how are your veg plots doing ?

Hi im just wondering how your your eg is doing in this crazy weather,my beg seems very slow an talking to other people on the site everyone seems in the same boat where I live , an talk about slug attack there driving me mad an getting through all my defences were struggling here how are you all doing ?

I have cabbages aplenty. Ditto rasps and gooseberries. Potatoes looking good. I've been eating carrots, the herbs are doing well and so far I've had three cauliflowers. The leeks are looking really perky. Onions are being harvested and they're fine.  Dug up a whole row of Early Purple Wight garlic at the weekend and they're lovely. Well chuffed. Because of the rain the celery and celeriac seem to be bulking up quickly and the celeriac has swollen roots already

The garlic I dug up had rather a lot of slugs on them but they seem not have done any damage to them thank goodness.  Fennels promising and the beetroots have got going at long last. Seed wise though it's another story. None of my direct sowings seem to have amounted to anything and some are second and third sowings. Maybe it's just the torrential rain that has just washed them too deep. Not sure though

It's a constant battle with the weeds at the moment.
The continual rain has made hoeing difficult,and not been able to do as much as I would like.
Slugs and snails are in abundance,and have had a good go at my runner beans,French beans and chilli and pepper plants.
The runner and French beans are a lot slower than last year.
Broad beans have been ok as have mange tout peas, rhubarb,strawberries raspberries,lettuce,psb
The sweet corn is coming along but will need some heat soon.
I've not had any tomato's yet
overall its not been a good year

Cheers Carl

I have 8 rows of carrots and 6 rows of parsnips from where the seed did not grow so I sowed some more, and then some more......  After a lot of weeding I think I am going to have a bumper crop but I think all my carrots will mature at once. 

I had a good crop of Broad Beans and the follow on plants that I put our three weeks ago are flowering already.  Runners and french beans are slow but now starting to flower well so although late it should be a fair crop.

Slugs have eaten most of my peppers and the tomatoes are now starting to fruit at last.  Have a lot of flowers on my squashes and courgettes so hopeful for them.  Not one sweetcorn this year  .  Lots of soft fruit but not one apple, hopeful for the plums.  Loads of onions but will need to freeze most as they will not keep.  Garlic good again and I am hopeful they will dry in the poly tunnel (if I can stand the smell of 60 bulbs all drying at once)  Funny old year but once again plenty to eat.

Doing well:
 Tatties, cabbages, seed sown onions, leeks, peas, broadbeans auquadulce, express and longpod - but Sutton is well covered with chocolate spot, turnips (those wee summer things), first try at summer purple sprouting broccoli and they are really heathy looking - but surprise of the year - we've grown cauliflower bigger than golf balls (in pots!) so, well chuffed at that  

Not doing well ..... Early Nantes carrots seem slow, beetroot eaten (and there's a vole now roving round and under the bed where the last survivors are).  Tomatoes slow. Onion and shallot sets - many producing seed heads.  Courgettes - and let's not mention the pumpkin  

Time will tell how the swedes and Brussels fair

Big things learned this season - how to grow leeks to pencil width (got DD's cat tray tip to thank for that   ) and growing onions (seeds and sets) close together and many in pots (that tip came from Trillium and a mag article - and help from other folks here during the dark nights last winter )

Anything that grows this year is a bonus. Lack of sun is the main problem. However, the rhubarb, raspberries and broad beans have been brilliant. The marrows could be good. Peas a failure due to not germinating and then not thriving (note to self to look at that patch of soil).

Paris Market carrots good, Autumn King look to be not so. Garlic got rust so the cloves are small but OK. Some lettuce and summer turnips. Fennel didn't germinate well. Runner beans, climbing French beans, yin yang beans, dwarf beans all slow off the mark and the dwarf beans have fed a lot of snails. Lot of small salad leaves either not germinating or going straight to seed.

Still there's always the possibility that things will pick up if summer comes and if not, well there is next year.

 Autumn sown broad beans did very well, parsnip had poor germination and those that did survive appear to be all tops, most of my other crops are about a month behind previous years,
Whilst it has been very wet in our area we must be thankful that we have not been flooded.