This year's veg

Evenin' all!

I don't know.. is it me, or is it a slow start to the gardening year?

I've planted out my French beans and runner beans and just two weeks into the ground, a foot or two high, I've now started to squish the blackfly. Sigh.

Courgettes are doing ok in their bags.

Cucumbers... poor things, the way they look now I find it hard to imagine that they'll survive let alone be the success they were last year. It's almost like they have decided to stop growing altogether.

Pattypan squash - doing ok in their growbags with some sweet peas.

Potatoes - in bags - doing well.

Tomatoes - in pots - doing ok.

Turnips - sown and thinned out. Beetroot just coming through.

Carrots yet to sow, parsnips and leeks sown but yet to appear.

I think I've either sown too late, or it's been too cold during May. And I'm feeling downright miserable!

Dad.. on the other side of the country, similar cold weather with the added nuisance of rabbits destroying all their paths. Feeling similarly miserable.

Please tell me it's early days yet and hopefully things will improve!

 

Sort to hear things aren't going as well as you had wanted. This is my first year so I have no point of reference. At the moment I am growing a lot of free leaves - different shapes and sizes!!!!!

 

Things have been slow here too, I'm just going on grass (Farming craic). Been weird weather in May. then again we dont get the same weather as the South of England, still cold and gloomy here.

 

I planted courgette and cucumber seeds in the greenhouse early this year but they never grew at all. I had to start all over again and now have cucumber, courgette, chillis and peppers to pot up this weekend.

I have butternut squash and aubergine in potato bags but they are not growing very fast at all. Last year I can recall my squash growing much faster - literally by the day. I also have patty pan to put in bags at the weekend.

My potatoes are also doing well in bags and the tops are just starting to come through the compost 2/3rds of the way up the bag.

Tomatoes are around 12" high, and also doing well. This is the first year we have grown them from seed (3 varieties) so looking forward to seeing how well they do.

Beetroot was planted outside around 3 weeks ago and seem to be growing well.

I planted some carrots out in the raised bed last weekend and have more to plant this weekend. I never do well with carrots though because of the dreaded carrot fly.

Leeks are around 3' tall in a tray in the greenhouse.

April/May was cold. In fact we had to put tops on trays of seeds and pots to get them to grow.

There is still plenty of time for veggies to grow and also to plant more seed. The weather is also supposed to pick up from next week.

 

Hi @Effy66, it's a slow year, I feel like my veg is at a total stand still! .,I bought some runner beans at Shineyland's open day which are doing well but I've not planted out anymore, the nights are so cold here still. My potatoes are just up but making very slow progress. My greenhouse plants (toms & cues) are doing well but they are obviously protected in there. I think it's just patience, once the summer kicks in everything will do much better.
Hang on in there my friend, don't feel miserable I'm confident things will improve

 

Can only agree a lot of things seem to have stalled for me too, May here has been generally gloomy and the nights consistently cool. Can't ever remember having the heating on so much at this time of year-although maybe my age is beginning to tell! The ground on my allotment still feels cold to me and looking outside at the moment I think it maybe 4 o'clock on a November afternoon. Have sown a number of things in the open ground- carrots, spring onions, beetroot, mangetout, etc.) and although they have germinated well they don't seem to be doing a lot at the moment. Potatoes and lettuce look well though, no surprise there I guess. Planted out a few things on Sunday, celery, celeriac and french beans. They were ready to go and I wanted some space. The forecast is looking a bit better, so perhaps summer may be coming. Good luck!
PS As usual the weeds haven't been bothered a jot by all this!

 

@potlings you have a lovely lot of veg in, once the weather brightens up & gets a bit warmer I'm sure everything will do very well . Mmmmm the blinking weeds certainly grow quicker than the veg!

 

Thanks. Don't worry I know you are right. No doubt this year will be the same as every other year-some things will do well and others won't do so well. That's a good thing-if everything we grew was perfect what would be the point?

 

Regarding the Leeks, you can start them inside in February and get a much bigger head start on what you're currently doing. Mine are about 8" now but have been neglected, they're not very fussy though.

 

Hi all,

Lovely to hear how you're all getting on. I think the weather's improved slightly. We've just come back from a week in the Yorkshire Dales and straight away inspect the garden on our return. Cucumbers in the ground have LOL been sulking but I think are now getting over this - however the cucumber in the bag is much bigger, already putting out tendrils (probably soil warmer in there). Courgettes are now producing fruit. Runners have started running up the canes, about 3ft high now, however the French beans are a bit stubborn. Potatoes in bags now have flowers on. Everything else doing ok, just slower than normal but I'm sure they'll put a spurt on with some sunshine. Lettuce and radishes just are not getting a chance to grow due to squirrels turning the seedlings over trying to find the nuts they buried around the garden!

 

My french beans have hardly shown any sign of movement in 4 weeks, they're still only 9'' tall. the runners(streamline) have sprinted away and are 2-3 foot tall already covered in blackfly despite spraying them several times with soapy water. Interestingly I have this problem every year and the odd thing it doesn't seem to effect the harvest, they plants just look unhealthy covered in blackfly. Red onions showing early signs of going to seed, should I bend the tops over now despite the fact that the bulbs are not very big? Hoed up 2 rows of carrots because of poor germination but the early spuds(Aaron Pilot) are looking really good

 

My runners are the same with the blackfly which, since I sprayed, seem to have dispersed for the time being. Every year I get blackfly. I don't know why either. It's just been a cold start.

 

my tomatoes have been a total disaster this year, they were knackered in the recent wind and didn't recover despite some TLc :(
... and the cucumber, chillis and peppers I grew from seed haven't done a thing ... still only pathetic little shoots ...

 

Well, almost two months on since my first post here: what's done well, what's done poorly:

Beetroot - in new plot of garden, soil not great, beetroot pulled, baby beets for picking. 6/10
Pattypan squash - see photo - 4 plants in growbags - after a poor start, now starting to come along and had our first feast at the weekend. 8/10
Courgettes - 6 plants grown in bags - had a terrific run with more than we could eat until a weekend when we were away, came back to find powdery mildrew had run riot. Now cut all back and sprayed with bicarb solution but think they've finished. 9/10
French beans - 15 plants - all producing well and had several meals, plus several bags in the freezer - 9/10
Runner beans - 15 plants - as above
Turnips - planted in new part of garden this year. Leaves started yellowing early, and were not looking great so pulled the lot up. Had a couple of meals and made some picked turnips (torshi). We grew Snowball this year but think we'll go back to good old Purple Milan. 6/10
Carrots - Looking healthy enough but as our soil is very clay-ey, we'll see how well the roots perform. 5/10 so far.
Potatoes - 5 Winston and 5 Nicola - 5 bags. (Forgot to label!) - A smaller crops of spuds then I would have expected but, have had several meals from them with one bag remaining. Flavoursome spuds. Must remember to water regularly. 8/10
Leeks - baby leeks in bags. So far so good. 5/10
Parsnips - Gladiator in bags. Two bags doing really well, two other bags, parsnips were growing fine then suddenly the leaves disintegrated to nothing, and again, whilst we were away! 4/10
Tomatoes - I wonder why I bother every year! I grew some of my own plants, and also bought some (Moneymaker). In large pots, put three in the conservatory and four outside. The outside ones are doing better and plenty of tomatoes on them, waiting for them to ripen but I can't get the watering right. They wilt so I water them, but I'm probably overwatering them. Arrgghh. The cherry tomatoes are quite acidic - why?
Gherkin cucumbers - Five plants all producing plenty of cucumbers and reaching for the skies. 10/10
Cucumbers - One plant in a bag - bit slow but produced a couple of good cucumbers and a few more on the way. 7/10.
Rocket and lettuce - In bags - I really can't grow these sort of things! 2/10
Sweet peppers - 8 plants in pots. Slow growing, producing plenty of flowers (some fell off), but two small green peppers formed, 4 inches long on one plant, and yellow peppers 2 inches long on another. The six others are all producing flowers but I think all a bit late in the day. Disappointed. 5/10

How are yours gardens comparing?