What do you regret growing and what can't you grow?

[Baldy]

oh... and can't grow celery - everything else I'm great with

and

welcome along...

[PlotOfPossibilities]

Loving your replies....both funny and insightful. Glad I'm not the only one who struggles with radishes though.

[Bex2012]

Calendula! I bought 12 plants for 99p three years ago and its still popping up! I love the colours but i really wish someone had told me how much it self seeds... oh and nasturtiums/indian cress... really wish I hadnt dug all the seed pods into what became my potato bed, they are everywhere!

What cant I grow? Lettuce! I must have sprinkled hundreds of seeds and nothing. Never mind...

[ESBkevin]

Peas, I can't grow them in one half of the plot for love nor money.

[bario1]

Funny how the same answers keep popping up! I'm another who regrets sowing red viened sorrel (in my asparagaus bed)... might as well have sown docks, even when I pull the plants out wholesale with 2' of root attached they come back the next year or sooner. And the leaves taste vile!

I also can't grow aubergines. This year I finally gave up trying, and it's been a more enjoyable growing year. I know the itch will be back and I'll be sowing more at some point in the next few years though.

[Vince G]

Regrets: I love trying to do difficult things. For instance I really like forced chicory and after a couple of years trying, I got some lovely tight chicons to eat late autumn/early winter this year. The only problem is that I start them at the lottie before digging the roots up, trimming them and forcing them in darkness in the garage. The roots can go extremely deep and because I rotate religiously, there are loads of little chicory plants left behind where it was on a previous plot.

Frustrations: strawberries! Never been very good. So I've copied what my successful neighbour did and made a raised bed and got some new plants. So time will tell.

[Mikey]

Peas, I can't grow them in one half of the plot for love nor money.

On the plot Peas can be an issue, I create a little hollow and wet the ground, covers this with old dead brambles the spikier the better and places my peas in amongst them before covering with a little soil. I also lay some netting over the ground until they come through and are an inch or so high. This seems to keep the mice and rats at bay, aswell as the many birds which will happily peck at them from above.

[chris_m]

because I rotate religiously,

Does that involve spinning around whilst chanting incantations?

[Mikey]

Does that involve spinning around whilst chanting incantations?

Ahh, yes the jig of the Norfolk lad. I think this is him about 1min 30 in on the microphone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK22LYB2XAQ

[veggiechicken]

Does that involve spinning around whilst chanting incantations?

More like this than Jigging perhaps? They all look like Mr Bean! (does he rotate?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Cf-ZxDfZA

[Mikey]

I wonder if tipping the head to one side stops them feeling sick or aides balance?

[self-contained]

I cannot get a pineapple started. The tops just seem to rot, no matter what method I use.

I'm regretting my turnips a bit. Last year, I ate load of turnip tops, but I have so many more appealing greens this year, I'm resenting the amount of space they are taking up in the one container they are sown in - they have completely swamped the carrots I put in there too. I may pull them up and sow something else, as I am pretty much at the limit of my available space.

I'm also regretting sowing anything in containers without copper tape, as they have mostly become sacrificial crops. I keep meaning to order more tape, but it's much harder to stick it onto pots that are full than it is to apply it to empty pots.

I decided to try and sow more of my containers as polycultures this year, with mixed success. Some things seem very happy together, but some things are getting swamped. I also realised that I would have been best off choosing my polyculture companions according to the feeding/watering they needed rather than things that were considered good companions in the ground. For example, I have a container of rocket and marigolds where both are looking very good. But I want to give the rocket a nitrogen heavy feed and the marigolds something more balanced for now and tomato feed once they are flowering, but that's just going to encourage the rocket to flower which I don't want it to do! Not exactly a regret though, as it's a great learning experience for a newbie gardener