On the other hand

[Ger-annie-um]

Tomatoes, peas, chard and most p'sips are a disaster BUT

Cauli's
Broad beans
Cabbages
Beetroot
Carrots
Calabrese and cucumbers

Have been blinking amazing, never before have I been able to grow cauli's and carrots I'm soooooo chuffed - what were your 'ups and downs'

Can't wait for onions, sweetcorn, sprouts, PSB, BNS, french/runner beans and spuds

[jayjaybee]

So many things a disaster because of drought.... potatoes, courgettees, although they are recovering now I am back from holiday and able to water. Onions look like being rather small. I gave up on the broad beans.

As you say, on the other hand.. raspberries, climbing french beans, cabbages, chard and greenhouse things all doing well.

[Barking Postlethwaite]

I lost two sowings of outdoor cucumbers before getting the blighters to grow; not going to be a very productive year on that front. A similar story with patty pans, although other courgette/squash/pumpkin thingies are doing ok.

Broad Beans have been very poor - yields are only about 25% of last year,and they were very late to start cropping. I had French and even runner beans coming on stream before they started to produce in any quantity.

Plus points: carrots, beetroot & turnips have all done better than last time.

Overall: I'm quite happy with what I've got, although the early cold followed by drought & heatwave has contracted the growing season. Successional sowings have gone completely to pot: early plantings got off to such a slow start that later sowings caught them up. My ideal of growing two portions of peas every two days finished up with a freezer-full of peas needing to be picked over a three day period.

Still, if it all went to plan it wouldn't be fun, would it?

[solway cropper]

Mostly ups for me this year, except for early spuds which suffered badly with blackleg. Soft fruit has been amazing and the chest freezer is full already! Best carrots ever and I'm harvesting 1kg of cucumbers every couple of days. It's certainly making up for last year's disaster.

[Tripmeup]

Soft fruits amazing..
Courgettes... Don't ask!!
Cucumbers aplenty..
Onions brilliant...

Garlic sizes were smaller than last year..
Turnips bolted...

[Likac66]

Hmmm... first year of allotment.

Broccoli good, and first ever (small) caulflowers.
Cucumbers, slow and not prolific.
Courgettes good.
Runner beans - hardly any plants have made it to full size.
Onions small and measly.
Shallots - planted very late but doing brilliantly!
Tomatoes - lots and lots of fruit setting now - about 5-6 trusses per plant and I have nearly 20 plants.
Peas - good crop.
Mange tout -terrible. Go figure.
Potatoes - first time grown in ground rather than tubs or bags and I'm pleased with harvest so far.
Chillies - great. Sweet peppers - rubbish.
Salad, radishes, turnips, spinach - good
Broad beans - ok but not a huge amount for the number of plants I don't think.
PSB - disastrous. Can't get plants to get past seedling stage.
Cabbages and sprouts growing well.

[Vince G]

Runners/French/Borlotti - looking good if a little late
Broadies - frozen 3lb, so not huge amounts, but not too bad
Peas of all sorts - best crop ever, everyone on our lottie saying the same
Carrots - as big now as they were in September last year, hence a few bolting, but generally good
Alliums - best red onions I've ever had, most are bigger than a cricket ball. White ones a bit smaller (opposite of last year). Garlic crap yet again.
Courgettes good, but squash still a bit behind
Sweetcorn - polytunnel specimens long since eaten, outdoor ones a couple of weeks away
Brassicas superb, except calabrese which produced quite loose heads
Chard - 1 x 10' row - mental amounts (anyone - does it freeze?)
Pots - earlies crap, maincrop very healthy and blight free
Asparagus - 6 healthy 10' rows in year 2, somehow managed to resist picking any, next year though...
Poly - toms recovered well after frosting, plenty eaten. Peppers and chillies ripening. Cukes great, but gherkins crap (how???). Melons nicely staggered - one plant has 3 the size of cricket balls, other plant showing size of broad beans.
Soft fruit - plants sulking after May transplanting to allotment from garden, so small amounts of goose, rasp, tay, strawb, blue, and blackcurrant produced, no more than 1lb each type. Hoping for better next year.
Cider apples year 3, might fill a demi if I'm lucky!
Over and out.........