Gardening challenges

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

We all know that growing your own is a rewarding, enjoyable and healthy pastime, but it can sometimes feel like the odds are stacked against our fledgling crops. What would you say is the biggest challenge to gardeners?

Answers may be edited and published in the July issue of Grow Your Own.


Laura

[SarzWix]

I've voted for 'weather' because that has a direct effect on the other things in the list, and ultimately is the one thing we can't control. There are both organic and industrially/chemically produced solutions to both slugs/snails and disease if we choose to use them, although blight is not so simple to combat. However, blight and other fungal diseases such as botrytis are made many times worse in damp weather, slugs and snail proliferate in wet weather, and plants are made more weak when nutrients are leached out of the soil by rain and growth is slowed by lack of sun. Bad weather is definitely the most frustrating thing for me as a gardener.

[Samurailord]

I voted for weather because it is the only thing on the list that we gardeners cannot influence.

We can control slugs and snails with organic traps and an old fashioned pair of scissors, weeds can be pulled out or hoed in and we can limit the effect of diseases by crop rotation and also by careful selection of specific varieties of crop which have been bred to be resistant.

With weather, all we can do is make the most of the hand that Mother Nature has dealt us and carry on.

Andy

[Tripmeup]

I voted for weather too! Like others state, it influences pretty much everything else and we only have to look at last year's wet weather and the impact it had on the slug/snail population for an example.
Likewise, if the weather isn't conducive to growing, then there isn't much you can do about it...
Surprised, time isn't one of the options!

[horticultural_hobbit]

Weather, as no one can tame the elements. However, sometimes other folks can be a challenge too. Many, are quick to judge, ridicule even. Few, will pat you on the back and comment in a way that is encouraging. So with that comes motivation; and the whole thing perpetuates. But that said, all it takes a it a bit of positivity, a bit of grit for drainage, courage and determination.

[Veggielot]

Got to be the weather it is the one thing you have no control over, I particular dislike the way it can be lovely when I am at work but then rains on my days off.

[Paulieb]

Definately weather.

As a flip side you can predict the rest. There will ALWAYS be slugs, and we can take steps to limit their damage and either avoid growing certain types of plants to avoid certain diseases. And then there are chemicals to control pests and diseases, which may or may not want to be used.

[VirginVegGrower]

Weather because if it's not onside as was the case in 2012, then your gardening year will not be a fruitful one. It's the only challenge you have no control over!

[Aberdeenplotter]

I've voted for 'weather' because that has a direct effect on the other things in the list, and ultimately is the one thing we can't control. There are both organic and industrially/chemically produced solutions to both slugs/snails and disease if we choose to use them, although blight is not so simple to combat. However, blight and other fungal diseases such as botrytis are made many times worse in damp weather, slugs and snail proliferate in wet weather, and plants are made more weak when nutrients are leached out of the soil by rain and growth is slowed by lack of sun. Bad weather is definitely the most frustrating thing for me as a gardener.

I couldn't have put that better myself.

[Alison]

I voted other as my main challenge is time or lack of time. The weather etc is a pain but I can usually work round it. If it rains I can pot on or work in the tunnel, as said above there are solutions to pests etc but I don't have a time machine

[alldigging]

It used to be 'March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers' but now it's more like a series of irrational bursts of nice weather with longer stretches of nasty cold winds and frost.

[PyreneesPlot]

Weather here too.

Uncontrollable and inconcistent.

[shepp726]

i voted for weather, although i must admit as a fledgling allotment owner, the biggest challenge is taking on board all the advice, be it good bad or indifferent, then filtering whats relevant to my plot, ambition and ability.

[iam]

I voted other. My biggest problem in the garden is the flat worm,as has been said slugs and snails can be dealt with by putting barriers around plants or using chemicals for other areas, the weather can be coped with by using covers etc. but at present there are no chemicals or barriers to combat the flat worm and there are no other gardeners as good as the earth worm

[MarkHackwell]

I voted weather as you cant change it