[JayG]

Drought, excess heat, cold, strong winds - reckon most of us have had some or all of those to deal with, even if not necessarily in that order (some have said they've had too much rain recently, although personally I find that hard to believe!  )

Have had trouble getting a full two rows of parsnips this year - having tried a combination of station sowing and pre-germinating I'm finally getting there, but it's been a struggle.

Salad stuff, broad beans, garlic, shallots, all OK, although they needed a lot of watering, in May especially.

Mis-timed the sweetcorn, and planted out 1 day before the cold spell - they didn't like it and I'm still working on filling in the gaps.

Runner beans not exactly rejoicing in the conditions, but they're still there.

Leeks looking OK under enviromesh, sharing the protection with some Chantenay carrots which were from an old packet of seeds so delighted to see them.

Blueberries looking good this year - time to net them as they're starting to colour up.

Given the weather, most serious problems have actually been with wildlife - sparrows pecking runner bean shoots, cats doing what cats do in newly sown patches of soil (don't have infinite supplies of netting), fox cubs (probably) digging up and destroying 2 out of 3 of my outdoor cukes and making a bit of a mess of my parsley.

In a word: challenging - how's yours?

[mumofstig]

Much the same  Some of my seedlings got fried in the greenhouse when we had the early heat, so had to start all over again, 2nd time with some shading.
About half of my first sowing of squash got ruined by the wind, now on the 2nd lot and it has got windy again! Grrr!
French beans seem to be getting away now, after a very slow start, peas that should be about 5-6ft tall are only at 3ft, despite daily watering through the dry spell *sigh* Cabbages, were slow, but catching up after some rain
Early raspberries mostly a write off, but the later flowering Loganberries and Tayberries look ok. Redcurrants have also set well. Braeburn apple has the best set ever, hopefully we're past the drop now.
Potato tops look ok, don't know what's underneath yet, as they went in late this year. Fingers crossed!

[Aunt Sally]

The strong winds are downing the most damage for us 

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

Most stuff has been loving it....

The most impressive thing is early sowing of tomatoes are at least a month early.

Except for the red long yard beans and cucumbers everything got over the shock of the cold early June weather.

I have to say that the plot has had more attention due to lockdown and lack of other activities so maybe this is part of it....

[Growster...]

Interesting post, JayG.

Veg doing what we do to them every year haven't responded well here...

Runner Beans didn't germinate well, fruit like blueberries are a failure, although goosegogs are looking good at last, we'll hook out the former, as they take up too much space for such a meagre crop. Shame really, but we can still buy them from 'Eggs to Apples' in Hurst Green nearby, and we've known the owners since they were tots...

Next year, the 'micro-garden' will have a real make-over, and plans are afoot to build a new raised area for all the early salads, carrots etc, well off the ground, in trays and new boxes, to save a Growster-back situation, and make life an easier place to live in!

Back to now though, this wind is unexplained, and not helping the beans and the outside toms one little bit!

[MarkC]

Considering the very recent weather here, not too bad. Tomato plants that are outside (only Red Alert this year) are really toiling in the wind and cold this week, having got off to a real flier before. Runner bean germinaton was very patchy this year, unusually, but once going doing well, as are french beans though this week has probably given them a fright, also the courgettes.

Tatties very good so far, shallots just lifted and a decent size, garlic ok, bit small maybe. Red onions looking good, bigger than last year.....

Beetroot and turnip good, better than last year, celeriac looking pretty good for now, with roots bigger than they were in August last time I grew it. Mange tout and peas doing well, have harvested some already. Broad beans ok.

Some clubroot on turnip and kohlrabi....which was disappointing. Grown on a new half plot I took over from an older guy who sadly died last year. I think he had brassicas there. I didn't lime it or anything, unlike my main brassica bit which was limed vigorously, and also got a wee dose of Jeyes about 3 weeks before they went in.....seems to be working as they are all doing pretty well for now.

Strawberries doing well until the monsoon of the last week (yes, we have definitely had too much rain here, big spates on rivers, localised flooding). Other soft fruits doing well too, but currants and rasps are scottish and don't mind this weather.

[Plot 1 Problems]

One of the big negatives to my plot normally is that it's heavily shaded by neighbouring trees. Which means that this year I've been protected by the worst of the weather and everything is mostly normal. Only real negative is that my broadbeans have been decimated by black fly which errupted overnight last week and wrecked them before I could do anything.

[Mr Dog]

Wind! I dislike it more than most other forms of weather at the best f times but even more so when the trees are in leaf.

Lost a few sprout plants to the gales a few weeks ago, along with a couple of haricot beans and a sunflower was puled out of the ground - that was stuck back in and appears to have made it through. This weekend has seen the loss of a broad bean (not even sure where the plant is!), a squash, some chrysanths and a few sweetcorn plants were flattened (I've staked them back upright so hopefully they'll survive).

[al78]

I have been dumping 200+ litres of water a week on my crops during the ridiculously dry spring and half of June. Brassicas are doing very well, they are healthy and remarkably unblemished by slugs. Greenhouse crops are rampant (I put too many in there), the gem squash is engaged in territorial warfare with the neighbouring dwarf French beans. There is evidence of minor leaf damage on the gen squash from the brief heatwave at the end of June (despite having greenhouse shading). Climbing French beans so far are disappointing. They are taking their time to mature and some have been swamped with blackfly, which is severely weakening them. Potatoes I haven't dug enough to judge, they are small but perfectly edible, and so far good quality, no slug attacks or scab. Leeks are doing their own thing but the bed is starting to get weedy, so I need to pull out all the small weeds before they get big enough to swamp the leeks. Overall it has been a very challenging year (like almost every year since I started the allotment), it seems every year I've been allotment gardening there has been some adverse weather to deal with. This year has been a proper chain yank. Flooded during the wettest February on record, having to bolt down greenhouse roof panels that were dislodged by winter storms, then the complete flip to semi-arid.

[Aidy]

On the whole so far Ok, mind you we always have hot tropical weather here 

One thing tho, I have just pulled the first row of peas, 6 carrier bags full, but as far as I can remember the worst year for pea moth maggots, a good few had it.
New spuds ok, not the best but far away from the worst year I have had.
Beetroot growing to quick, cant eat it fast enough.
Broad beans were a good crop.
Brassicas seem happy enough.
Just waiting for the onions, hearing a lot wiped out by the fly on site.

[New shoot]

Mostly Ok.  My crops have also had to cope with me being ridiculously busy at work through the run-up to lockdown and beyond, which put me very behind.  The Wizard beans have been decimated by pigeons, who pecked off nearly every flower and a lot of leaves.  I think that was a by-product of the dry spell when they were ravenous for greens.  Some of the early crops like spinach bolted with the heat. 

Never the less, most of the plot is planted up and doing OK.  I still have spaces    That is unusual and may offer some different planting opportunities.  Every year has its challenges, so you just have to roll with them and come back undaunted 

[Learnerlady]

Realising the new plot is very exposed so problems with this wind. Squash and courgette planted about 3 wks ago but hardly grown, got some strawberries but lost loads due to deludge and green beans and sweetcorn battered, will hopefully pick up. Red shallots, asparagus broadbeans and mangetout ok but these are on the original plot. Always winners and losers 😉

[rowlandwells]

its been a funny old year so far for gardening and by what your saying wind has played havoc with some of your crops we netted our courgette and marrows and runner beans when we planted i must say that was the wife's idea i couldn't see the point at the time but i had to hold my hands up she was rite it kept the wind of the crops and we always  put a chicken  wire fence round our sweet corn because the badgers destroyed the crop 2 years ago and in think the fence kept of the wind as well as the badgers

broad beans failure parsnips failure peas not all that good beetroot ok squashes looking ok celery still growing potted on leeks not yet planted out onions still growing ok already harvested  a crop of early onions [overwintered] potatoes looking ok after ridging up second earlies [Kestrel] early potatoes planted in potato tubs not quite ready brassicas still growing ok already picked spring cabbage and kale

had a picking of salad crops made a new salad bed in our house garden rather than planting salads down the on the allotment and its worked out the best way for growing salads still got plants in the poly tunnel to plant out trying growing swede in peat pots yet to sow carrot seed as for future veg sowings

bulb onions [Element] spring cabbage various varieties cauliflower Boris and spring onions all will be set up in the poly tunnel to overwinter start the first sowings in July onward

[mrsbean]

Not to bad on the whole, spinach that was,nt in shade went to seed, lettuce would,nt germinate  same with  dwarf and climbing beans had to keep sowing. Slugs and ants more of a problem although on coast across from Anglesey wind has not been too bad. Rain more of a problem as takes days to dry out

[Stewarty]

Gossipping with people who have plots and gardens here in the south side of Oxford city I find some common threads  -  runner beans and climbing French beans very reluctant to germinate, or to start to climb; courgettes very slow to bulk up, and then rather tough to eat; but lettuce generally doing ridiculously well, with great bunches of all colour salad sprouting away....