[Lightlady]

Hello. Since moving to the UK from California (don't ask me why, please!), I can't seem to grow vegetables to save my life!  I had several successful gardens in California over the years. But somehow I can't seem to get in the swing of things here.  In California, you have to water your garden every day.  While I realise that isn't the case here, I wonder if I still overwater things or what else I might be doing all wrong. My flowers grow beautifully but my veg suffers badly.  If there is anyone out there with experience in shifting their gardening habits from a sunny climate to here, I'd love to chat and compare notes.

[paintedlady]

Hi Lightlady - with 2 very wet summers on record recently, why would you want to water anyway?    Whereabouts are you based now (there's a big difference between south of England and Scotland when it comes to growing!) and which vegetables are you struggling with.? It might not have anything to do with watering, but lack of sunshine or not enough nutrients/wrong soil type among other things 

[Lee G]

Welcome to the forums Lightlady 

[Stripey_cat]

What are you trying to grow, where, and how does it go wrong?  You can find yourself on daily watering in parts of the UK some years, but you can also go months without needing to water at all!  As people have suggested, are you growing varieties and changing your planting times to suit our different conditions (day-length as well as temp. and light intensity)?

[chimaera]

As already suggested, the climate zones you are used to in the US do not really work here. In southern England, the winters are warm and wet, rarely staying below freezing for very long and allowing some semi-tender plants, like fuschias and dahlias, to survive most winters outside, but summers are cool, cloudy and often wet. Some plants that do well in the summers of as far north as Canada (soy and some squashes, for example) struggle in the cloudy summers, whilst our weather is brassica and potato heaven. Once established, most of the commoner British veg need very little watering; it is damp enough for them and many have deep roots.

Charlie

[Stripey_cat]

Bear in mind, when you're looking at sunlight and daylength, that we're as far north as Canada anyway.  London - 51 degrees North, Ottowa - 45 degrees North.  The climate is milder (warmer winters, wet summers), but we get less sun!