My Gardening Failures in 2012

[Andymac252]

I almost threw the towel in this year after my

- tomatoes were struck by blight,
- the brocolli and sprouts massacred by caterpillars,
- cucumbers and pumpkins weakened by powdery mildew,
- peppers didn't produce at all

Good news was that the sweetcorn produced well (a bi-coloured heirloom suited for this climate though), sunflowers went crazy and the courgettes, even though hammered by powdery mildew, threw out a bumper harvest. Not much to sing about, but better than a poke in the eye with a jaggy stick, as they say!

As i said, I was gonna throw in the towel until i got annoyed about it a few weeks ago and decided to change things this year by making mini greenhouses, growing some plants in growbags and following some biodynamic methods/ applications.

Does anyone here have any biodynamic experience to share??

[legume]

This was our first year with an allotment, and...

the peas grew so big the frames collapsed and then mice ate them
not a single swede
pigeons ate every single sprouting broccoli, winter cabbage and kale plant. What they didn't eat they crapped on.
great crops of beetroot, courgettes and swiss chard, but then discovered I don't like those veg...
rhubarb clumps gradually disappeared to nothing over the summer, never to return
only 2 out 10 asparagus crowns came up
maincrop potatoes got blight
greenhouse tomatoes got blight, though fortunately late enough that we got all the tresses ripened first
slugs ate the peppers, all the salad crops and - bizarrely - the french marigolds
someone or something stole the only two peaches on our tree
the summer raspberries didn't push out any new canes
the strawberries got ants nests under them (saved the plants but virtually no crop)
turnips never came up
cherry tree didn't fruit

But still happy because we did get good crops of cucumbers, carrots, parsnips, sprouts (though on the small side), potatoes, sweetcorn, runner and french beans, leeks, onions, garlic, pumpkins, squashes and calabrese.

[ThirstyGardener]

The total disasters on our plot were fennel and courgettes. You know the weather is bad when you only get to harvest half a dozen stumpy courgettes from the third sowing (first two attempts were slugged).
Many more crops where underwhelming, but we did have a few successes – most notably a trial row huauzontle (aka aztec broccoli) and all forms of beans did well.

[Speed Gardener]

2012 - a year to forget

Onions - slug food
Courgettes - slug food
Main crop potatoes - slug food & blight
Strawberries - slug food
Loganberries - raspberry beetle and rotted due to wet weather
Gooseberries - weather greatly reduced crop
Blueberries - next to no crop
Red, white and black currants - half the usual crop due to the weather
Pears - too cold and wet
Plums and greengages - too cold and wet
Cherries - too cold and wet
Apples - too cold and wet for anything but crab apples
Carrots - never even germinated
Beetroot - never even germinated

Couple that with rampant bindweed and couch grass growth, and I wonder sometimes why I bother!

Still, there's always next year!....

[BUFFS]

Can count success on one hand. Cucumbers were good in the greenhouse , it was a little one can't remember the name at the moment. Chard was ok and rocket and salad . Oh and I had one very prolific courgette.
Like others have said going to try harder this year. CONCENTRATE! !

we may have to go hippy,gather round ,holding hands,chanting "the sun will shine,the sun will shine,the sun will shine" til all the warm air generated might evaporate some of the downpours...

[sally fran]

Biggest disasters were the blight-stricken tomatoes (didn't get a single tom off 22 plants) and the celeriac. It should have been a good year for celeriac what with so much rain, but mine all went to seed.

Butternut squashes were good though - thirteen from five plants is probably not a great harvest but it was my first time so I was very excited!

[madpiano]

I didn't really grow Vegetable last year (this year will be my first), but I do have some herbs and fruit in the Garden, and flowers/weeds.
My pear tree was not happy at all and delivered a total of 3 pears, all of them misshapen and tasteless.
My chives were thin and slow growing, so didn't harvest them very often.
My Bay Tree has doubled in size and is threatening to take over the garden (it is 10ft high at the moment) - considering 5 dried leaves in a glas jar cost £2.00 at Tesco, I am sitting on a gold mine! Will cut it back seriously in the next 2 weeks.
I have a large Rosemary (about 80cm diameter) in a pot and it also has nearly doubled in size this year and is as lush green as I have never seen it before. Harvested lots. It absolutely loved this year's weather, surprisingly.
The Passionfruit was not happy at all, and although there were some flowers, hardly any fruit - actually, there is a lot of fruit now, but it wont ripen before falling off. Wondering if it needs a cut-back, it is covering a whole wall.
My Lavender gave up and died. Even though it is out front, where it is hot and sunny (if and when the sun shines). I think the version I had, really doesn't like the rain. (Bought it at Ikea...it just said Lavender on it).
Nearly all the flowers I grew from seeds became slug food. Even the busy Lizzies, I managed to save some cuttings which are currently growing in pots for next year. The rest was stripped and eaten. Sweet Peas were only outside for one night, next morning they were completely gone! So I never got to grow much....
The Geraniums did really, really well though, and the ones in the window boxes are still in bloom! I was going to put winter/ornamentas cabbages in there, but can't bring myself to throw the Geraniums out, they are battling on so bravely! All other flowers in those window boxes died though, my guess is, they drowned (trailing Petunias and trailing Verbenas). So a pretty shoddy year. This year is my first year growing vegetables, I hope I have more luck than with the flowers.