[Yorkshire Lass]

Thanks for the chicken manure tip, I was starting to think they were looking a little bit yellow but I had no idea how to fit it #newbie 

[wighty]

I don't know about sulking but this weekend I have ripped out my two rows of spinach and one of radishes as they have bolted! Very annoyed from the Isle of Wight!!

[Bing]

lots of strawberries but few tasty ones....because low level of sunbathing!

[Paul Plots]

I don't know about sulking but this weekend I have ripped out my two rows of spinach and one of radishes as they have bolted! Very annoyed from the Isle of Wight!!

Wet... I guess it's the recent extra watering? At least you got yours in the ground. Mine are still sitting in cells hoping they might be planted.... hard without an allotment to plant them in but I'm getting there. The home plot is gradually coming along. 

[tosca100]

Since arriving here in Bulgaria a year ago we have experienced drought, temperatures regularly in the forties, the mildest , driest winter for many a year it seems, a glorious early spring.

Now we are definitely in sulk mode. Although warm enough, there is definitely a hint of the old country with rain nearly every day, it should be dry with temperatures in the thirties and the odd thunder storm. As a result crops which can struggle a bit with the heat here, like broad beans, runners, potatoes, French beans, chard and spinach are all doing well (though spinach had started to bolt, it picked up with the rain). All were direct sown early in the year, in February and March. Also doing (too) well are courgettes, we certainly didn't need six plants. Sprouts and PSB are lovely.

But the traditional BG fare is not doing so well. There is definite major sulk amongst the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines. The okra seems to have given up all together. Garlic is starting to rot but the ground is so sticky it is very hard to work. Strawberries have done very well, with large fruits by local standards, but a bit tasteless and mushy by UK standards. Brilliant year for stonefruit so far though, beautiful cherries.

We will be OK, we have planted too much. But we feel sorry for the locals who rely on a decent harvest to see them through the winter with a bit to sell. The fields of barley are flattened, the strips of land they rent from the village are waterlogged so onions and garlic are rotting. The soil is majorly sticky and hard to manage. The forecast is not good, I worry for our new community.

[New shoot]

That is worrying and puts our woes into context   

I've delayed everything it seems this year, from sowing seeds to planting out and my plot is still fairly empty.  French beans were decimated and have had to be resown.  Same with all the brassicas 

I have lots at home sheltering in the giant seedling cloche and coldframe, but its been a case of pot on and keep safe, rather than plant out.  With luck the larger than normal plants can go out soon and will catch up fast.  Its a tactic that has worked for me before, but it does depend on having a decentish summer and a mild autumn 

[chillimummy]

Same as New Shoot, I have empty patches on plot. Gave up on rows of carrots and sowed turnip and beetroot there. Spinach and kale never grew so resowed. Brassicas growing but quite nibbled despite debris netting.
Onions and potatoes doing well. My sweetcorn have been good size in pots for ages but weather keeps changing so hanging on before planting!