Feeling very behind!

[terrier]

Come on you miserable lot, carry on like that and were going to have to have a gardening Agony Aunt. I've had all sorts of weeds flowering in my plot for months now. Don't tell me about things not growing............... As I'm typing this a hot air balloon has just started to float past my window. Wow!!

[Farmer_Gyles]

relieved to see i'm not alone and not weeks behind!
i'm doing better than last year ... will do even better next year

[Patsy]

Don't worry, most things catch up or nearly, eventually. I started my seeds in a well known companys multipurpose compost (recommended by Which a few years ago) and everything came up and then stopped. Compost was c**p and full of little flies. Repotted some and started again on others in a fellow allotment holders recommendation of Petersons professional compost. Everything now going like mad but am way behind others. C'est la vie! I'll know what compost to use next year. This months "Grow You Own" was full of things you could start this month so there's always something to have a go at.

[Stacey]

I know exactly how you feel. New to growing this year. Getting very impatient with not being able to harvest anything. So decided to give cherry belle radish a go because it says ready in 4 or 5 weeks. Never tasted it in my life just wanted something to pull up! Today my OH decided to cut some leaves from our red and green salad bowl lettuce (cut and come again) and he and my little girl (2 next week) loved it! I didnt even get offered any. So ive not even tried any. of course I could have just got some myself but I didnt even think of it at the time. Was too busy busy repotting my 42 Kale seedlings. Yes I know,didnt need that many.

[NattieG]

I keep getting disheartened at posts where people are worried that their tomato plants are only 2 and a half feet tall.

Mine are only about 7"!!!!!

While I know it's not a race - I don't think we'll ever have tomatoes at this rate *sniff sniff*

On a brighter note - spring onions anyone?! *smug face*

[Earthbabe]

I've felt like that this year. Lost the early carrots to slugs so declared war. Lost the overwintered broad beans despite my best efforts to black fly and some sort of fungal thing (Same supplier and variety - not growing those again!)

Thought I was going to have to resow my parsnips and that my seed was not viable until I read Dobby's post, then we had rain and they've gone mad. I've lost bits of courgettes to slugs so I've had to replant.

At the moment we've had spuds - I got an earlier start on those than last year with the aid of some fleece, salad (overwintered and mesclun from this year) and chard.

Compared to last year I feel we are way behind. I've just had my first courgette flower but my friend has been picking hers for a couple of weeks. I'm finally starting to see tomatoes but I'm still battling the slugs, the mares tail and other weeds and the aphids.

We'll get there don't worry and probably fill the freezer three times over. :

[sweetcorn]

I must be the only person in the world for whom spinach was a total disaster. It struggled to germinate, struggled to grow, then flowered immediately at a height of only about 5". Pulled it out in disgust yesterday. Never had a spinach disaster before. Feel a total failure.

As we moved house, I got nothing going until mid/late April, so have only had a bit of cut and come again lettucy stuff. Courgettes are just sitting in the soil, obviously finding the whole business of growing at all far too taxing. I don't think they're any bigger than when I put them in!

Carrots were there one day, gone the next. (What purpose do slugs have apart from annoying gardeners?)

Sweetcorn haven't grown much (same attitude as the courgettes, I think).

So worry ye not.

[moggssue]

Surveyed my plot last night - calabrese falling over cos of nibbled stems, broad beans struggling against black fly, courgettes eaten by slugs, french beans eaten by slugs, lettuce trying their best, spinach bolting, toms and peas just starting to flower, garlic yellow and wilted - phew, this gardening lark is getting more and more like a warzone!! But I'm hanging in there, had my first spinach last night and my third carrot sowing seems to be winning its battle, as do my parsnips except they're so tiny they might not have time to develop this year. I think most of us are in the same boat (or on the same battlefield?) which is heartening in its way. Perservere all, it'll be worth it, I'm sure it will.

[Stacey]

Ah well this is maybe where my veg patch is ahead then? My only pests are slugs and snails and I will be getting hold of some nemaslug if nothing naturally balances that problem out soon! (my poor poor cabbages). My vegpatch is a haven of wildlife it seems,so many different varieties of all different insects,its beautiful! Full of worms,plenty for my soil and the different birds that have started to visit. I did have a lot of aphids when my peas started to grow,but now its all balanced itself out,amazing huh?

[Scruffy Duffy]

What I'm really loving about reading all of these posts, is that regardless of the fact that we're down and disheatened by the lack of growth, constantly battling with pests, worried about starting too early/too late, planting too few/too many, etc etc, none of us seems willing to give up! That's true spirit if you ask me.

I wrote an assignment for an MA in Public Health on developing a project for post natally depressed young mothers using horticultural therapy, and now that I'm actually involved in growing my own, I can see how right the concept is. As Seahorse said in #15, it's the journey that counts. If it was only the final produce we get from the plants we were bothered about, we wouldn't spend every spare minute we have out there caring for them all.

So keep posting about how you're doing, you really keep me amused, encouraged and feeling a little less on my own.

Scruffy