Thank You

[Zelenina]

super hots have been rubbish but they need more care than I can perhaps give.

Try overwintering your superhots if you have a frost-free place to keep them. They'll probably do much better next year. They seem to be very slow to get going in their first year.

I have a Suave Orange plant (a superhot without the heat) that didn't do much of anything last year, and spent the winter looking like a green stick. Then it started looking like a leafy green stick in the spring, so I put it in a bigger pot, and stuck it outside when the weather got warmer. Without any special care it developed into a nice bushy plant with lots of orange peppers, which I harvested. Then it grew bigger and is now producing a second crop.

They do have some heat but nowhere near the habanero level. I ate one raw and it left a nice glow in my mouth.

I find the C. chinense (superhots) and C. baccatum (lemon Drop, Aji Omnicolor, Bishop's Crown) peppers are actually tougher and easier to overwinter than the usual C. annuum peppers and don't really need any special care.

[ESBkevin]

Some observations:

Whilst we don't have to live off the land it's a nice to have. At least we aren't amidst the Irish potato famine. The health benefits of just being outside and moving about are huge and gym membership is very expensive.
No two years are ever the same even if you grow the same thing. The gradual climate changes and advances in techniques (or restoration of ancient techniques sometime) with new tools, chemicals, plant/seed varients etc.
If you want 1 good plants produce you need to grow 3. Most years you'll get what you want.
If you have lots of time to dedicate to your plants you will do better than if you let them get on with it week to week.
Don't be affraid to experiment, by all means grow your peas like you did last year, but a short row/pot/whatever done differently might reveal better germination, taller plants, shorter plants but bigger more abundent pods etc. Only you can find out.

Finally (and I'm oh so guilty of not doing this well - in fact hardly at all), keep a garden diary or notebook and decent records including photos. It's amazing how useful it can be looking back at which potato variety did well in a wet year or a dry year, what the variety of bean or pea was that suits your soil conditions etc. Over time this will help you become a better gardener. No one knows everything, but no one knows your plot and circumstances better than you (at least they shouldn't)!

Sometimes I should listen to myself and take note, I might be a better gardener then.

[WPG]

I'm gradually learning not to worry too much about my crop disasters, there are so many things which are beyond our control, especially the weather. When the weather conditions suit some crops, then others are correspondingly poor. So if it's a good year for the brassicas (ie. cool and wet) then it's a bad year for the sweetcorn and tomatoes. If it's rainy things get eaten by slugs, if it's sunny things get eaten by caterpillars, if it's blowing a gale things get flattened. There's so many variables which seem to be at the mercy of unpredictable weather, and maybe that's part of the fun of gardening.
The only crop which has done consistently well for me every year, regardless of weather, has been blackcurrants. If they ever fail then I'd start to get really worried.

[Aunty Social]

p.s if it helps - 3 carrots and 1 ping pong sized beetroot this year.

It helps, it helps a LOT. Crying with laughter again. Not at your harvest btw, you've just really encouraged me - thank you, Lumpy, you superstar!

[Aunty Social]

I have to seriously question if it is worth it all.

Of course it is! Like everyone says, it's got to be (at least a bit) better next year. Lessons learned, etc.

Plus you've really encouraged me, as has every post on here. Thank you, Kirk.

Let's try again next year together (online, of course)

[Aunty Social]

Cake!!!!!!

You've just said the magic word, VC.

[veggiechicken]

Help yourself, Aunty. There's always cake here

[Aunty Social]

Brilliant advice, ESBkevin.

Guess what? I did all of it. (I've been into journaling since I was 13.)

Harvest:
2 cucumbers off greenhouse plant (divine, like savoury melon).
4 mini-sweetcorn cobs that don't seem to be getting any bigger.
About 10 french beans, stunted but tasted nice.
A colander full of broad beans which were disgusting.
A crockpot full of green tomatoes which went to make chutney which stunk the entire house out and sent my husband reeling nauseous to the little room.
Beetroots with no beet.

The ground in my plot is like sterodent, so next year it's raised beds and a tomato greenhouse ie wood & whatever that clear plastic stuff is called, lashed to the front of the house which gets all the sun.

Also I'm going to do my best not to take it personally. Like I know what doesn't work *at all* here so that's good, I've learned something this year.

[Aunty Social]

I love you, VC!

[Aunty Social]

Help yourself, Aunty. There's always cake here

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Did you make that? It looks specktackular.

[Aunty Social]

Thanks again and so interesting to read people's different experiences. Much better than watching gardening programmes, which are just experts telling lies.

Gardening programmes are too scatter-shot these days, trying to be all things to all gardeners. We need an expert who's the equivalent of Delia Smith, who brilliantly went 'back to basics' as there really are people out there who don't know how to boil an egg. (Me, for instance, as I hate eggs.)

[veggiechicken]

How could you doubt that I made it?

[Miss Mousetrousers]

In my view, there's no such thing as failure - it's just a postponement for the luck you'll get next year. I've never failed growing dwarf French beans both outside but even better in the greenhouse beneath my sweet corn. Guess what! A complete disaaaaaster this year.