[erainn]

A nightmare second year as a plot holder, winds and rain have destroyed seed and plants, any that survived are stunted and showing no crop, dwarf french beans in particular, mange tout producing but not in any great number. Meanwhile courgette and squash attacked beyond saving by slugs, who seem to be the only creature in the country enjoying the constant downpours.

All that's left are leeks and a few carrots, very disillusioned novice here

Now I am wondering what to do with some Purple Sprouting Broccoli still potted in my garden and a solitary squash in a pot, dare I risk transferring them to the 'plot of death',or is thee an alternative option in which their success is more likely? Experiences and advice most welcome.

[Nikkithefoot]

I think everyone is struggling this year, so don't get too down hearted.

Can you use a growbag and keep it sheltered at home in a greenhouse or conservatory? You could try building a cloche around it on the plot to keep it warm.
The broccili won't produce until next spring, and if you don't get it in the ground now it will remain stunted. Again can you rig some shelter around it?

[Goosegirl]

Sorry - having read your post title, I knew what was coming and had to have a chuckle as you are so not alone here! YOU HAVE CARROTS? That's more than I have, and my one parsnip seedling has bit the dust! Never grown squash so don't know. Doing PSB for the first time and mine are potted on, ready for planting out. I use plastic milk containers with their bottoms cut off, and their tops cut off so I have the handle attached and I push a small cane into it to secure it into the ground over the plant, plus some blue jobbies for snails and slugs! Onions and shallots chewed, but leeks still ok - they'd better be! Sounds like you have two places to grow - which is the better? Squash you could put into a big container; PSB would be better in the ground (or greenhouse bed?) as it will eventually become a big plant.

[sunshineband]

Erainn,this has been a tough season, like others have said.

Look ahead to next year, to see how you could get through if it is as poor.

For example, I rigged up tents made of debris netting over squash, corn and bean plants, originally to keep off the baking sun (as the year before this was a problem) and this helped as it provided a bit of a wind break, and protected crops from the beating rain, until they were well enough established to cope.

Hope that idea helps for next year for you? No help right now I know, but the months go by very quickly.

[AnneB]

I too am amazed that you have CARROTS!  I am on my third attempt, and now have around a dozen at half an inch tall!  No beans, courgettes, squash, summer cabbage, beetroot, cauliflower or lettuce.   1 green tomato from 15 plants.  Sweetcorn and broad beans around 9" high.   Potatoes poor.

Only thing I have harvested properly are shallots and garlic from last autumn's planting and a handful of strawberries and redcurrants.

Here's to next year!

[Paul Plots]

Roll on next year for me too.

The only things growing really well on my plot are the grass paths and the weeds. Oh what a bumper crop of chick-weed this year.

It's anyones guess what the next few weeks will bring weatherwise but for many things we are on our way past the growth spurt season....simply not enough time left for my butternut squash that's for sure.

Chin up... keep at it as next year has just got to be better.

[Trillium]

Did you know that chick-weed is edible? It's also rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon.  It can be tossed into salads or cooked in soups and stirfries. Or used in wonderful homemade salves to cure light scratches and burns.

Bet you didn't know you had such a useful crop in your yard 

[Paul Plots]

Did you know that chick-weed is edible? It's also rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon.  It can be tossed into salads or cooked in soups and stirfries. Or used in wonderful homemade salves to cure light scratches and burns.

Bet you didn't know you had such a useful crop in your yard 

Wow!! I'm a chick-weed farmer!! 

I can vaguely remember feeding it to something or other as a kid... rabbits maybe or the countless chickens my dad kept but I hadn't considered it as a food for humans.  :blink: 

I wonder, if I bag up a few armsful and bring some home, will my OH take me seriously? 
We could halve the grocery bill with the amount I have and it grows like..... like...weeds! 

Dare I try it?  Has anyone else sampled this?

[sunshineband]

We have had a few leaves in salads from time to time. It tastes... well...... green I suppose  :blink:

[grendel]

my two half plots are like that- most stuff didnt even get planted due to not being able to get down there because of the weather, my garlic is small, I have some onions and potatoes, and a few peas, oh and a great big crop of weeds, when I eventually fixed my strimmer I went and strimmed about half my plot (the bits where I didnt think I had planted anything) and hand weeded the rest, but that was nearly a week ago now, the only good days I have had was the one where I had to take my MIL to chemotherapy, the rest have been wet, have had a few potatoes from the parts of the rows of potatoes where the plants themselves have dissapeared, hoping for some bigger ones from where the plants have survived, shallots got dug up when all the tops vanished overnight, and I have some onions. strawberries did ok, but not stunning, in fact the best crops have been from the garden this year, we have blackberry plants loaded down with fruit. but there you go - a bad tyear 2 for us as well.
Grendel

[angelavdavis]

As someone with a plot which overlooks the English Channel, I do recommend you get hold of some wind protection fabric and put this up.  It has made a huge positive effect on my more exposed new plot despite my Heath-Robinson construction using old gazebo posts and cable ties (my other plot benefits from more shelter from the wind).

As everyone has said, it has been a poor year - the weeds have thrived as have the slugs!  With the way the grass has been growing, I don't regret for one minute losing my grass paths!

I would recommend you pot on your squash so it is growing on in a 12 inch pot, then plant it out once it seems comfortable in this sized pot - it will have grown enough to put up a fight with the slugs.  I did this with my courgettes (and delayed the planting out until June - late for me).  They have thrived as a result, I only lost one to slugs - it was bitten straight through.  I have also resorted now to the evil non-organic slug pellets used sparingly around my fairly newly planted psb too.

[surbie100]

I share your pain! It's my first year and things are not growing the way I imagined they would. The slugs are eating everything in sight though the beetroot is going great.

I've got PSB on my balcony, and was wondering when to stick it in the ground - wanted to wait a little, but from this, even sticking them in the swampy bed of doom would be better than leaving them in pots.

My carrots are still in paper pots, waiting to get a little bigger and for a safe moment to put them in..

[erainn]

Thanks to the words of encouragement and advice from all, there's comfort in the collective rain-soaked experiences we have shared As for wind, next year am definitely looking into arranging some kind of protection...hmmm here am I in July already thinking of 2013, guess that sums up our year so far.

[grendel]

managed to harvest 2 plastic trugs of onions and potatoes from my two half plots, not the biggest onions, but better than none.
Grendel

[Erfurt]

Not the plot of death just the climate, it makes you understand why traditional crops are traditional...you can rely on them.

All my root veg and brassicas are doing well (except spuds with the blight) but not spectacularly well. Onions a bit small and so on. All the fancy dan stuff even in the greenhouses is very bad though I did get two figs.

100 years ago or more we would be looking at a famine.

Stick the purple sprouting in the ground under a net it’ll do grand and keep the squash in the house but repot.