Strawberries - millions of flowers and small green berries, and then they all went brown and withered - suspect verticulum wilt, bed cleared - rotation time!
Carrots OK, really slow to grow but thats OK because I quite like to pull them small for baby carrots.
Spinach - what spinach? very few Emilia germinated, did little better with Perpetual, really struggled to get a meals worth at the same time, and then the leaves were full of slug holes (OK I do no slug control so that's my own fault).
Radishes, had a few early on, later sowings never came up - robbed? inattentive gardener? beats me!
Peas - was always going to be an experiment growing in troughs. Started OK, a bit smaller than previous years or maybe they seemed smaller because not in a raised bed? pretty average crop, and then powdery mildew again. Water stress from being in troughs? Dunno, I had 4 drippers in each trough and gave them an hour a day, possibly being in a corner meant that the air didn't circulate freely around them?
Potatoes - first time, didn't know what to expect, too many seed pots per bag so they were quite small but probably did OK. Late spuds are in now, wind has near demolished them but still they grow even though the foliage is more beside the bags then over them!
Raspberries, OK - I'd need more canes to get a better crop, I think each cane does just fine.
Parsley - really slow to start and then went out of control.
Flowers - never grown them before, I have a trailing snapdragon in flower now, a month behind all the others in the basket, Verbena have been flowering for about a month, Bergamot I'm sure aren't going to flower now, Tagettes I bought in flower and are still just about going. Sunflowers (dwarf) all made several flowers but some were weedy looking plants. Lobelia, planted under the sunflowers, blooming well now but started after the sunflowers finished - poor timing! So much for attracting bees, all my flowers were way too late for that!
Tomatoes (in conservatory) - well where to start? Probably got a bit leggy early on, and then grew and grew and grew despite some damage incurred during my attempts to train them. Loads of flowers, initially poor pollination rate but got better and better. I have had loads and loads of tomatoberry and there are more ready to pick now. Shirley have done pretty well too although some trusses have produced tiny tomatoes others on same plant have produced nice full sized ones). Finally decided to put a heater in last weekend and set thermostat ot 15, lower leaves on tomatoberry have started crisping and losing chlorophyll so I trimemd them off, but still these plants are putting out new flowers and whilst I keep the temps up the tomatoes continue to ripen.... I thnk the lack of sun through much of the summer here delayed things a bit (or a lot) but creating an artificial summer in the conservatory has definitely helped!
Oh, and the garden forage - great year for blackberries, middlin' year for elderberries - the wind robbed the elderberry of flowers but then it managed a second flush (which it didn't last year and I got nothing) so I got some fruit - I could have had more if I'd set up the longer ladder. Why do I always associate Autumn with pies?
Plums OK on the tree that was looked after, rubbish on the neglected one.
Blackcurrants excellent (10lbs jam ) but the birds got all my redcurrants (but not the properly netted ones in a different garden!); gooseberries - v good; first proper crop from the one espalier in my v shady yard. Autumn raspberries dead loss.
Mum's tomatoes on balcony v good, as were those in the greenhouse at Ince. Peppers didn't ripen enough, but their pots were a bit small....
Spuds (Charlotte, Victoria) both excellent crops although some were a bit scabby despite compost and grass cuttings.
Onions enormous (several over a pound) and mostly storable. Leeks somewhat rusty but still growing nicely. Garlic (overwintered) too small.
Squashes a bit disappointing this year - last year we had some enormous butternuts both in the g/h and outside but v small just now. I was away when I should have been picking courgettes so I have two enormous marrows (any ideas?)
Broad, runner and climbing French beans all poor.
Parsnips looking healthy but not v big yet. Carrots mostly ditto (and I had one lot in composty soil so you can imagine what they look like! Taste delicious though). Beetroot titchy.
I am also in Berkshire (well on the border) and had a terrible runner bean crop this year. I think it was because of their new patch and the high winds we seem to have had all summer. They will be going back to their preferred spot next year as the tomatoes got blight so that area is no go for toms!
Peas also a disaster and I'm not going into my bird/carrot rant again, most everything else outside is great. First year for leeks and they are huge!
One thing never fails me (oh, what have I said?) beetroot.
Now its all digging, weeding, clearing, pruning.......
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
Summers was grand in my garden particularly the left hand side boarder. Had a great show of herbaceous plants such as crocosmia, rubekia , phlox , day lilies, lobelia and clematis all did there job to the best of their potential. My right hand side boarder did not do as well, for some reason. Similar plants, but that's nature for you.
My shady area under a damsun tree where I had divided quite a few hostas started quite well but they did not reach there potential size this season but should do next season
Some agapanthus I planted last autumn flowered this summer to show a sea of blue in my bosrders. These are one of my favourite plants
Remove a weigela and a philadelphus shrubs that I have had in my garden for over 15 years. Reason for this is sometimes you get board of the same garden backdrop. Replaced then wit a weigelia Bristol ruby and weigelia Florida Variegata. I brought both plants at a mature size so they fitted in to my mature garden scheme
Everyimg else went well and accordingly but like any garden you still need to improve it someway
Buts that's gardening, there always something you are not happy with so autumn a great time to get it right
We had a three month drought this summer here in Hampshire. Despite that, once it did rain in August, most stuff did well.
The real goodies were French beans and carrots. Leek moth attacked the leeks so I must remember to put micromesh over the pants next year - it was only laziness that prevented me this year.
Some annuals suffered a bit but we have had a wonderful autumn display.
When I was working I used to pray for dry weekends and now I want the opposite!
Drought, what's that? Sunbathing Verdun? What's sun? Not as wet this year as last I grant - we were on the TV flooded last Feb, I missed the house flooding thank goodness but the garden was an interesting proposition. Bit easier this year, yes I think we have had sun, like today, lovely late summer sun but sunbathing really would scare the brassicas...........
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
I was just chatting to my other gardening buddy, re our crops this last year. He has a huge poly tunnel so had an extended growing season. He did well but said his carrots were disappointing, mine too and my runner bean crop was a lot smaller this year as were my onion crop.. We all had some good and some bad, we put it down to dry spells and a lack of pollinating insects.. We shall hopefully have a better yeild next year..
Posts
There was a summer?
Strawberries - millions of flowers and small green berries, and then they all went brown and withered - suspect verticulum wilt, bed cleared - rotation time!
Carrots OK, really slow to grow but thats OK because I quite like to pull them small for baby carrots.
Spinach - what spinach? very few Emilia germinated, did little better with Perpetual, really struggled to get a meals worth at the same time, and then the leaves were full of slug holes (OK I do no slug control so that's my own fault).
Radishes, had a few early on, later sowings never came up - robbed? inattentive gardener? beats me!
Peas - was always going to be an experiment growing in troughs. Started OK, a bit smaller than previous years or maybe they seemed smaller because not in a raised bed? pretty average crop, and then powdery mildew again. Water stress from being in troughs? Dunno, I had 4 drippers in each trough and gave them an hour a day, possibly being in a corner meant that the air didn't circulate freely around them?
Potatoes - first time, didn't know what to expect, too many seed pots per bag so they were quite small but probably did OK. Late spuds are in now, wind has near demolished them but still they grow even though the foliage is more beside the bags then over them!
Raspberries, OK - I'd need more canes to get a better crop, I think each cane does just fine.
Parsley - really slow to start and then went out of control.
Flowers - never grown them before, I have a trailing snapdragon in flower now, a month behind all the others in the basket, Verbena have been flowering for about a month, Bergamot I'm sure aren't going to flower now, Tagettes I bought in flower and are still just about going. Sunflowers (dwarf) all made several flowers but some were weedy looking plants. Lobelia, planted under the sunflowers, blooming well now but started after the sunflowers finished - poor timing! So much for attracting bees, all my flowers were way too late for that!
Tomatoes (in conservatory) - well where to start? Probably got a bit leggy early on, and then grew and grew and grew despite some damage incurred during my attempts to train them. Loads of flowers, initially poor pollination rate but got better and better. I have had loads and loads of tomatoberry and there are more ready to pick now. Shirley have done pretty well too although some trusses have produced tiny tomatoes others on same plant have produced nice full sized ones). Finally decided to put a heater in last weekend and set thermostat ot 15, lower leaves on tomatoberry have started crisping and losing chlorophyll so I trimemd them off, but still these plants are putting out new flowers and whilst I keep the temps up the tomatoes continue to ripen.... I thnk the lack of sun through much of the summer here delayed things a bit (or a lot) but creating an artificial summer in the conservatory has definitely helped!
Oh, and the garden forage - great year for blackberries, middlin' year for elderberries - the wind robbed the elderberry of flowers but then it managed a second flush (which it didn't last year and I got nothing) so I got some fruit - I could have had more if I'd set up the longer ladder. Why do I always associate Autumn with pies?
Apples and pears v. good.
Plums OK on the tree that was looked after, rubbish on the neglected one.
Blackcurrants excellent (10lbs jam
) but the birds got all my redcurrants (but not the properly netted ones in a different garden!); gooseberries - v good; first proper crop from the one espalier in my v shady yard. Autumn raspberries dead loss.
Mum's tomatoes on balcony v good, as were those in the greenhouse at Ince. Peppers didn't ripen enough, but their pots were a bit small....
Spuds (Charlotte, Victoria) both excellent crops although some were a bit scabby despite compost and grass cuttings.
Onions enormous (several over a pound) and mostly storable. Leeks somewhat rusty but still growing nicely. Garlic (overwintered) too small.
Squashes a bit disappointing this year - last year we had some enormous butternuts both in the g/h and outside but v small just now. I was away when I should have been picking courgettes so I have two enormous marrows (any ideas?)
Broad, runner and climbing French beans all poor.
Parsnips looking healthy but not v big yet. Carrots mostly ditto (and I had one lot in composty soil so you can imagine what they look like! Taste delicious though). Beetroot titchy.
Swings and roundabouts, as usual.
Just about to sow swwet peas and plant garlic.
I am also in Berkshire (well on the border) and had a terrible runner bean crop this year. I think it was because of their new patch and the high winds we seem to have had all summer. They will be going back to their preferred spot next year as the tomatoes got blight so that area is no go for toms!
Peas also a disaster and I'm not going into my bird/carrot rant again, most everything else outside is great. First year for leeks and they are huge!
One thing never fails me (oh, what have I said?) beetroot.
Now its all digging, weeding, clearing, pruning.......
Summers was grand in my garden particularly the left hand side boarder. Had a great show of herbaceous plants such as crocosmia, rubekia , phlox , day lilies, lobelia and clematis all did there job to the best of their potential. My right hand side boarder did not do as well, for some reason. Similar plants, but that's nature for you.
My shady area under a damsun tree where I had divided quite a few hostas started quite well but they did not reach there potential size this season but should do next season
Some agapanthus I planted last autumn flowered this summer to show a sea of blue in my bosrders. These are one of my favourite plants
Remove a weigela and a philadelphus shrubs that I have had in my garden for over 15 years. Reason for this is sometimes you get board of the same garden backdrop. Replaced then wit a weigelia Bristol ruby and weigelia Florida Variegata. I brought both plants at a mature size so they fitted in to my mature garden scheme
Everyimg else went well and accordingly but like any garden you still need to improve it someway
Buts that's gardening, there always something you are not happy with so autumn a great time to get it right
We had a three month drought this summer here in Hampshire. Despite that, once it did rain in August, most stuff did well.
The real goodies were French beans and carrots. Leek moth attacked the leeks so I must remember to put micromesh over the pants next year - it was only laziness that prevented me this year.
Some annuals suffered a bit but we have had a wonderful autumn display.
When I was working I used to pray for dry weekends and now I want the opposite!
Drought, what's that? Sunbathing Verdun? What's sun? Not as wet this year as last I grant - we were on the TV flooded last Feb, I missed the house flooding thank goodness but the garden was an interesting proposition. Bit easier this year, yes I think we have had sun, like today, lovely late summer sun but sunbathing really would scare the brassicas...........
Oh yes...had a good sun tan too!. Looked like I'd been on an expensive holiday not just the Costa Del Back Garden!
I was just chatting to my other gardening buddy, re our crops this last year. He has a huge poly tunnel so had an extended growing season. He did well but said his carrots were disappointing, mine too and my runner bean crop was a lot smaller this year as were my onion crop.. We all had some good and some bad, we put it down to dry spells and a lack of pollinating insects.. We shall hopefully have a better yeild next year..
I guess we are eternally optimistic...