Until a couple of years ago, I didn't spend much time gardening as I had another hobby that took most of my spare time. I had an enormous saltwater aquarium with fish and corals. It's quite a specialist hobby, and I enjoyed it because it requires that you learn a lot and you create something beautiful that others can admire - lots of parallels to gardening you might say.
Then a year ago I moved house to a place with a much bigger garden, and took the opportunity to back away from my old hobby and learn as much as I could about plants and gardening and devote all of my spare time to that.
The parallels between marine aquatics and gardening soon stop. With the aquarium, all the fun is in the first 18 months, gradually building up stock, watching the corals grow, getting it to the point when it looks stunning. Then you reach a time when you have to say to yourself "this is the best it will ever look", and from there on in the challenge is simply maintaining it as it is, with a routine which is the same every day, every week, all year round, and a system which is always teetering on a chemical knife-edge, just one equipment-fail away from a mishap which can send 2000 litres of saltwater onto your living room carpet or knock some parameter out of kilter and start a rapid chain reaction that leaves you with what was thousands of pounds of carefully-sourced livestock transformed into a box of stinking water that will takes days or weeks to clear up.
In the garden, no such likely disaster awaits. I can constantly fail and start again, and my failures are nicely contained (my entire garden won't "crash" because I forgot to switch something back on!). My list of jobs/chores changes completely from one month to the next as we cycle through the seasons. I can go on holiday (covid-permitting!) without spending every day in fear that my creation might be irretrievably lying in ruins back home. And I can be outside while I indulge my hobby (I love being outside). And every walk becomes interesting, whether in the countryside, or nosing at peoples' front gardens. And the amount of stuff there is to learn is infinitely wider than in my old hobby, yet relatively forgiving if you have only a beginner's knowledge.
And every year I get to start again!!! I get to sow seeds again, try some different plants, move/remove something I don't like, prune my shrubs differently, etc etc.
So do get that T-shirt "There's always next year" made! It's what I love about this hobby!
Growing veg in the British climate is a lot more challenging because every year is different and what works one time might not work the next time. You can't really take the same approach every year and hope to be successful unfortunately you have to expect losses as that is part of the process.
For us all things considered we tried a lot of new things this year and considering the challenges it has not been too bad. Coriander in the greenhouse, plantings 1 month apart and did fine. Planted outside and did ok and then after a while bolted but that is ok because we use the seeds for cooking and for sowing in subsequent years so bolting not a problem.
Tomatoes in greenhouse ok after slow start, outdoor toms getting going now after a later than usual planting out. chillis - loads and loads of all types of chillis, much to my surprise, much more than last year. Aubergines very slow to start growing in gh so will see. Heritage French Melon doing ok in the greenhouse, last year died off. Basil in greenhouse doing ok, parsley in greenhouse ok, outside also ok after being fleeced for a long time.
Potatoes first second and main crop all good but we had to cover them because of all the frost.
Jerusalem artichokes good so far, they look after themselves with seemingly no pest or disease.
Horseradish - good but it is more or less a weed where we are.
Watercress - threw in a bunch into the pond and taking to it well so far, it has been flowering recently.
Red onion - the ones sown indoors in Jan good and healthy and will be ready soon, some others that had been planted out directly were weak and diseased, removed these but no big deal because they were replaced with the second plantings of the year, so no real "loss"
Garlic - no problems, great crop ready just about now just as last years crop is finishing, about 200 bulbs will see us through another year.
Mizuma / rocket / other assorted leaves - I found that with early sowings (started Feb, in airing cupboard, germinated all fine) these needed to be kept in the greenhouse a lot longer and took a lot longer to get going outside even with fleece cover. Overall a good harvest with minimal slug damage.
Peas - first peas very slow to catch up with some planting just sitting there. The harvest was "ok" but a month late. Maincrop tree peas looking very healthy around 5 feet tall now and plenty of peas. For my learning, is it worth planting early peas or too much of a risk...
Carrots - the only thing that I would really call a disaster, a few germinated, they just struggled and sat there being decimated by various problems... we have a few but I am not hopeful.
Beetroots - early ones (sown feb in airing cupboard) good but again very slow to start even with fleece. Later sowings done and so far coming along nicely.
Spinach - early (sown feb planted out march) amazing, good crops. Have some baby spinach on the go now indoors in trays just for salads.
Scorzonera - plants did poorly, not the right conditions.
Sweet peppers - again a little slow to start in the greenhouse but looking ok now.
Okra - grow this every year more as a novelty than anything else and get a handful of okra. this year is on course to be no exception.
Squash of all sorts, a very slow start for some of them when planted out even under fleece, looks like they finally eventually getting going.
Courgette. A very late planting out and a very slow start, again finally picking up.
Cucumber - 1st batch very sickly in greenhouse. 2nd batch much more healthy, will stick 1 lot in greenhouse and another lot outside.
Broad beans - hit and miss, will have a few but seems to have been affected with a lot of pests.
Soy beans - plantings a bit slow to establish and some losses.
Climbing french beans - another slow start but finally catching up.
Celeriac - looking reasonable outside around 30% loss
Leeks - planted loads of these and looking very healthy so far
Kale - after planting got well eaten even with protection but recovered well and on course for good crop
Japanese Radish - again eaten well but recovering
Sprouts - Doing well, much better than last year.
Fennel - good so far, not yet planted out.
There is also a lot of fruit and flowers / perennials that I've not listed and probably more veg that we are growing but that is the jist of it.
We grow a lot of stuff and sow more seeds than we need so even complete failure in one crop isn't the end of the world, because there is plenty else to take its place. There is rarely a gap in the beds in the allotments / garden / greenhouses.
In London we had a frost warning on 26th May. A few nights ago it
was 5oC, which is crazy for the end of June. 20oC overnight a few weeks
ago. I can see how plants just can't cope with these swings, where it's
so unusual for us. It seems this year we have broken records for the
coldest, hottest, wettest and driest. No doubt records will continue to
fall as the years roll on.
We started a
local garden club for newbies last year during lockdown and the weather
was kind. People started their toms outside early (despite the advice)
and we didn't get late frosts. April and May were warm. Everything grew
well. Many peolpe have continued to grow this year and it's such a
different story. Many neighbours have got disheartened because it's all
so much slower and they have lost much more.
Recent rain has meant that my delphiniums are flat on the ground despite staking and my floribunda rose is bent over. So many flower heads per stem this year, and the stem plus the rain isn't strong enough to keep them up. That is possibly a sign that I should have pruned them a bit closer to the ground.
Overall though my border is looking better than it was last year!
Well, Wildflower, here's hoping you're not despondent any more, so here's a quirky little quote from your side of the country that illustrates there are various ways of looking at things. As a sales rep in late 1965, I was calling on East Anglian pubs in the evenings and, having at last found a remote one on a very foggy night, I said to a local, standing at the bar, 'I don't think much of your Norfolk fog.' 'What do you mean' he said, 'There's no such thing.' 'What's that outside the door then?' was my reply and, quick as a flash, he clarified the matter. 'Ah. That's that old Cambridgeshire stuff that keeps coming across here.'
Yes, I feel your heartbreaks too. It's been a strange year, but aren't they all? We never know quite what to expect and it makes for various frustrations and delights each year I guess.
A month ago I was feeling fairly pleased with my veg patch. Successions were underway as I'd never managed before and I was full of hope. Now, a spell of rain and warmth has meant the second succession of peas grew madly and is toppling over my inadequate support, rendering it almost unharvestable and smothering the 3rd succession. I grew too many successful lettuces early so we have a glut, but my second succession coincided with the wet May so is a pathetic slug-eaten failure, along with many of my cutting flower crops. I had almost utter germination failure from my spinach; third and final try yielded only 4 plants which made it into the ground just in time to bolt in a hot spell. Young foxes from the railway cutting behind us have dug up garlic too early and uprooted young french beans.
All these things have made me want to sob, but there are successes too. Carrots have worked for the first time ever. The lettuce glut is the first time in years of growing that I've managed to actually supply salad from the plot. The tomatoes I sowed too early (because I was going on last years timings when my greenhouse was frost-free from late March) have coped with being potted on a few times and living in the kitchen overnight for 3 months and are finally romping away in the greenhouse bed.
It's just gardening I suppose. Equal parts success and failure, and hopefully the failures reap future successes.
Slugs.......there has been so many this year!! Devoured all but 2 of my 21 sunflowers, every single cosmos and many other seedlings/young plants. But my self seeded sweet Williams and echiums are an absolute joy to behold.
Posts
Until a couple of years ago, I didn't spend much time gardening as I had another hobby that took most of my spare time. I had an enormous saltwater aquarium with fish and corals. It's quite a specialist hobby, and I enjoyed it because it requires that you learn a lot and you create something beautiful that others can admire - lots of parallels to gardening you might say.
Then a year ago I moved house to a place with a much bigger garden, and took the opportunity to back away from my old hobby and learn as much as I could about plants and gardening and devote all of my spare time to that.
The parallels between marine aquatics and gardening soon stop. With the aquarium, all the fun is in the first 18 months, gradually building up stock, watching the corals grow, getting it to the point when it looks stunning. Then you reach a time when you have to say to yourself "this is the best it will ever look", and from there on in the challenge is simply maintaining it as it is, with a routine which is the same every day, every week, all year round, and a system which is always teetering on a chemical knife-edge, just one equipment-fail away from a mishap which can send 2000 litres of saltwater onto your living room carpet or knock some parameter out of kilter and start a rapid chain reaction that leaves you with what was thousands of pounds of carefully-sourced livestock transformed into a box of stinking water that will takes days or weeks to clear up.
In the garden, no such likely disaster awaits. I can constantly fail and start again, and my failures are nicely contained (my entire garden won't "crash" because I forgot to switch something back on!). My list of jobs/chores changes completely from one month to the next as we cycle through the seasons. I can go on holiday (covid-permitting!) without spending every day in fear that my creation might be irretrievably lying in ruins back home. And I can be outside while I indulge my hobby (I love being outside). And every walk becomes interesting, whether in the countryside, or nosing at peoples' front gardens. And the amount of stuff there is to learn is infinitely wider than in my old hobby, yet relatively forgiving if you have only a beginner's knowledge.
And every year I get to start again!!! I get to sow seeds again, try some different plants, move/remove something I don't like, prune my shrubs differently, etc etc.
So do get that T-shirt "There's always next year" made! It's what I love about this hobby!
A month ago I was feeling fairly pleased with my veg patch. Successions were underway as I'd never managed before and I was full of hope. Now, a spell of rain and warmth has meant the second succession of peas grew madly and is toppling over my inadequate support, rendering it almost unharvestable and smothering the 3rd succession. I grew too many successful lettuces early so we have a glut, but my second succession coincided with the wet May so is a pathetic slug-eaten failure, along with many of my cutting flower crops. I had almost utter germination failure from my spinach; third and final try yielded only 4 plants which made it into the ground just in time to bolt in a hot spell. Young foxes from the railway cutting behind us have dug up garlic too early and uprooted young french beans.
It's just gardening I suppose. Equal parts success and failure, and hopefully the failures reap future successes.