[New shoot]

Like everyone else I'm struggling this year with crops. I'm very lucky in that my plot is still servicable if weather battered and my sympathies to anyone flooded as I know parts of the north east got hammered this week  

Just planted out some module grown stuff today and pondering the next load of sowings.  I'm not going to let this lousy weather beat me, but its getting a bit daft now isn't it  

How is everyone else feeling?  Going to still try a few things or retired to the shed already with a mug of tea and plans for next year?  

[Spana]

Worst year i've ever had New shoot, I'm writing most of my stuff off this year .

Pots that grew-most rotted in the ground- are full of slug holes. Runners are weak, yellow and the best ones are still only  2ft tall. Cabbages and calabrese look as if they have rotted at the root. Rows of lettuce, beetroot, carrot have not germinated, i've had 3 goes,i'm not trying again. Courgettes are pathetic, plants are small and yellow and not cropping.

But there is a bright side :happy: Sweetcorn doesn't look too bad surprisingly :blink: and onions and leeks look quite good :happy:  toms, peppers and french beans are going great in the greenhouse.
About half my plot is empty. I'm going to sow  wallflowers, foxgloves and sweetwilliams in the greenhouse and plant out the little plants for next year just so i use the space.

[arugula]

Tomatoes are like spring plantlings with the odd flower (I seem to remember writing this last year), garlic, tatties, salads are doing OK, but shallots are very small. Beans are getting chomped and plants replaced, sunflower leaves like lace but I have backup for them too. It is just too cold and windy. 

[snowdrops]

I popped up the plot with my compost to add to the green johanna & feel even more disspirited than before most of my winter onions have been decapitated & also the seedling onions,raspberries broken,cherry tree branches snapped,apples,pears dashed all over the ground. Still got all my beans,squashes & sweetcorn & 4 more trays of onions to plant out. Still not sown any carrots,  beetroot,swedes,turnips, & whatever else I normally do. Might just give up on this year.

[LilacSandy]

Just looked at the 10 day forcast for our area and it is rain every single day.

[yorkiegal]

I've only had my plot a couple of months so around half of it is still grass, but despite the weather my cabbage and kale are doing very well, my peas and beans are starting to recover now, my courgettes and sweetcorn are picking up and my tomato's finally have flowers.
The leeks didn't survive, nor did the first lot of peas, and my lettuce just hasn't germinated.
I've just got some sprouts and caulis to go in and then that will be it for me this year. From now on I'm going to concentrate on getting the rest of my plot dug over and planted with green manure, and then fencing and paths to go in.

got soaked to the bone this afternoon when a thunderstorm hit and spent an hour sat in the shed waiting for it to pass over.

As a newbie I take comfort from knowing that it has been a particularly bad year, and if I'm still keen after this, I must have really got the bug lol.

[starry]

I have got quite a few things growing all be it very slowly  I have some peas that have just formed pods so hopefully they will be ready soon, but I have had lots of trouble getting some plants going courgettes being one of them, and the weather forecast from Monday is rain, rain, rain !!   
definately soldiering on 

[Katejs]

I think we must have been pretty lucky so far (touch wood!), especially as we've only been doing this 6 months and are total novices.  Just started harvesting the first early potatoes - not many to a plant but I'm not sure what's normal, but they are quite large - up to 4" long.  Masses of mangetout - giving them away now.  Plenty of strawberries and some raspberries just coming in now(we inherited these plants).  Started harvesting rocket, radishes and perpetual spinach about 3 weeks ago.  Tomatoes looked a bit sad to start with but have picked up, (both uotside and in the poly tunnel), beetroot looks healthy enough, pak choi bulking up nicely (all were started off at home).  First picking of proper peas yeasterday and still plenty on the plants.  Lettuces are a bit slow - also started at home and transplanted a couple of weeks ago.  Cavolo nero, caulis and purple sprouting were planted out a couple of weeks ago - not exactly 'thriving' but not dead - just kind of stalled.  Runners were slow to get going & wouldn't cling to the poles, but seem to have settled down now & are starting to flower.  I'm actually short of space now - because the potatoes were behind, my leeks are stuck in the module trays.  I have spent a fortune on slug pellets though!    

[mumofstig]

Peas are doing okish but they'll be a couple of weeks later than last year, likewise the new spuds were later. The leeks look ok but have to wait for the spuds to come out
Had 3 attempts at some of my pumpkins cos slugs have been eating them all. Some of the sweetcorn died, but about 2/3s made it.
Winter onions came to nothing, the module grown Long Red Florence salad onions are just sitting there. Some of the garlic had bad rot, some had bad rust  but pleased with the crop over-all.
Summer cabbage useless, I think the Autumn ones might be ok. Will resow the winter ones still time for them, I think. I may try a few in the greenhouse border when the toms finish. Swede in modules still to be planted out, so we'll see.

Lettuce rubbish, spring onions rubbish, french and runner beans both struggling.
Even 'old faithful' chard is not doing well

I must say that the greenhouse stuff is doing surprisingly well this year, all things considered.
Just need some warm weather to ripen the toms, PLEASE 

[Madame Cholet]

pleased for 1st year

fortunate to get lotty on top of hill with fantastic soil

harvesting ow onions

looking ok

leeks
beetroot
onions
rusian kale
parsnips
carrots
huauzontle
asparagus pea
j articokes
garlic
hamburg parsley
purple orach
perp spinach some boltin though

squash and courgettes a bit behind looking better now.

at home

toms cues and letuce and oca

poor
french beans
borlotties
brassicas got by flea beetle may get something? making nets tomorrow.

not geminated

swede

most of the raspberry canes and hazel hedging have survived and the fruit trees look well as does rhubarb and comfrey.

[Christine]

Let us not complain - we are not in business as is this farm.

[Kirpi]

I am finding that lasagne beds (which I am using this year) come into their own in weather like this - hold moisture in drought and drain excess in heavy rain.

It's not the rain that is the problem for me - it is the lack of sunshine this year.

[Ice]

I'm not giving up entirely, but I am thinking in terms of what I can do to mitigate the effects of changing weather patterns next year.

Having had my new poly greenhouse blown inside out I am going to get a lean-to and bolt it to a brick wall.  The great thing is that by doing this I can easily install lighting and heating.

My raised beds will get extra help to drain with some more sharp sand and manure added.  Better drainage means more watering if we ever get a warm spell , so more water barrels to add to the four I already have.

I did read somewhere that this freaky weather was going to last until December, I hope they were wrong.

[Lardman]

I've raised the white flag... the final straw was the chard running to seed.  What's in can stay in but I'll be sowing green manure again rather than anything else.

Might take the opportunity to finish some hard landscaping I started 3 years ago and have a move around.

[starry]

Let us not complain - we are not in business as is this farm.

quite Christine, nor is it the potato famine of    1845 and 1852     we must soldier on