What a soul destroying season

[Marb67]

I have to say (and I have had some bad years) that this has turned out to be such a terrible season for me because of a lot of strange problems that can't be identified.

Broad Beans: Started out healthy and flowers fell off leaving the odd distorted, small beans. Small holes in leaves (see other post with pics) which progressed later on to worse.

Broccoli: All skeletal now because something has eaten them. Covered with netting but hasn't helped.

Salad leaves: Thin, twisted and distorted with mottled markings on them later on in season. Basil started lush in the greenhouse only to be eaten by something (not slugs). In fact all other greens like spinach, rocket,coriander,mustard greens were pathetic despite planting in fresh compost and the soil.

Courgettes: Only putting up male flowers and so far no change. Yellowing leaves.

Amsterdam carrots: Sown very early in season in container with fine compost and sand. Again, tiny pathetic things with holes in them. Kept in greenhouse most of season so how did the fly get to them ?

Radish: Terrible. Hard to grow any with a decent bulb and most bolted despite keeping in cool shaded area of garden.

Beetroot:Pathetic, bolthardy bolted. Other variety's didn't grow.

Onion sets (red and white) some in container did ok, the rest in ground and other containers stayed the same size and some shoots withered away early on. Cheap Home and Bargain store 99p sets so perhaps this was the cause ?

Poached egg plant: 2nd year when they have not grown any bigger and then in fact get smaller and smaller. Of about 20 plants I have about 1 or 2 that are just about alive.

Chard: The one that got going ended up bolting. Can never grow these successfully.

Spuds: In bags no spuds. In the ground decent crop of Charlotte.

Peas: had a few attempts at sewing but kept rotting in pots. Eventually got some plants going but quite late on. Small crop not too bad but other years been much better.

I could go on but you get the idea. I am doing everything I can correctly but mainly the pests have destroyed everything. I have had saw fly, aphids, slugs, flea beetle, thrips, leaf miner, carrot fly, caterpillars galore, and whatever has made a lot of my leaves paper thin like tissue. I have a pond with frogs and I am trying to keep the garden organic and wildlife friendly. I attract hover flies, birds and it's a small walled garden.

Please don't think this is a moan or rant. It isn't, it's a genuine cry for help because I want to do as much as I can before next season to eradicate whatever I can eradicate so it doesn't happen again. This is by far the worst for pests and I haven't seen a single red ladybird this year at all. Butterflies have been cabbage white most of the time.

[Soylent Green]

My season wasn't as bad as yours, but I had rather more failures than successes. I went to bed feeling very low last night and this morning I pulled up the wreckage that was my plants. I have more seeds, I have time to get them growing and everything else is out of my control. I'll keep trying because the successes will be all the more sweeter next year.
Chin up mate we are all on a steep learning curve, but if it wasn't worth the effort we wouldn't do it. Every success to the veg patch is one in the eye for Monsanto

[zazen999]

Where are you?

[Marb67]

I am in Chehsire, near Northwich.

[rustylady]

Why don't you add that information to your profile Marb? Then it will show up on your posts.

Also, how big is your garden, and is it shaded or sunny?

Photos of the garden as a whole would probably help.

[Two_Sheds]

Oh dear, you are in the doldrums. Let's have a go at sorting you out.

Broccoli: All skeletal now because something has eaten them. Covered with netting but hasn't helped.

That will be CWB caterpillars. You must use butterfly netting (very fine mesh), and you need to hand-pick every week as well during the summer because one butterfly will still find a way in

Amsterdam carrots: ... Kept in greenhouse most of season so how did the fly get to them ?

They locate their food by scent, and they can smell from a LONG way away. If the gh door is left open at all, the fly will be in

Radish: Terrible. ...most bolted despite keeping in cool shaded area of garden.
Beetroot:Pathetic, bolthardy bolted.
Chard:...ended up bolting. Can never grow these successfully.

All of these crops like relatively cool, damp conditions. In hot dry weather they WILL bolt. Mine have.
Try sowing again now for an autumn crop

Poached egg plant: ... they ... get smaller and smaller.

My summer-sown ones did that.
Another plant that likes cooler damper conditions. Mine are best when self-sown: they come up in spring and are over by July

Spuds: In bags no spuds.

A common problem. They need lots of warm sun, and even more feed & watering, if in bags. Even then, harvests will be smaller than those in the open ground

mainly the pests have destroyed everything.

If your plants are weak anyway, then the pests are going to finish them off.

I haven't seen a single red ladybird this year at all. Butterflies have been cabbage white most of the time.

Same here

[Florence Fennel]

Oh dear! Have you conditioned your soil (added some manure, blood fish and bone or compost)? Hold out some hope for your courgettes, the females may be along soon. What sort of compost are you using in your pots? Could that be the problem for your pot-started stuff? As TS says, you can still sow beetroot and radish. I think the only thing to do is to keep trying, you'll be successful soon I'm sure.

[ancee]

OUr courgettes are the same, not too late though. Our 3 different radishes bolted, the spinach got pinched - no idea what little criitter had a feast! Salad leaves been enjoyed by cabbage whites and tomatoes grew leaves leaves leaves but no tomatoes Hey ho! The sweet peas have done well and we had loads of calendulas.

[Snadger]

Sorry to pee you off Marb but its the best year for harvests I've had for a while.

btw Soylent Green I remember THAT film I think with Charlton Heston "We're eating people".............am I showing my age!:eek

Also agree wiv wot TS sez!

[Glutton4...]

I sarcastically asked if you could buy Ladybirds, one year. Got sent a link to a website that sells the larvae. That shut me up! Bear that in mind for next year, and get it on your shopping list!

Chin up!

[Creemteez]

Try giving your courgettes a good dose of tomato food and lashings of water. They have time to pick up. I feel your pain. It was a bit like that for me last year and I swore that if it had been the first time I'd tried to grow anything, it would also have been my last, but Mother Nature's a fickle old girl - she's been on my side this year and I'm sure she'll forgive you (whatever it was!) and give you a bumper crop next year. Travel Hopefully!xx

[taff]

I sarcastically asked if you could buy Ladybirds, one year.

You? Sarcastic?

I've had a cr@p year too. The only things that were good were the garlic and the raspberries. Everything else was pants. I'm hoping I might get a ripe tomato.

[veggiechicken]

I think that, in gardening (as in life)......
You gotta - accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative............
I'm picking courgettes and my tomatoes have just started ripening - and I'm happy with that.
Sure, I have a longer list of things that have been rubbish, but what's the point in dwelling on it - just learn from it, resow and move on. If something never grows well, forget it. Don't waste time and energy on it but try something different.
That's my attitude - it may not be yours, but it works for me

[esbo]

You? Sarcastic?

I've had a cr@p year too. The only things that were good were the garlic and the raspberries. Everything else was pants. I'm hoping I might get a ripe tomato.

So am I!! Well actually I have one small red cherry tomato, thinking of having it mounted, as there
are not many dishes you can make from one tomato the size of a small marble!!
There is another one turning slightly orange, but masses of green ones, which hopefully will start ripening soon. I have tonnes of lager normal size tomatoes but that is a double edged sword
when they remain eternally green. By the time a few of those started to ripen last year some disease had set in, indeed the colour change may have been more due to disease

However I started a bit earlier this year and with the sunnier summer I am hoping for better luck.

[SarzWix]

Drought has been a big problem for me here this year, which is totally unexpected for anyone living in the North West!! We have no mains water on our site, so when there's no/little rain for 2 months, there's none to spare for watering stuff in the ground. Hence I've more or less wasted a 9m x 3m bed of onions from seed and set - most (say 150 out of 200) are around the size of pickling onions and falling over already. Nearly all of my salads have bolted before getting anywhere near eating size. My potatoes all have terrible scab. My squashes have set one fruit each and given up, and the those fruits are nearly ripe at about half the size they should be. Loads of my tomatoes have blossom-end rot, caused by a lack of water. My carrots are free from root-fly because they're covered in enviromesh, but they're still tiny at the time we would normally be eating them. Cabbage whites can't get to my broccoli (enviromesh again) but they're all bolting too.

On the plus side, my garlic is fab, my beans are going great guns, and I've had about 20lb of gooseberries from 4 bushes.

Chin up, invest in some mesh/insect netting for next year, think about what you can use as mulch to try and keep the moisture in, and get resowing things like spinach and swiss chard to grow over autumn when they'll have a bit more rain