Few flowers, few veg, is it the weather? or my compost??

Saw a little of "Garderner's World" yesterday evening isthisallthereis He seemed to have the same problems as you and the rest of us. Your compost sounds good! His toms were very poor this year (mine too) and he was pulling things [?courgettes] out to make way for garlic I think. I think we have to put it all down to the bizarre weather and try again next year. and which will be wonderful next year!

I've had a very poor year with vegetables too. All set off healthily enough but went downhill as the summer progressed. Five huge tomato plants, smothered in fruit but all got blight and no crop at all. I grew lots of courgettes as I planned to freeze them this year. The plants grew healily enough, but only a very few flowers developed and the resulting veg didn't grow. Same with runner beans, carrots, kale, mange tout, spinach....all very disappointing. The only thing that's done well were some early peas and climbing French beans which are still cropping.

All the commentators seem to feel it's down to the weather, so keep up the good work with your compost isthis. Bob Flowerdew wees on his compost so you're in good company!

It's the same story here in the West Midlands. Lost all my greenhouse tomatoes to blight though my cucumber crop and sweet peppers, in the same greenhouse were wonderful. I grew these from grafted stock.

Outdoors not so good. Sweet corn grew well but heads failed to ripen. Potatoes ok but not brilliant, same with leeks. But the weather suited Swiss chard and beetroot.

I though it was male urine that was best for compost but perhaps I made that up? But any compost is good for your garden as not only is it full of nutrients but it adds bulk and fibre to the soil and that's always a plus. I'd draw a line under this years sad crop and get your garlic and onions in now

Such an odd mixture here in the S.W.
Courgettes still producing, runners have been good too, Dwarf beans went in too late but still managed a fair crop for the number of plants. Raspberries, under threat of being pulled up, have been better this year than last.
Earlier gooseberries were superb but blackcurrants, altho cropping heavily, were wasted as many rotted (wet?)
Potatoes poor, tomatoes blighted.
I'd like to add a few flowers next year, apart from the marigolds planted in a circle around the runners, any ideas?

Flowers. Where to start??!
I've had great fun and success (though less success this year) with:
Spring bulbs - lots of different narcissi. Celebrate the end of winter.
Penstamons - fairly bombproof but they like their feet dry or they rot.
Clematis - beautiful plants, try growing one up into a tree. They like their feet in shade.
Sweet Peas - I love the scent. Pick the flowers often.
Papaver Orientalis - big perennial poppies. Wonderful colours and varieties. I love all poppies for the texture of their petals.
Tulips - shortlived but lift the heart, esp the variegated ones
Peonies - the bigger the better
Lupins, foxgloves. For a bit of height.
Dahlias - not sure about these. Can be overformal or garish. Or bold and satisfying! Usually not subtle.
Lobelia, pansy, viola; I like annuals!

If that lot don't get you interested, stick to veg.

Lots of homemade compost and I'm afraid lots of weeding. Most flowers, I find, don't benefit from competing with weeds for nutrition, light and water! They need an easy, nurtured life if they're to perform.

Plant what you can see growing well in your neighbours' gardens. And of course plant what you like. Don't dot different plants here and there; plant drifts of either identical flowers (if your garden is big) or, in my little garden, I like different varieties of the same flower grouped together, they'll more or less all flower at the same time and give a focal point. I have an area of 3 or 4 different peonies, different colours, different shapes, different sizes. It's gorgeous.

Only grow flowers that move in a gentle breeze.

Now, back to the original topic!

Thanks is this all there is lots of lovely info.
I especially like 'only grow flowers that move in a gentle breeze' as I'm sure that will avoid the 'parks and gardens' look.
I should have said that I want to grow more flowers on my allottment, flowers I could pick, maybe. Some of the 'competetive males' grow dahlias to enter in competitions but they would take too much looking after.
I would like my allottment to look pretty as well as productive!

My veg were hopeless this year! I'm giving up and going to grow soft fruit instead.
I already have raspberries and blueberries and blackberries.
Anybody got any suggestions for any unusual fruit bushes?

jeni Gooseberries are good they make nice puddings and jam, but pick them early for Jam as it doesn't set if they are overipe.
I have grown them in huge pots for a couple of years. The main pest is gooseberry sawfly. The tiny caterpillars can strip the plant of leaves overnight but it is manageable.

The big problems this year has been the early drought and then the very wet weather. I have grown gardeners delight tomatoes in pots against in a sheltered south facing wall of my houses for some time. Two years ago they were wonderful. this year small and very late ripening.

Swiss chard is a good crop. Very tasty and the slugs and snails think so too. . I am going to try more of that next year. I did try asparagus peas Not worth the bother.
Butternut squash needs more space than I have. When I did try one the B*** squirrels went for it.
Flowers .
I have tried a short Cosmos and short growing Hollyhocks which I clearly started off far too late in the season but I will try them again next year.

I am very fond of my lovely deep blue (and shorter variety) of Agapanthus in a pot that is only just flowering now. In 2010 it was flowering well in August. I have carefully nursed it in the garage through the really bad winters of 9/10 and 10/11. (Minus 10c in the garage!) It was damaged but I had to cut back all the affected roots to find a healthy bit in the middle. It really does need winter protection. (Which the M&S lable did not bother to mention)

Let's hope for less extreme weather next year.

I split my big agapanthus two years ago. Last year they did nothing much but this summer, despite the weather, I had a row of them - next year they will be bigger and I will have to do more splitting. They aren't in pots -just in a border in the garden - and I left them to it in the winter.

I worked hard at keeping the allotment going during the Wonderful Man's absence earlier this year. Everything was very, very late, but eventually we had a good and varied crop.

Cabbage, curly kale, broccoli all excellent.
Parsnips, turnips, swede, beetroot; plentiful.
Carrots & potatoes; okay.
Salad leaves, chillies, spring onions & herbs; fantastic.
Mange tout; rubbish.
Beans, courgettes, rhubarb; still picking - excellent.
Blueberries, strawberries & late raspberries; brilliant.
Early raspberries and gooseberries; poor.
Pumpkin; just one medium sized.
Butternut squash; two good sized.
Damsons & blackberries; abundant.
Plum tree is getting cut down next year if it doesn't produce a decent crop!!

Nasturtiums still going strong; sweet peas were beautiful.

anno I think from what I have heard is that Agapanthus thrive on being quite tightly rooted. The way it works is that if the roots cannot expand they force the plant to flower instead.
You are lucky to keep them going through winters. it probably depends where in the UK you you live and the local climate. Trying to keep mine going is a headache I dont do it for many plants but I will make a special allowance for this one as it is so lovely.

Your compost sounds fine, much like mine, although I leave the urine to the OH as he has the right equipment (a hose) to hand.

I have been growing vegetables and fruit in the same garden for 40 years now and this has been the poorest year ever for crops. Everything, except the onions, has been late and disappointing. I am usually cursing our big plum tree, which is extrordinarily prolific, giving me a huge task to pick and process the plums. This year we had one plum each and the squirrels, with whom we are normally happy to share got the rest. I am sure that this was due, not to a late frost, but to a terrible gale we had in the spring when the tree was in full bloom. In the morning there was a carpet of white blossom under the tree. So no plum jam this year, I have filled the gap in my jam for fundraising boxes with Bramble and Apple Jelly - brambles from the hedgerows, apples courtesy of next door's tree which overhangs our garden!

Jeni. Surely gooseberries should be in there? I've planted a red gooseberry and a green one this year, but too early days yet to give you a report. Except that they're growing strongly. I hope they're the large kind that you can eat raw like an apple. But if they're smaller and tarter, I look forward to making sauces for fish (I love mackerel) and maybe a slightly sharp jam too!
Oh, just seen someone else has suggested goose-gogs already. Well, two voices are better than one!

Here in Cornwall everyone I know has had disappointing veg. crops this summer. I am still picking French and borlotti beans, which were very late getting out of the ground this year, but now have plenty for the freezer. Onions loved the wet weather, but some seeds just gave up the ghost e.g. beetroot and radishes, which normally do well. Tomatoes have been brilliant, I grew Marmande and tumbling varieties, and I have just cleared the polytunnel this weekend. Sweet peas were very late and as a result produced only a few posies before being flattened by recent gales/heavy rain. Cosmos still flowering their little socks off, the best value from a packet of seeds I know, and this year I have grown wallflowers from seed, too, so far they are looking good.
Here's to better luck (and better light levels) next year, everyone.

isthisallthereis you mention dahlias doubtfully - I have just come back from a short visit to Devon and Somerset and while there we went to Dunster Castle.
The Dream Garden there was literally full of nothing but dahlias - all sorts and colours ranging from deep dark reds to delicate lemon yellows and pale pinks and mauve.
The effect was stunning, and has given me ideas for next summer.
I will try and upload a photo to my profile.

Yes Janei please share photo. The wonderful Biddulph Grange (NT, Staffs) has a Dahlia walk which is superb in autumn, though I've not been there for ages. I meant be cautious in a small garden like mine. Dahlias can be overpowering, or too park-keeper-like as mentioned above. Or they can be sensational!

And dahlia (there's a name!) things are obviously very different in Cornwall. It's all that lovely light you have! Here in the East Midlands, picking up the plants you specifically list, on the allotment:
Beans - poor
Onions - pretty good
Radishes - disaster, hardly any came good, and then only the early ones
Tomatoes -awful, the worst I've known, even Tumbling Tom. Marmande just took one look at the weather and died!
Sweet Peas - like yours, awful
Cosmos - no flowers at all. Lots of leaf and height but no flowers.

Luckily, success with penstemons, dahlias, wallflowers, geraniums (surprisingly, though only moderate success).
I've never had more beautiful fuchsias! Funny thing, Nature!

I've uploaded the photo, but can't put a caption on it.
It's the top one - I would hate anyone to think that I was trying to pass it off as my own garden
Further down there's a picture of my patio plants too.

Wonderful dahlias in the photo, Jane. Thanks.