to really get into how a particular garden ticks i think and although i've had this one for 17 years i've only been able to cultivate it for 2 and i'm still learning - and its so different here.

[shirlthegirl43]

Thanks Shirl, we love our wrinklies.

What are their names?

[zazen999]

Beans have been slow this year, and at our lottie I noticed today that half of them have been severed about 3 inches off the ground. I heard a little rustling under the weed fabric on Friday, which is just behind where they have been cut, so something is out there putting paid to my bean dream.

On the other hand, we dug up pentland javelins today, and I've just made a roasty dinner and they were gorgeous - really crispy.

I'm still really ill and off to the docs first thing tomorrow; I can't stand it much longer. the Oh has just gone down the garden and I am in my PJs since going straight to bed after the lottie today. Gowd I feel rough.

[shirlthegirl43]

Well done on the melons Jardiniere. Been trying those the last 2 years but no joy yet. Mind you, we have had rubbish summer weather the last 2 years too. Think it is associated with me starting gardening

[Jardiniere]

your fault then......

[shirlthegirl43]

I'm still really ill and off to the docs first thing tomorrow; I can't stand it much longer. the Oh has just gone down the garden and I am in my PJs since going straight to bed after the lottie today. Gowd I feel rough.

Oh dear, hope you are better soon. Well done on cooking dinner! Have you got what Madmax has? Sore throat and hellish cough?

[amandaandherveg]

The black one is Huxley and the cream one is Blossom.

[shirlthegirl43]

your fault then......

Go on then, make me feel better

[MrsC]

Hello all! I think it's better than last year though!