Not a good year :-(

[FBI]

Is anyone else having a disappointing year?

Winter onions were great, as have been the Charlotte spuds in buckets & compost sacks - haven't looked at the Desiree or PFA yet. Beetroot's great and leeks look promising. Peas from a box of Bigga dried mushy ones have been great.

And that's it.

Brassicas all got slugged in the last month's rotten weather - Kale, Swede, Sprouts, Cabbage, Kohl Rabi. All gone. Warm winter meant puny, albeit usable garlic; well those that didn't get white rot. broad beans didn't respond well to the early hot spell and barely got any from the plants that survived although the ones I set off a month ago in desperation have, conversely thrived with the recent cold, wet spell although it's hard to be pleased about that. Toms under glass and outside are depressed and struggling, my French beans got to about a metre high and then slowly died in the cold & wind: one serving so far. Courgettes, Patty Pans, Pumpkins are either moping or getting slugged...

Gardening, eh?

Bloody hell.

[Nicos]

I daren't really say in case I jinx what's actually going well for me!

So far my disappointments.... ( there are always quite a few as I try to grow a large assortment of fruit and veg so that something ought to do ok!)

cabbage and sprouts are still under constant attack by either aphids or caterpillars
Only one of my rhubarb is doing well this year
The peas wouldn't germinate.
I only have One variety of tomato from a selection of 3 which have got to the flowering stage
The lettuce keep bolting
The watermelons and cantaloup melons are just sat sitting there on strike.
The one and only potiron and butternut squash turned up their toes when we had a few days of 40C

Worst of all are the carrots and parsnip -as they are still in their packets

BUT...
Have to say that everything else is doing really well....so far!... so even with the 'failures' I'm very happy so far with what's going on. ( I'm going to get blight now I've said that aren't I????)

[w33blegurl]

Mixed bag this year. Strawberries were really disappointing with very low yield compared to previous years. Quite a few seedlings have been slugged and all my turnips got cabbage root fly. Also finding this is a bad aphid year as everything is terribly infested. I don't spray so am having to do a lot of squishing - one of my most hated jobs, it really grosses me out. Some other things are looking good though!

[ESBkevin]

Like most years there is good and bad. No parsnips or swedes, raspberries a little slow and late. Most brassicas were a bit puny when planted out, but seem to be gathering pace. Sweetcorn didn't establish well, but I've spied a flowering head (albeit and knee height). We planted the first onion sets too deep before christmas and dug them up to reset in the spring, so the harvest became much smaller. But we did 2 more lots of spring sets and they are looking good but not great.
Outdoor peppers and chillies are not up to much an dmay be a washout, those in the greenhose doing better but not stunning. Weve just picked the very first ripe toms withing the last week. If we avoid the blight there will be more than enough.
Strawberris were modest compared to previous years, birds got all the goosberries which we didn't net!
We had some garlic that got left in and planted more at the end of last year. the whole lot is our best harvest yet.
Early potatos have done well and what we can see of the main crop leaves me hopeful there too.
We have an appricot, a cherry, a peach and two desert apples growing espalier style at 5ft on two wires. Nothing this year! But the cooking apple and plumb at least have something showing and I'm going to have to thin the pears or risk lots of half formed fruit.
Peas were a mixed bag, but we've done worse. Lots of beetroot. All bean varieties looking good and we have over 120 leeks in the ground.

So overall it's a typical year with some minor victories, some stunning success and the usual smattering of failures. Some of it weather related and some of it our own ineptitude or lazyness. But we carry on, the time of plenty may soon be upon us.

[burnie]

Only problem I've had so far was a plague of caterpillars in the greenhouse, looks like I won that war and the chillies and strawberry plants that had eaten leaves all seem to be healthy again. I think most things are late this year due to odd weather, but early peas and carrots in the greenhouse were a success as are the french beans in there. Everything outside looks ok so far.............................up to our armpits in strawberries, blackcurrants and guzz gogs.

[ameno]

Everything is doing pretty well for me, or at least so-so.

A whole row of carrots got demolished by slugs, I'm having trouble getting my melons to set fruit, and the swedes are doing just as poorly as last year, but otherwise...

[Plot70]

I started a plot that had been neglected for a few years last December.
The goard bed got all the couch grass roots cooked off under it. They have done well and we have bees nesting under the shed so flowers are setting well.
Spinach have bolted and broccoli have formed a few puny flowers.
Kolhrabi has done well and runner beans have almost recovered from frost damage.
Butternuts have tightly closed flowers and have not moved.
Turban pumpkins and marrows have done well.
Growth rates are generally telling me where to put manure for next year.
I have had a small number of very nice strawberries and am propagating the plants for runners. The runners are telling me how far the new bed needs to be spaced.

[Bren In Pots]

My main disappointment was the strawberries that went rotten before getting ripe that was down to the wet weather, but thats really about it. Lettuce has been great not like last year when it kept going to seed.

[rary]

I am quite happy with my lot, potatoes are croping well cabbage also good but some slug damage onions not so good but that is due to me planting them close together but they will be usable, leeks doing well but again planted them a bit early as I could have had better use of the ground, lots of tomatoes but all still green cucumber doing very well, gardening part I am not happy with is my flower baskets very poor this year, but there is always next year when I will have everything perfect

[MelanieSW]

It hasn't been a great year overall on my allotment, at least so far.
The autumn planted onion sets (and half the garlic) succumbed to white rot. Legumes were horrendously attacked by blackfly - got maybe 2 meals out of the broad beans before they were killed, runners are severely stunted (and only half the seeds had germinated anyway). The blackfly even managed to kill one of the cucumbers.
Peas were snailed and slugged, and generally didn't do well.

Courgettes are so so, it's certainly not a glut.

On the plus side, soft fruits did very well, loads of strawberries and a good amount of blackcurrants and gooseberries. The first sweetcorn is ready for harvesting, and it looks like I might actually get some aubergines this year.
Still waiting for the first tomatoes to ripen.

[bramble]

Strawberries havnt been as good as other years due to some rotting with the wet weather.
Some of my radishes went woody due to hot weather earlier and not enough water.
The gooseberry Bush was stripped by saw fly do no crop this year.
Not many plums and cant think of any reason why not.
Otherwise I have a great crop of tomatoes.
Onions in large containers are the best I ever had.
Peppers and chillis doing well.
Potatoes were a bit on the small side but very tasty.
Peas and beans also going well.
It's been a strange year weathereise, very hot earlier and cooler and wet later.

[WPG]

I had the most dismal 2019 on the plot, just about everything failed and I felt like giving the whole thing up. However pleased to say that 2020 has been so much better and I've had bumper harvests of a few things already (broad beans, blackcurrants, first earlies). The only plants which are doing poorly this year are sweetcorn, which got stuck at the blades of grass stage.

Everything else looks very healthy and lush at the moment, although I expect the blight will hit here fairly soon and dampen my optimism a bit.

[Snadger]

Each year their are good and bad. It would be pretty boring if their were no failures. Mother nature rules after all.

My main failures were where I changed supplier of onion sets and seed tatties, but luckily I have onions from seed and tatties from elsewhere as well to look forward to.

All in all, fair to middlin so can't grumble.

[Jungle Jane]

There’s still time to sow broccoli,cabbage,Swiss chard,beetroot,carrot,lettuce,swede,turnip,rocket & radish. I need to sow some swede again,my two decent seedlings are now one shrivelled seedling,I couldn’t grow it last year either A few cucumber plants were caught out by the cold earlier on,I haven’t sowed carrots yet,they’ll need to go in potato bags once they’re harvested coz I’ve no pots. I’ve used all the containers here,with the lockdown there’s been more time to do everything,I’ve planted out thirty nine tomato plants I’m happy with the garden as a whole.

[FBI]

Thanks everyone; there's hope yet. I suppose at least the good stuff's been very good indeed. I'll definitely try more brassicas and lettuce. Beans are annoying though as I've always had bumper crops. Still, more to keep the farmers of Kenya in work I suppose :-)