[al78]

For those who were growing veg during 2012 when it started raining in April and didn't stop until August, do you have any advice as to whether anything can be done in advance to prepare for a bad summer in terms of getting the best yields from such weather conditions? What veg is the most vulnerable to cool wet summers, and what is most likely to thrive? Will regular applications of slug pellets be sufficient to minimise damage there or will I need to resort to additional measures?

I'm not implying it will be a soggy summer (impossible to tell) but from discussion on one weather forum there may be an enhanced probability of it happening this year.

[JaniceB]

Ha! I acquired my allotment on 3rd March 2012! There was a drought order and hosepipe ban in force. I had three weeks of blissful ignorance and then it rained - for three months solid!

Looking back, it all sorted itself out - I was chipping the last of the potatoes out of concrete clay.

As I hadn't dug many beds before the deluge and as it was very claggy, I did go and and buy four raised bed frames that I hadn't envisaged doing. I was impressed with my onions, potatoes, butternuts squashes and celery that year, but I had nothing to compare it to! The weather of 2012 did not dampen my spirits (!) as I am still persevering!

[Beetroot Queen]

Its swings and roundabouts, we are all still here and trying. CabbGes like the wet here, strawberries not as much but every year is different and its all part of the mad fun

[ptarmigan]

2012 was my second year, I nearly gave up. On heavy clay that floods at the best of times, the raised beds were the only thing that kept me going. The raspberries drowned and a whole bed of pots rotted.

On the plus side my fruit trees all established well!

[mumofstig]

I've decided to grow more brassicas  I'll put the outdoor tomatoes in pots so if they do get blight, there is already something else in the ground, and growing.

If it turns out nice then it'll just mean more watering for the toms in pots

[BabbyAnn]

2007 was the wettest year for me (2012 a close 2nd) - despite the conditions, things picked up when the weather improved and wasn't a total disaster at all.  I can remember being wowed by the size of the 2nd early potatoes, especially the massive Kestrel and Charlottes - strangely, blight was not an issue (or I was blissfully ignorant LOL)

Downside was the peas later on in the season, and the butternut only started to flower in September    In 2012 I grew Earlibird sweetcorn and amazingly while others on the site watched their plants falter (most had planted out way too early as I remember it being a very warm spring that year), mine went on to be very productive.  Slugs and snails did have a field day and strangely the onions leaves got stripped.  I tend to go overboard with slug pellets these days after that experience.

As for the plot, yes it does suffer from "flooding" (being near the bottom of a hill, most of it is run off from the top) so I have raised beds of at least 6 inches above footpath level, and as a matter of course they get dug over and a lot of compost dug in to avoid compacting and waterlogging.

   

[JayG]

I always prepare for a 'normal' summer, although I'm not at all sure I know what that means any more!

One of the few advantages of having free-draining, sandy soil is that it never becomes waterlogged, although in prolonged wet conditions the nutrients get leached out very quickly and have to be replaced for crops to grow well.

Apart from the greater risk from slugs and snails in a wet summer, the lack of sun and therefore warmth obviously affects those crops which particularly require a good long summer to give of their best. I've come close to failure with sweet corn in very bad years, but never completely failed with either those or anything else, although more than once I've been secretly praying for an Indian summer to come to the rescue.

[NewSteve]

Diversify your risks! The advantage we have over commercial farmers is we're able to grow a wider variety of veg. So in a 'good' year we'll have great outdoor tomatoes, squashes, strawberries etc. and in a wet year we'll have cabbages.

Definitely take care of the slugs though. I'm using nematodes this year. If you don't fancy the expense, there's always the home made version!

[brokenglass]

One of my raised beds which wntended down below ground level, trying to get as much depth of soils as possible, acted as a sump for the Ste had to Drain it in June by digging a channel out to a drainage ditch.      The water pored out for ages but the bed is now the better for it.      The other problem we had was that it was dark more often than light due to permanent cloudy and rainy days.

[Snoop]

I'm not implying it will be a soggy summer (impossible to tell) but from discussion on one weather forum there may be an enhanced probability of it happening this year.

Is this because it's supposed to be a substantial El Niņo event year?

I've been pondering on what to do about it as well. My veg patch is still flooded from rainfall in February and we're forecast another 7.5 cm (or just 2 mm according to one website!) next week. I am hoping that it will dry out so that I can buy plug plants for winter veg in July, but I have no real idea whether that will be possible.

[mjg000]

I remember having to sow and re-sow almost everything because they just got washed away before anything could germinate, or else the slugs gobbled them up before I saw them!

[al78]

I'm not implying it will be a soggy summer (impossible to tell) but from discussion on one weather forum there may be an enhanced probability of it happening this year.

Is this because it's supposed to be a substantial El Niņo event year?

I've been pondering on what to do about it as well. My veg patch is still flooded from rainfall in February and we're forecast another 7.5 cm (or just 2 mm according to one website!) next week. I am hoping that it will dry out so that I can buy plug plants for winter veg in July, but I have no real idea whether that will be possible.

The murmurings focus more on sea surface temperature anomaly patterns around the Atlantic which apparently favour a southerly tracking jet stream. Arctic sea ice extent is also at very low and it has been the case in recent years that poor UK summers (2007 and 2012) have occurred when Arctic sea ice has been at record lows; the much better summers of 2013 and 2014 were associated with much greater sea ice coverage. Finally, at least one forecast model has been persistently hinting at northern blocking towards the end of this month. Northern blocking (or a Greenlang block) is associated with a northward deviation of the jet stream over the western Atlantic around the blocking high, followed by a plunge in the jet southward roughly from NW to SE over the UK. This puts the UK in the firing line for low pressure systems relentlessly spawned by the jet, along with anomalous NWly winds (i.e. a cool direction). This setup can lead to a further ridge in the jet east of the UK which can bring heatwave conditions to eastern Europe and Russia.

I'm not convinced El Nino has any significant effect on UK summers. 1997 was a strong El Nino year and 1998 was a strong La Nina year yet June in both years was rubbish.

[ARPoet]

2012 was the first full year growing at home after giving up the lottie. Apart from loosing all my onions (too many dark days) and having to sow beans for a late crop, things were not too bad.
Now i am growing some self fertile beans as winter without frozen beans is too much to bare.

[Annen]

After that dreadful year when I almost gave up my allotment in despair, I installed raised beds and dug a hugelkultur bed to raise the soil level.  It has helped because although it has never flooded as badly as it did that year it now floods the paths and leaves the the beds relatively dry. And I put some astroturf on the paths to give a good footing even when under water, so all the water does is wash the astroturf nicely.

[Eblana]

I had a bad year in 2012 with the bottom half of the plot under water for weeks.  I lost most of my potatoes and a lot of other veg didn't germinate.  I have now installed raised beds on the plot and have installed a soak away area at the bottom of the plot.  I also start most veg (except roots) in modules in the greenhouse and transplant them to the raised beds which works well.