Well this year has been a stunning failure in the garden , what hasnt been eaten has just failed to thrive , i suppose with an indian summer i may yet get a few squash , my corn has just never grown its about a foot high and thats it , the potatoes are tiny and i need a pickaxe to get them out of the ground , runner beans lush covered in flowers but hardly any pollinated , onions just sat and sulked . Leeks however look good the only things thriving are the weeds and ive never seen them look so colourful and varied . Broad beans were great but are done now . Fruit wise theres tons of apples tiny but tons , plums are very late and doutless the gales are threshing them into a pulp , i picked a load a couple of days ago with the intention of canning them but then found that all the lids are mouldy so im waiting for more , the joys of having to keep everything in a shipping container during the renovations . This is the first year ever that the garden hasnt earned its keep , but hey ho that is the nature of gardening . But i have to say the cupboard is bare of its usual jars of winter food and all i have is half a dozen jars of fruit from last year . Not even a single tomato this year so i may have to make an effort and venture to Stickney to the Polish guy who brings a van full every week , then spend a week canning ..ho hum
Not the best of years, I agree. I've had some tomatoes but really only enough to eat fresh, none for preserving. Runner beans haven't been prolific but I've had a few most days and eaten them fresh, few to freeze. Carrots and beetroot look good. Several courgettes have set but come to nothing. No cucumber or pepper.
ReplyDeleteive got carrots planted in april that havent swelled, lovely lush tops
DeleteIt's been a really challenging year for us veg growers hasn't it. My 🍅 are starting to ripen at long last. I'm dispatching slugs by the score but still they keep coming
ReplyDeletei think my army of hedgehogs cant even keep up with the level of slugs this year
DeleteOh, I thought I'm the only one. Potatoes are doing ok. Other - nope. ALL my beans were eaten bu slugs. ALL of them. And ALL salady things, swiss chard, spinach, lettuce - everything. Even garlic leaves were eaten, but at least bulbs are somehow ok... My zucchinies and pumpkins just don't grow... I don't know. At least I got black currants and now mushrooms are abundant in forests!
ReplyDeleteUlvmor
i think our spring monsoons washed every bit of goodness out of the garden , everythings stunted
DeleteI self polinate the tomatoes and they are in the greenhouse, so not too bad this year. Garlic was small, apples almost none, but the sour cherries and raspberries were amazing. Rhubarb always good, for some reason, although I am the only one that likes it. I am seeing a big reduction in the number of bees...we should be very concerned. It has been unusually cool this August, so I hope all the tomatoes ripen. We have had no peaches, nectarines or plums from the south (Okanagan) as all the trees were damaged by a January chill that went down to -21C and killed many of the trees. I don't know how the commercial farmer can handle all the ups and downs...we are lucky there is any food in the stores... Barb
ReplyDeletesadly the tomatoes didnt even flower
DeleteI had lots of tomato plants, but 90% of them produced NO fruit at all. The two cherry tomato plants were very fruitful, but tiny. Like Maltesers. My dreams of a freezer full of tomato sauce ready for winter will not come true this year
ReplyDeletewe dont eat a lot of tomato stuff but i like garden salad and theres nothing
ReplyDeleteRocket is hardy here - even overwinters - I've sown extra seeds - not much sadly has grown x
ReplyDeletetheres lettuce from May just sat here sulking , ive chucked all the part packets of everything where ive cleared stuff just to see if i get lucky with a few late bits
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