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Every year is different and that's part of the fun of it. This year so far:
Good:
Superb crops of spinach, raspberries and peas, definitely the stars of the show. Early cauliflowers were good but as they got bigger they got sluggier. Early lettuce good. Overwintered fennel amazing. Framberries have produced more fruit than usual. Rhubarb has been good. Young cherry tree has produced 8 ripe fruit, and as this is its first fruiting season I'm happy with that.
Middling:
Later lettuce grew well but covered in aphids. Tomatoes on windowsill cropping well but a lot have greenback due to hot spell. New potatoes (Lady C) produced an average sort of crop. Cucumbers slow but getting going now. Gooseberries producing a reasonable crop but now defoliated by sawfly. Early strawberries very good, later ones a write-off due to slugs and rot. Blueberries just starting to ripen, crop looks about average. Peppers growing well on windowsill, but only about half germinated (new seed). Beetroot germinated poorly in hotbed (old seed), later crops better but seem to be very slow to reach edible size. Turnips are starting to produce some edible roots after a slow start, and at least have so far avoided root fly. Mizuna and pak choi produced some nice baby leaves before bolting in the hot weather.
Poor:
Onions got white rot again. Courgettes, outdoor tomatoes and runner beans seem very, very slow. Runner beans were very difficult to germinate so some are behind anyway due to having to be resown. French beans are doing ok but have been tricky to grow and crops are small. Experimental orange cauliflowers keeled over and died. Blackcurrant produced hardly any fruit (probably not liking its pot). Apple produced huge numbers of fruit, but they are rapidly falling off and most seem to have bitter pit. Apricot tree produced lots of flowers but nothing set fruit. Cabbages (at my friend's) are getting shredded by slugs. Some of the bedding plants are very slow and small with few flowers (but the dwarf nasturtiums have taken over in places, and so far no blackfly).
To come:
Carrots look good, but hard to tell from foliage. Main crop potatoes have made much bigger plants than the earlies so hopefully a decent crop. Calabrese coming along nicely. Leeks look ok. Romanesco growing well after big whitefly attack. Greenhouse tomatoes mostly doing ok, although some of the flowers have not set. Melons variable - the one in the greenhouse is huge and has lots of female flowers, the growhouse ones look ok, the ones outside not so good. Parsnips seem to be growing well. Chilean guava has flowered for the first time and will hopefully produce something for me to taste!
Good:
Superb crops of spinach, raspberries and peas, definitely the stars of the show. Early cauliflowers were good but as they got bigger they got sluggier. Early lettuce good. Overwintered fennel amazing. Framberries have produced more fruit than usual. Rhubarb has been good. Young cherry tree has produced 8 ripe fruit, and as this is its first fruiting season I'm happy with that.
Middling:
Later lettuce grew well but covered in aphids. Tomatoes on windowsill cropping well but a lot have greenback due to hot spell. New potatoes (Lady C) produced an average sort of crop. Cucumbers slow but getting going now. Gooseberries producing a reasonable crop but now defoliated by sawfly. Early strawberries very good, later ones a write-off due to slugs and rot. Blueberries just starting to ripen, crop looks about average. Peppers growing well on windowsill, but only about half germinated (new seed). Beetroot germinated poorly in hotbed (old seed), later crops better but seem to be very slow to reach edible size. Turnips are starting to produce some edible roots after a slow start, and at least have so far avoided root fly. Mizuna and pak choi produced some nice baby leaves before bolting in the hot weather.
Poor:
Onions got white rot again. Courgettes, outdoor tomatoes and runner beans seem very, very slow. Runner beans were very difficult to germinate so some are behind anyway due to having to be resown. French beans are doing ok but have been tricky to grow and crops are small. Experimental orange cauliflowers keeled over and died. Blackcurrant produced hardly any fruit (probably not liking its pot). Apple produced huge numbers of fruit, but they are rapidly falling off and most seem to have bitter pit. Apricot tree produced lots of flowers but nothing set fruit. Cabbages (at my friend's) are getting shredded by slugs. Some of the bedding plants are very slow and small with few flowers (but the dwarf nasturtiums have taken over in places, and so far no blackfly).
To come:
Carrots look good, but hard to tell from foliage. Main crop potatoes have made much bigger plants than the earlies so hopefully a decent crop. Calabrese coming along nicely. Leeks look ok. Romanesco growing well after big whitefly attack. Greenhouse tomatoes mostly doing ok, although some of the flowers have not set. Melons variable - the one in the greenhouse is huge and has lots of female flowers, the growhouse ones look ok, the ones outside not so good. Parsnips seem to be growing well. Chilean guava has flowered for the first time and will hopefully produce something for me to taste!
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