Vegetable successes during this very dry summer

Blueberries ( two bushes in pots) - overflowing
Strawberries - 4 in total!
Herbs - good
Apples. The tree grown from a pip has produced a reasonable crop but my dwarf apple has lots of very hard, round little apples. Very pretty though.
Cherry bush produced a few fruits this year which were quickly stolen by the pigeons
Salad leaves infested with caterpillars
Peas not bad but never made it to the kitchen as my little granddaughters love them raw
Runner beans only now starting to show
Courgettes a bit pathetic
Nothing on my new dwarf plum tree
BUT MY CUCUMBERS HAVE BEEN AMAZING! ?

Oh, and blackberries - abundant

We haven't grown as much this year due to various reasons, however:

Runner beans - very poor
Courgettes - have done well
Raspberries - good
Loganberries - good (surprisingly as they were poor last year and we nearly replaced them)
Strawberries - poor, barely one meal
Apples - hopeless
Plums- none!
Herbs - ok
Beetroot and root veg - yet to be harvested

For me, this season has been a total disaster. I was slow getting my veg garden started, a combination of weather and being away a lot, then in June, just as I had all my seedlings in, the weather went dry and I went down with a bacterial infection that meant I felt too unwell to do anything but lie around the house for the whole of June and July. By which time everything had died because they were not getting watered properly.

Despite that, I did have some successes.

Rhubarb seems to be inexhaustable and my freezer is full of chopped rhubarb

Remarkable, the pumpkins have done well and I have about 5 lovely butternur squashes and the same number of turks head pumpkins.

Apples are doing very well

Blackcurrants, did reasonably well

Peppers and aubergines in the greenhouse are doing fine.

Foraging locally, the blackberries are having a very good year, abundant and deliciously fully and juicy. I have picked and frozen about 10 lbs and intend to pick more.

Crab apples are really abundant, although my tree will not be ripe until October

Glad it's not just my runner beans that are rubbish. Lots of growth and lush foliage but few beans. I normally eat beans from freezer all winter.
French beans doing well. DH may move out if they continue to be served with every meal.
Courgettes - abundant.
Salads poor.
Cou

Tomatoes outside are good but not so good in the greenhouse.
Cucumbers started off really well. We were giving them away until those really hot days. After that we had enough for us. We cut the plants out this weekend.
Peppers/chillies looking good and just starting to ripen.

Runner beans not cropped well. There have been enough to eat but none to freeze. French beans are doing fine.

Sweetcorn are really poor this year. The courgetts have been poor too.

Brassicas we managed to keep the cabbage whites off with mesh but it didn't keep the white fly out. Hopefully we will get a crop.

Onions and shallots have done well but a bit smaller than last year.

Beetroot, carrots and salads are fine but we have been watering daily.

Herbs are doing well.

We had three plums. Apples cropped really early and very few unblemished ones to keep. I've picked plenty of blackberries and have enough raspberries in the freezer.

Courgettes haven't done very well. The pumpkins are small. Butternut squash are a waste of time. I won't bother with them again.

I don’t normally grow veg but DD thought I needed “a project”! Runner beans hopeless. Climbed and flowered but no beans. A purple podded French bean did better and has produce well. Lots of tumbling tomatoes but of the six plants of standard plum tomatoes, four have produced large plants and no fruit; the other two which I could not provide big enough pots for so considered them to be “sacrificial”, have produced an abundance of fruit. Can anyone explain this, please?
I lost both my flourishing mint plants, my tarragon and a pot of marjoram while we were on holiday. They’ll come back though.

I grew in pots as I don't have much ground space. The garden peas were fabulous. My dgs1 picked pods constantly and ate them raw. I tried beetroot and it was poor and the carrots were also poor. My herbs are fabulous. Lots of chives, sage, tarragon and rosemary. My gooseberry bush didn't flower and the strawberries didn't flower either. I had two tomato plants and they have been prolific. Over forty tomatoes.

Potatoes - good crop of second earlies, main crop looking ok
Carrots - good
Parsnips - mostly good but some failed to germinate
Leeks - poor. Set about 40 but only 9 came through
French beans - poor germination, only two plants made it, and they snapped in the wind
Runner beans - good to start with but stopped in hot weather. Just starting again now
Sweet corn - very good
Courgettes - very good from just one plant. Gave many away as I don't like them (DH does)
Peas - good but less than last year
Onions - good, not as big as last year
Garlic - very good, large bulbs
Butternut squash - monsters! About 3 ft long and horseshoe shaped. There are about 15 growing - I don't know what i'll do with them all!
Pumpkins - 25 growing in all shapes and sizes. Most will be given away to family and friends, some used for soup.
Greenhouse
Cherry tomatoes - enough but not masses
Cucumbers - good, but not as many as previous years
Chilli and peppers - ok, not great so far

I've had problems with seeds germinating this year. Seed sowing compost used wasn't very good.

Like you Chewbacca I have found that cherry tomatoes outside have been super - and I think they'll keep going for a while yet.
Beetroot is looking good.
I have one butternut squash! Keep thinking I should cut it off before something else comes along and eats it.
Yellow globe courgettes have been OKish.

Runner beans absolutely desiccated in the very hot weather but are making a come back now.

My main disaster was the Brussel's sprouts which have been eaten by something - caterpillars I think but i haven't seen any. I'm they only one upset about this - rest of the family is delighted - but I eat them by the plateful!
Something is also eating my rhubarb leaves!

Pittcity

I've found courgettes the easiest to grow Casdon. Just don't plant too many as one plant can produce loads and the leaves are enormous. I once had 4 plants and was overwhelmed.

Thanks Pittcity I’ll remember that and just buy a couple!

I've found courgettes the easiest to grow Casdon. Just don't plant too many as one plant can produce loads and the leaves are enormous. I once had 4 plants and was overwhelmed.

My courgette plant has just given up, so I’ve cleared it and am chancing beetroot and winter carrots, I’ll sow them later today after watering the ground. If I can find the rose for the watering can.

Rhubarb by the kilo here as well, and my mange tout did exceptionally well (but I did water it with the washing up water). My chard is also doing well, and I’ve got a jalapeño pepper plant outside that’s the best I’ve ever had. I wish I’d grown courgettes, will give that a bash next year.

Tomatoes are really good as are carrots,French beans, onions, carrots and beetroot.
Not so good are the fruit bushes and cabbage.
So much rhubarb we have been supplying family, neighbours and the local churches food kitchen.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse got burnt to a crisp but the Tumbler variety, in a hanging basket, have produced very well.
After a dodgy start by overwatering the cucumbers when it was cooler, I cut it right back, ended up with 2 trusses and am made away with a huge glut of mini cucumbers.
First crop potatoes did well growing in sacks.
A bumper crop of blackcurrant resulted in 6 jars of blackcurrant jam.
Bell peppers have, for the first time ever, turned yellow and were delicious.
Peas cropped well initially but the growth rapidly slowed down very early.
Salad leaves have produced continuously all summer.
Main crop of potatoes are looking ok but aren't due to be unearthed for a few weeks yet; I'm thinking a small crop this year due to drought.
I won't bother with tomatoes in the greenhouse again and will just have a couple of Tumbler variety in hanging baskets; they crop amazingly well.

Tomato glut for the first time ever. Bought 2 plants for 10p each as they were near dead and nurtured them back to life.
Courgette doing OK but not as many as usual.
Peas didn't do too well. Neither did the strawberries.
My herb tower is thriving. Maybe because I moved into a shady spot before the heatwave.

I forgot courgettes. The two plants are producing more than we can either eat or give away!

Climbing French beans - good
Cucumbers - v. good
Cabbages - disaster. Literally completely devoured by caterpillars,
Purple sprouting broccoli - my one plant looks poor but should crop OK next year.
Beetroot - Third sowing ok. 1st and 2nd sowings seedlings eaten by snails.
Lettuce - not managed to grow single one to maturity this year!
Brussels sprouts - looking good so far
Carrots - looking ok
Parsnips - looking OK above ground so?
Leeks - still quite small, but I'm hopeful will catch up
Tomatoes - great

Runner beans
Beetroot
Courgettes
Pumpkins.
Fennel
Cucumbers

We had a heavy laden pear tree two days ago. Now all fruit gone, squirrels?

Interesting about runner beans being poor this year, we have had two measly servings from ours so far, I have been told that it’s likely they will be abandoned as our climate changes in favour of French beans, climbing and otherwise.
Such a shame if that happens. Large servings of runner beans are a late summer joy imho.

Apple tree is loaded, but the (cooking) apples are very small.

Courgettes grew quite well until something plucked them and carried them off, each one - as soon as it grew to a size that I thought could be picked.

Runner beans were a disaster. One per plant.

I decided after a couple of bad years of trying to grow tomatoes that this year I wouldn’t bother! Typically they probably would have flourished.

Carrots were quite prolific but quite short and stubby.

My herbs grew well though and my sweet peas did really well.

So , Mixed results, even though I watered them all religiously they only really perked up when we had rain, and that only happened about twice.

It’s been cheaper buying from the market stall than paying for seeds this year! It’s a good job I don’t do it to try to save money.

I’m not sure if our young fruit trees will survive.

Only a small plot in my garden and the greenhouse:
Tomatoes loads, in and out
New potatoes lovely
Courgettes, loads, last year was rubbish
Beetroot good
Carrots good
Chillies and peppers in greenhouse good
Runner and French beans, rubbish.
My friend, whose allotment I help with has had great cabbage too.

I forgot my cucumbers were good too
My mint died when I was on holiday!

Oh, and the jury is still out on my apples, but there are a far more windfalls this year than normally