[3759allen]

i'm a complete newbie to growing veggies, or anything for that matter. i brought a new house at the beginning of the year with lots of space so i thought i may as well try and feed the family from it, after all how hard can it be to grow things. how wrong i was. lol

anyway is this year pretty bad for everyone, or is it just me struggling. i know it takes years to get the experience needed do well in a veggie patch, but it's annoying me that most things aren't going as well as i hoped.

i do seem to be able to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and potatoes. other than that most things are getting eaten or bolting, as well as everything being very late which i'm guessing everyone is suffering from.

[Dave Mack]

So far i think its been a great year for growing , i have 3 freezers nearly jammed packed ... plus about 40 odd jars of white and red beetroot , pickled onions and Gherkins ... plus lots of jams .
I done 6 different lots of spuds ... getting 24 kilo from each lot , still have 2 lots of lates to dig up in about 4 weeks or so .
It took many years of reading on the internet to do so well ... stick with it matey 

Edit .... forgot to say all my broccoli bolted , so i lost the lot 

[mumofstig]

getting eaten, is something quite easy to stop - next year put nets over things 

Many people have reported crops being late because of the late spring, or bolting - but it makes a change to have a warm summer for a change

Just keep saying, that things will be better next year, because each year is different, we just do the best we can with what weather nature throws our way 

[Salmo]

i do seem to be able to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and potatoes. other than that most things are getting eaten or bolting, as well as everything being very late which i'm guessing everyone is suffering from.

So you have four crops that are good and the rest are rubbish. Not too bad for a beginner.

Plant what you like to eat. Read up the help and tips on this website.

Do not try and take short cuts - everything is done for a reason however strange it may appear

[BobE]

Runner beans and French beans should be grown in 3" pots until they are at least 6" high.  Now move them to bottomless 6" pots, or larger.  Put a 36" flower cane into each pot.  Keep the pots on a bench at first.  After a week or so I move them to sit on a plank of wood on top of my unused compost heap.  This begins the hardening off process, bring them in and put them out for a week.  They will sulk and seem to hesitate.  Just wait and keep them moist.  When they start to twirl around the stick let then grow to at least 2 foot up the stick.  Then just lightly sink the pot into the ground by the cane that you will grow it up.  Tie the flower stick to the cane and you will train the bean onto the cane.
The pots make it difficult for the slugs to get to the plants and the fact they are 24" above the ground means that the slugs can't get to the growing tip.
You can reuse the pots and flower sticks each year.

[al78]

Well I think it started off badly with the extended winter, but has significantly improved since early June. I have had problems with a couple of veg, namely carrots and French beans, the former struggling with really patchy germination with the late spring/early summer sowings and the latter seems to struggle full stop and don't germinate at all if sown direct outdoors. On the plus side I have a lot of brassicas, potatoes and perpetual spinach, and have some carrots from the early (April) sowings that are worth harvesting. Leeks are not doing too badly either. Thankfully the weather has now reverted to normal summer conditions after three weeks of warm/hot dry conditions so things are getting watered naturally and my water butts are slowly refilling.

Future plans are to try autumn sown garlic and broad beans.

[Beetroot queen]

We did have a funny start due to weather but now everything is doing great, some maybe slightly later but lots of stuff looking really promising.

I think this has been a great year for growing i have had far more success than previous years. Everything has gone mad with the on and off rain this last week too. Keep trying to find your success stories.

[JayG]

Although winter was a long time ending it would be wrong to pretend that this summer hasn't been the best for growing most crops for several years (so far!)

Even a hot summer presents some challenges though, and I agree with the previous advice that you should congratulate yourself on the successes you have already had as a first-timer, and read up about the crops which haven't done so well for you - site owner John Harrison's new main website is packed with helpful information, as of course are these forums (and no, mods don't get paid however much crawling they do!  )

[allotmentann]

You have cucumbers, which are notoriously difficult to grow! As Mos says, the getting eaten thing will be easily solved next year, my gooseberries were netted this year after learning the hard way! The thing with growing veg is that you will have successes and failures most years and there is not always rhyme nor reason to it. More experience usually brings more success, but I find that all the successes - however small, are so rewarding it makes it all worthwhile. Stick with it, it is the most enjoyable and lovely thing to do.

[ilan]

To be honest every year is a difficult year each produces its challanges and thats part of Gardening every year somthing will do well and others fail 

[Tom Hill]

Any experienced gardener will tell you that there is no "standard" year.  Even last year which was horrendous for rain & blight had its successes in the veggie patch.  This year was slow starting but has caught up. 
It is never a "bad year" to start growing, the way is up & on.
You will be encouraged by some things one week and discouraged by others or even the same thing the following week. It is the way with living things.  Gardening will tell you a lot about your own character, optimistic or a pessimist, laid back or volatile, patient or not, capable of enjoying the sight of a newly turned piece of ground with nothing in it as yet or seeing every passing bird as a vulture that will decimate your crop.
If you stick you will learn a lot, and not only about veg.

[compostqueen]

You have to take the good with the bad. If you are serious about feeding your family you have to make it succeed. These things don't happen overnight and you have to have patience!  There will be disappointments but there will be triumphs too, lots of them. I think to be a veg grower, year in year out, you have to be an optimist. If you're a despond I'd try something else   

With all the glorious sunshine we've had how could it be a bad time for growing veg?  Try stopping em 

[heygrow]

This is just my third year of growing veg and like you I have my veg plot in my garden (no allotment). First year I made a few mistakes (like no netting on brassicas - lost the lot!). But like most things, if you read up (get a couple of good books) and ask questions (here), you soon learn and get success quite quickly. Planning is everything and in January I plan out what and where I will plant and order my seeds. Then I have a monthly plan of what I need to do.

This year as others have said has been a good growing year for most things as long as you kept watering during the dry spell. Being in your garden, makes watering so much easier. Now we have some much needed rain! 

There will always be something that we find hard to grow that others find easy and others that we can grow that others struggle with. I guess that is down to soil and location in the main.

Have fun and enjoy the wonder of seeing a tiny seed produce an amazing plant with an abundance of fruit. All we do is put it in the right environment and it does the thing it was designed to do!

[Beetroot queen]

Also list the produce you do get as it soon adds up. We are well past 600 pound in stuff this year in produce but you soon forget how many bits you have had, eaten, taken, thrown at neighbours ( courgettes)

[RJR_38]

Any experienced gardener will tell you that there is no "standard" year.  Even last year which was horrendous for rain & blight had its successes in the veggie patch.  This year was slow starting but has caught up. 
It is never a "bad year" to start growing, the way is up & on.
You will be encouraged by some things one week and discouraged by others or even the same thing the following week. It is the way with living things.  Gardening will tell you a lot about your own character, optimistic or a pessimist, laid back or volatile, patient or not, capable of enjoying the sight of a newly turned piece of ground with nothing in it as yet or seeing every passing bird as a vulture that will decimate your crop.
If you stick you will learn a lot, and not only about veg.

This is my first proper year (having only dabbled with balcony planting before) and this is so true! I have had weeks where I have come back from the lottie despondent as nothing seems to be happening despite all the hard work and then a few days later something happens that renews my 'faith'. Although I am enjoying this year and getting good harvests I think I will enjoy next year even more when I have a better idea of what I am doing