[Caddi fuller-teabags]

I know, I know, it isn't the end of year for most but it is for me.  

The trapped nerve has left me unable to care for my poor beloved plot and so it has gone to rack and ruin.  My OH has started to clear the plots in readiness to dig, prepare for next  year, cover and leave.  Those perennials that need transplanting he will do.

Here is a list of what I planted  with results.
 

French beans : Two plants left, have been relatively successful, we had (probably) the last in soup last night.

Chard:  grew like a weed, very pretty, not really a fan in salad, not going to bother next year.

red Onions:  only planted one row. took a few as spring, the rest got pulled out (half a dozen, need to dry out).

Lettuce:  successful, till it got lost in the potato plants.

Purple spouting broccoli, cauli, romanesque broccoli - all doing well until they got eaten by cabbage whites.  Will net next year.  Purple kale (now being eaten by cabbage white, they left that until they had eaten all my other brassicas.  I can understand why, we weren't that keen on it anyway.

radishes -more got eaten by maggots than by us.  Growing mouli next year.

Parsnips - grew three rows - seven parsnips in all grew, but they each had the flavour of three.  Wonderful addition to soup.  Must improve the germination rate.

Garlic - another success.  dried out and ready to use!

Spuds.  Grew three varieties.  Maris pipers - got a bit of scab but are absolutely delicious.  Neighbour gave me some Charlottes (again delicious and very uniform) and some pink fir apple which are still in the ground, and I still have loads of the maris to dig up.

mange tout - prolific and tasty, but we let them go when my back went, and we could have picked for another few weeks I think.

herbs, didn't grow enough dill, no repeat coriander, big mistake and oregano never did germinate.

flowers - sweet peas were not a disaster as I first thought, they just came later than i expected.  night scented stock and allysum did well.  

Raspberries will be next year.  Strawberries  once on  straw and away from the woodlice) were fine. With the rhubarb (which is coming on- again there is a problem with those dratted woodlice) made a lovely crumble last night. will need transplanting.

Globe artichokes have flowers on, i thought that wouldn't happen this year!  Need to transplant

Planted one Jerusalem artichoke and it will be ready soon.

Celeriac is hidden under the weeds, but still growing.

It isn't such a disaster as I thought, when I look at it.  

I have learned a lot (more space between plants would be a huge help).

I can't wait till my back is better and I can work on it again!  Oh and the pear and blackberry pie will be our Sunday sweet in a few weeks!

[Terry]

Thanks Caddi
 took great joy in reading your report there is a lot of wisdom in there and I for one will take it all onboard. marks out of 10, 9.5 I do hope your back clears up and you can get back on the plot  

[Yabba]

My end of year report :

Growing toms ... urm, doing well so far, still a smidge green ... hope to spark them off far earlier next year .. They look great, far better than the shops, I wish I liked tomatoes

Cucumbers : .... still trying to work out what they're called, but they look nice ( still growing )

courgettes : stomper of a year, I've never grown such healthy plants ... wish I knew what made the difference ( still growing ... not even fed up with them yet )

Carrots : urm, well, they've got frondy bits and my OH likes them ... pulled a few up, they have orangey bits under the green frondy bits ... still taste like carrorts though ... and I like toms more than carrots

Beetroot : slugs got them yet again once they got to a couple of inches across ( they never attack the smaller ones .... hmmmm ) .. but I'm not a beetroot lover either so, "ahh well"

Purple sprouting broccoli : tad of a failure ... didn't enjoy being grown at home ... seems to be doing all right on the "plot"

Pak Choi : really need to learn successional

Just to trump your "trapped nerve so my season's over" :
I'm already in 2009 ( I'm blonde, we need a headstart )

Next year I want to grow chillis and peppers and melons and lots of other stuff that actually has names on the packets, I want to write down names and keep a (basic) diary of what I did when .... ohhh and with loads of pictures ( cos these lot don't half bitch if you don't have pictures )

I can dream huh?

¥

[fatbelly]

My season has overall been a very good one.

There are two words that I will apply next year and they are

PLANT SUCCSIONALLY.

For example in March sowed 22 Hispi cabbages all at the same time.
In June I had 20 Hispi cabbages all ready to harvest and eat all in the same week.

The same with my Calabrese planted them all at the same time so had a glut of calabrese in July when it was too hot to be eating such things. Next year I intend to clean out the old disused chest freezer in the garage  and use that for the mid summer gluts.

My Sturon Onions have been great grown from sets purchased at B & Q but my Red Onion sets also bought from B & Q have been near useless. My Rocket new spuds were lovely but I planted so many that by the time I got to lift the last ones they fell to slug damage, but the ones I lifted in early June were delicious. The Pink Fir Apple spuds were lifted last Sunday and taste great. Garlic was great although a bit small but no different in size from the ones you buy in Sainsburys but they do taste so much more flavoursome. Shallots were fine but will need to grow more next year. Courgettes ...well mine have been poor,  I think my mistake is that I didn't pick them enough so they just grew bigger but did not produce more.

Runner Beans have been great but Mrs FB doesn't really like them so won't be growing any next year. Carrots   :evil:  have been totally useless. I bought a variety called Maestro from Sutton's which were expensive but supposed to be resistant to the fly. Well they are most definitely are not resistant to Carrot root fly and I haven't had one decent carrot out of them. And Mrs FB loves carrots and all spring I promised her carrots in abundance.

The Rhubarb crown I bought from Wilkos in January started off very badly and I was advised to dig it up because by July it only had one solitary leaf which was tiny. I so glad I didn't dig it up because now its going great guns and next year I will be eating fresh homemade Rhubarb crumble.

Sweetcorn has been quite good we have had three corns off them so far and they are lovely but they do grow slowly and take their time.

[gobs]

Well, this year started off with a bit of hassle with the neighbour about the one conifer I forgot to prune in autumn.

Then his workmen ruined all the autumn raspberry shoots.

I left some radish for seed which I [/U]forgot to harvest - getting the theme here? - , on a nice winter day they self-seeded and on an even nicer one germinated and grew. The spring frosts killed them though, I did put a closh over them, which in turn the gales took away...

I collected over a hundred slugs from a few over-wintered chickory plants, they were a bit off-ish.

The winter cabbage was enjoying the sport, club root. I managed to get the few left over asparagus a couple of inch tall, before the rats did.

The spring was dismal, so were the early potatoes. They boasted more disease than the over-wintered broad beans. which is a bit of a record... And were shy about tubers.

I grew garlic with variegated orange foliage, the raspberries - as being bimboes - thought it was fashionable and soon followed suit.

The okra lost all its buds before they opened, the badgers had the first lot of carrots, the next did not germinate, the cats dug up all the bean seeds, the first lot of peas just were rubbish, the next got the powdery mildew, the first load of cucumber plants got their stalks chewed through by slugs and snails or something, the squashes and pumpkins, ditto. The first lot of melons and watermelons died soon after planting out, something played away the second lot of sweetcorn, the tomatoes died a horrible death of blight.

The aubergines just boringly produced some fruit per plant as usual...

the manure nonsense - don't mention it

dogs * on the lettuce and the beetroot grew into fotball sized monsters  and the weeds overtook the garden whilst on holiday

I'm sitting on 200kg of potatoes and not giving anybody a single one. :evil:

A girl got to eat something... Gotto be with chilies.

[Sheehah]

I did not plant that much with it being my first year, but here goes:

Carrots - had to have been the tiniest carrots ever, but at least we got some

Lettuce - the slugs loved it so much that they ate the lot along with all of my cauliflowers  :evil:

Broccoli - Not bad at all and will definitely grow again next year

Tomatoes are still going, but I don't think I'll grow as many plants next year (32 not including the ones I have given away) - though will start them off sooner as they are only just starting to ripen.

Cucumbers - Going a treat and still producing plenty

Water Melons - my pride and joy are still growing strong  - they have been so easy to grow that I am going to try more varieties of melon next year

Swedes and turnips are still in, but there are not many left due to the slugs (again).

Peppers - just starting to come through after fighting the slugs for them

Peas - no show, but I think this was the wood pigeons rather than the slugs!

As you can see, next year I really MUST do something about those darn slugs before they get to everything.

[Bombers]

Gobs said

dogs * on the lettuce and the beetroot grew into fotball sized monsters and the weeds overtook the garden whilst on holiday

I'm sitting on 200kg of potatoes and not giving anybody a single one

         ROFLMAO
Well, I've  had a  good year, so I'll sit here and say nothing. :study:

[gobs]

Gobs said

dogs * on the lettuce and the beetroot grew into fotball sized monsters and the weeds overtook the garden whilst on holiday

I'm sitting on 200kg of potatoes and not giving anybody a single one

         ROFLMAO
Well, I've  had a  good year, so I'll sit here and say nothing. :study:

I'm glad you had a laugh, as we are all in it for the fun.  

[Bombers]

Gobs said

dogs * on the lettuce and the beetroot grew into fotball sized monsters and the weeds overtook the garden whilst on holiday

I'm sitting on 200kg of potatoes and not giving anybody a single one

         ROFLMAO
Well, I've  had a  good year, so I'll sit here and say nothing. :study:

I'm gld you had a laugh, as we are all in it for the fun.  

Exactly!

[Knoblauch]

This was my first time and only started planting mid-May.  Been lucky with lettuce and slugs, took a nice crown round to the relatives tonight for supper with a few container-grown radishes and rocket leaves.  Everything else has been hit-and-miss - broad beans and courgettes should be cropping but the courgettes are slow and the beans are chocolate-spotted - ^%$$^ rain every day, look it up.  Still got lots growing and stuff in for overwintering.

[matron]

Well done to everyone.
We have had an OK year. We don't seem to have had much slug damage compared to some of you. I did pick loads of cabbage white of the cabbages the other night and they were under net (must use smaller holed net next year). My carrots are looking good - planted them in a tub and stood it on top of a bucket to fool the carrot fly and OH pulled one the other evening that was only pencil sized but still it was perfect so another month and they could be ready.
Off to plant lettuces now and dig up some more potatoes.