[Rooba]

Well, it's the end of the summer and I've had a dire harvest. Rabbits got my peas, deer ate my broad beans, wire worms ruined my potatoes, courgettes munched by slugs,  broccoli bolted, as did my lettuce, rocket was a damp squib, some horrid insects I can't identify were living in my carrots, and out of 12 tomato plants in my greehouse I've had one ripe fruit.  Am I alone in having such a bad year, or should I just admit that I'm a rotten gardener, sell my tools and concrete over the veg plot?

[Chrysalis]

Look on the bright side - you've helped to sustain an entire ecosystem of rabbits, deer, wireworms, slugs and a new species.....

better luck next time!

[DD.]

I bet that "new" species was carrot fly!

[Lardman]

Am I alone in having such a bad year

No.

[Yorkie]

You've had one more ripe tomato than me.  Consider it not such a bad year! 

[AnneB]

A very weird year.
On the plus side, all brassicas - cabbage, turnip, swede, pak choi, kale all superb
Broad beans, runner beans, french beans, peas, equally splendid, but after a slow start in the case of the runners and french beans, first lot of which destroyed by high wind in May.
Onions and beetroot magnificent, parnsips coming along fine.
Fennel looking good, as is red celery.   Lettuce not bad and a fine crop of flat leaved parsley.

On the bad side, a complete disaster for all courgettes and squash.  Outdoor tomatoes have no blight, but nevertheless are pathetic, a mere handful.  Cucumber specimens OK but not many of them.
Carrots full of carrot root fly despite mesh protection on the allotment, small crop in a tub in the garden with no mesh fine ()
Leaf beet has all run to seed and the sweetcorn has been flattened by the wind, first in May and the replacement lot in September.  No crop.
Basil has failed completely.
An average lot of Japanese bunching onions and rocket.

[totalnovice]

Yup, its been a bad year here too! Too hot and dry early in the year, then too grey and dry over the summer, overnight temps dipping down even in July and August.

Not a good year - i am still waiting for a ripe tomato. 

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

My beetroot failed - twice.  Ditto spring onions.
Tomatoes were a very poor show in comparison to last year.
French beans stubbornly refused to germinate, despite trying a few options.
Runners beans were sown late and as a result have really struggled.

Cucumber plants looked great, didn't keel over and die at a moments notice but definately a lower yield this year.

I had more courgettes and chillis than you can shake a stick at and I think my workmates have got fed up of me bringing them into work!  I have been banned from having more than two courgette plants next year by my other half it's been that ridiculous with the amount we've had 

Fruit trees (apples and pear) which I have no control over have been very good (but early) this year.

Onions are good and drying out in my store as I type.

So yes, I'd agree a very odd year for growing in general.

[Rooba]

Thanks everyone, at least I'm not alone in having such a bad harvest. Looks like my  'unknown' insect pests really were carrot root flies, so that's solved one mystery. Now if only I could work out what caused my onions to turn to mush in the space of a few days. I suspect a suicide pact with the shallots. 

[Lardman]

Now if only I could work out what caused my onions to turn to mush in the space of a few days. I suspect a suicide pact with the shallots. 

If you tell us where roughly you are - we might be able to answer that.

It could be my personal favourite http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=643

[min200]

Plain rubbish!  New spuds were ok but maincrop an awful yeild with the plants dying off because they felt like it a month early (no blight though)
Toms in the greenhouse didnt produce any fruit until a couple of weeks ago and everything else apart from my onions and brussels has died!

Last year was superb but this years been a real eye opener!

[Rooba]

I live near Glasgow, so hopefully that horrid leaf miner thing hasn't made it this far north. Though with my luck...

[Debz]

Rooba, I am near Glasgow too and my onions were so little they were hardly worth the bother of drying them.  It has been so cold here that I have struggled much more too this year.  My beetroot have been so disappointing and I haven't harvested any because there is nothing to them.

[strangerachael]

A hot dry spring and a cold dry summer = a pretty disappointing year. Plus my plot is by a row of trees which have probably hogged what little moisture there has been. It hasn't been a disaster, but runner beans, sweetcorn and squashes have all been very disappointing. Apparently it has been the dryest year in the Midlands since 1976 

[DATA311]

This is my first year back at growing veg for best part of 15 years, and sadly even though we did not get started on the veg plot till early June we did manage to get some veg going.
But sadly the returns were very poor, wireworm, blight, and various other bugs enjoyed our crops more than we did.....
Hopefully next year will be a better year..........