[Eric44]

My year was nothing to write home about. On the allotment my potatoes ( Sarpo Blue Danube and Golden Wonder ) did not crop as well as expected and as Jaydig said above, when trying to boil either variety, the just blew. They were OK in the oven though. Onions, Japenese Senshyu Yellow were excellent as were the shallots, Red Sun. Garlic performed well as did the cabbage and swede. Good crop of gooseberries and rhubarb.
In the garden I had a poor crop of shallots, Golden Gourmer but my Exhibition onions were superb. Grew squash,  tromboncino up a trellis and that produced some really long and heavy fruits, more than we could eat, so now we have loads of jars of chutney and several jars of squash, orange and ginger jam. Also tried pumpkin Marina Di Choggia. One plant, two pumpkins. Outdoor tomato Mountain Magic excellent, in the polytunnel, not so good. In the greenhouse, chillies and sweet peppers ok. Runner beans produced so many I was giving them to my neighbours but when I got back from a week in North Wales they had gone stringy and so all ended up on the compost heap.

[garrarufa]

June is always the key month for the 'summer stuff', and this year it was mostly cool and dull until the short, sudden heatwave at the end.

Oh, boy. That thing killed me for over a month. My first year of growing and what better way of showing me what the definition of "bolting" is, than having it happen front and center in real time. I can laugh now. No, seriously!   

My apologies. Wall of text. Genuine excitement at my first year. Again, apologies.

So this is Christmas, and what have we d... sorry. Wrong start. 

So this was my virgin year for trying to grow my own crops. It was glorious fun, with a few disasters, one particular ongoing war (slugged it out), and yet a (for my first try at least) enjoyable yield. My main problem was that I started way too late. But once the bug hit me, I wanted to try a lot of things, just for the learning experience.

At roughly the end of May, I decided I wanted to grow my own bok choi. I love my stir-fries, and was unimpressed by what the supermarkets sometimes offer. I went online and found a oriental stir-fry and salad seed collection. So I tried all six. Mizuna was one, and has been a stunning revelation to me. Lovely salad mix and I'm still harvesting the last batch from the greenhouse this week. Wow, does that grow fast!

A few different types of spinach have kept me happy. Plenty of spring onions and garilc chives... yum, yum. I went mental for mung, adzuki, kidney and dwarf beans. The adzuki and mung didn't do so well (again, I started too late) but got enough of a yield to encourage me next year. I only chose those beans because I wanted to experience the romanza of drying and storing. So, prolong my experimental/enjoyment process.

I was introduced to the notion of bolting, which ruined a lot of my initial batches of lettuce, but come October, I was learning what to plant and when. Some fine mini crops of komatsuna, tatsoi yukina (again, still harvesting the last greenhouse crop). Had fun with radish, beetroot and my first attempts at preserving and pickling. I grew sweetcorn just because I love the shape and texture of the leaves and multiple layers. They were missing a month or so to reach the edible stage, but I didn't care. I enjoyed them as others may enjoy the whole flower beds thing. Next year I'm looking towards the three sisters plan, so they will have more purpose.

Does anyone grow any type of corn as an ornimental? Or is it just me being mental? 

I was bitten by the bug so bad I wanted to have a go at all the things that are aesthetically pleasing to me... cactus, palms, bonsai... I bought a mini fridge for stratification, a few heat mats and some lights. Luckily the greenhouse was already there when I moved in, but had to spend a little to fix a few panes of glass and replace one of those "turney, turney things" that (painfully) slowly opens one of the windows in the roof. 

All in all, I think my first year of experimenting with growing my own vegetables, and the trying out of other things has cost me close to £400. Sure, a lot of that was initial purchasing of pots, containers, seeds, tools (how much for a half decent pair of secateurs?), bags of potting compost, pickling jars etc... and stuff for indoor propagation... but I genuinely feel like it has been money worth spent for the future. Next year (hopefully) will not cost me much more than £15.

I didn't even get to my new found love of micro greens, chili plants (a main focus for next year) succulents and lithops, but this is a wall of words already. I'm just honestly very excited for next weekend, where I get to wash my greenhouse down, haha... Please, don't ruin it for me. I know it may become a chore very quickly, so let me enjoy these naive times to their fullest. There's that old saying that is something along the lines of "why wake a person from a deep and untroubled sleep, just to deliver bad news?". Be gentle with me. You can ease me down into reality next year.

Regards

[OakR]

I'm still very much in the early stages of learning, so my failures (and successes!) are still very much related to my inexperience as much as conditions.

Successes
Tomatoes - these did really well - all outdoor, until they were decimated by blight  Managed to ripen quite a few at home.
Dwarf French Beans -a great crop from not many plants.
Cucumbers - really good, all outdoor.
Squash etc - Turks Turban, Courgettes, Patty Pan, Trombocino, Crookneck, Scallop all much better than last year - I put a fair bit of manure pre-planting.
Onions - grew well and much better than previous year - planted spring vs autumn previous year

Potatoes seemed ok but I don't really have anything to compare them to.

Poor

Peas - had a decent crop from the first sowings but following sowings seemed to be affected by something and reduced crops
Strawberries - just planted this year, and I don't think I did a great job, but they seem to have grown well now, so hopeful for next year.
Garlic - didn't split - planted in spring - have planted in November this year.
Carrots - forgot to plant them again 

[Ema]

I got some lovely beetroot this year and a good crop of mixed oriental leaves (I saved some seeds so fingers crossed for next year) Runner beans were also good.

Carrots were poor despite me buying expensive mixed coloured seeds, poor germination rate, some I flooded and the seeds moved out of the rows, lots of carrot fly. Will grow again just for carrot top pesto and to use up the packets.

Poor oca crop, a lunch box of small tubers out of 4 plants. They were mulched with hemp insulation and I should have given them some compost. They really aren’t worth the space apart from they look so pretty.

Garlic I forgot to water as they were in the flower border so they died. (Now I remember we did have some dry weather!)