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Gardening

What will you never grow again?

(88 Posts)
karmalady Sat 03-Sept-22 08:23:34

I have gone from allotment to a new house with a small garden and I grow fruit, flowers and veg

I am giving up on brassicas, I only planted one sprout and one purple sprouting this year, under net. They have grown beautifully strong but the cabbage white got in and the slugs and snails attacked. Now the area stinks of cabbage and the plants are full of holes and covered top to bottom with slug, snail and caterpillar poo and I cannot walk past without a swarm of shiny blue flies rising up

Definitely not worth my while any more, I am giving up on brassicas

Fleurpepper Sat 03-Sept-22 17:20:45

Strawberries- just don't want to spend my time fighting slugs and snails. I am replacing them all with raspberries- so easy to grow, no wrries with the above, and no worries about foxes either. Win, win. and I really prefer raspberries.

lovebeigecardigans1955 Sat 03-Sept-22 17:16:39

Beautiful violets have taken over my borders, as yet I forgive them. I'll probably never grow lupins again as past efforts have attracted an enormous amount of aphids and I've never successfully grown Michaelmas daisies without them succumbing to mildew.

snowberryZ Sat 03-Sept-22 17:16:32

Peas.
I spent ages putting little support canes in and then netting.
I think we had 1/2 cup of peas all told.
And birds eye petis poi's taste better.

Germanshepherdsmum Sat 03-Sept-22 17:16:19

After this year’s performance I’m thinking about whether to bother with sweet peas next year.

LadyGracie Sat 03-Sept-22 17:06:58

Beetroot - we had only ONE!
Dahlias, they get eaten, we'll stick to geraniums next year.

Nell8 Sat 03-Sept-22 13:21:49

I was pleased when lily of the valley appeared from next door. This year it took over a shady bed, so I'm afraid it's been hoiked out.
Likewise a passion flower which sent runners out underground. I felt bad about attacking that one given the symbolism of its flowers.

Elizabeth27 Sat 03-Sept-22 13:04:22

Courgettes, as they take up too much room and do not taste any better than the ones from a supermarket which are cheap and readily available.

BlueBelle Sat 03-Sept-22 13:01:04

Another one who’s not going to try brassica next year even under nets they were eaten to the ground over night
Not so many potatoes ✖️
No brassica✖️Kale and chard seem fine ✔️
Cucumbers in my garden in pots have done well ✔️in the ground at allotment not done well ✖️
Be more clever about staggering the runner beans had a glut all at once too many to eat

My montbretia which I have a lot has done very poorly this year although I ve watered regularly

Casdon Sat 03-Sept-22 12:07:37

Carrots, I don’t know why I bothered as they don’t do well, I don’t really like them - but the dog does so he digs them up to eat.
Spanish bluebells, very pretty but thuggish.
Montbretia - the corms are such hard work to dig up as they form deep, thick mats.

Chocolatelovinggran Sat 03-Sept-22 12:03:29

Beware the bamboo....

merlotgran Sat 03-Sept-22 11:23:00

Another thumbs down for Alium triquetrum. I had to dig out loads of it when I moved here last autumn . I bet it will be back next spring.

Jaxjacky Sat 03-Sept-22 11:03:18

Full size cucumbers, too much, mini munch are perfect. Rocket, gets riddled by flea beetles. Coriander, I’m fed up with trying, it bolts every time, great for seeds, but I want leaf.

Callistemon21 Sat 03-Sept-22 10:52:41

Broccoli
The sprouting broccoli was fine but when I picked a large head of broccoli it was full of cabbage white caterpillars.

Sprouts - they were tiny and again, full of holes.

Peppers - they get holes in and never turn red before they go soft.

karmalady Sat 03-Sept-22 10:48:47

sweet peas too, You cannot forget cutting them, blink and they turn to seed and the plants become straggly and unattractive

I am doubling up on shallots and carrots next year, trouble-free here in rotations

Not even bothering with beans next year, tall are too prolific for only me and I cannot reach the top. Dwarf were useless this year and I have just bought a bag full of organic green beans from the local wholefood shop and a cucumber. Not worth me buying these seeds again

lixy Sat 03-Sept-22 10:46:59

Grape hyacinths (muscari) are another contender in the race for world domination. I've spent many hours going through my small rockery trying to get all the tiny bulblets out - a legacy from previous owners. I have offered bulbs to friends and neighbours but no takers!!

Having said that I saw a variety that has a top knot that looked fun. If I find it for sale I'll be keeping it in a pot though.

JaneJudge Sat 03-Sept-22 10:45:52

Rhubarb and any kind of squash as I don;t like them and they always do extremely well grin

Beauregard Sat 03-Sept-22 10:41:38

Brassicas here too. Apart from being full of caterpillars, at their peak we were cutting about ten cauliflowers the size of footballs all at once and having to freeze the majority. I don't like them much when they've been frozen.

I won't grow peppers again. Something is making holes in them and they're going bad on the plant before ripening. The babycorn is not very good either, so I'll leave that out next year too.

MrsKen33 Sat 03-Sept-22 10:40:04

Cucamelons. Grew quite a few but what for, I now wonder.?

Witzend Sat 03-Sept-22 10:39:36

Tomatoes. Just too much faff when - at least in summer - you can find very tasty, U.K. grown ones in the shops. Those I grew last year from supposedly ‘special’ seed weren’t even very tasty.

And trad climbing sweet peas. I had masses of flowers from mine (from necessity grown in very big pots) but they grew so straggly and untidy it became impossible to support them properly. If there’s a next time, I’ll try the dwarf ones.

J52 Sat 03-Sept-22 10:34:54

Isn’t it odd that some plants are thugs in some gardens and not in others. I know conditions are different everywhere, but for example, I’ve had gardens where Japanese Anemone never spreads and I just couldn’t grow Alchemilla Mollis no matter where I put it.

Oldnproud Sat 03-Sept-22 10:32:42

Chinese lanterns and lily if the valley. Both got.
Oh, and Russian sage (perovskia ). I had one that behaved itself beautifully for nearly ten years, then one year suddenly started invading the surrounding area!

nanna8 Sat 03-Sept-22 10:31:05

Basil. It gets eaten as soon as I plant it out . I have tried netting it but the creatures love it so much they burrow underneath. Beasts ! Also wild iris - takes over, comes up everywhere. Beautiful flowers but they only last a day.

AskAlice Sat 03-Sept-22 10:26:34

Acanthus Mollis Spinosa (Bear's Breeches). I bought one at the Chelsea Flower show when they were all the rage in the Show gardens with nice single specimens standing alone in the middle of the borders. It was a thug, overshadowed everything else and far too big and spreading for my small-ish garden. 20 years later, I am still trying to get rid of it. I thought I had finally done it last year when I painstakingly removed every single bit of root but this year it has appeared again threatening to overwhelm nearby shrubs!

Also Japanese Anemones - same thing, can't get rid of the blasted things and the previous owner of this house had dotted them around in totally the wrong places...

Maybe I should just give in gracefully and let them take over grin

MaizieD Sat 03-Sept-22 10:26:18

Nannytopsy

Arum italicum pictum. (The one with variegated leaves.) It is desperately invasive and leaves tiny dark bulbils deep in the soil which are impossible to completely remove. I eventually resorted to black plastic and bark mulch across a whole flower bed.
And brassicas!

When I bought that the woman at the nursery assured me it wasn't as invasive as the common type.... I don't want to entirely get rid of it, but I'm very severe with it.

OTOH Planting allium triquetum was my big mistake. It's clearly bent on world domination and it isn't a particularly attractive plant anyway. I dig out tons of it every year...

I've given up on most brassicas, too. Perfectly sound looking cabbages turn out to be riddled with slugs when cut into.

Farmor15 Sat 03-Sept-22 10:15:54

Jerusalem artichokes - the most windy vegetable I ever ate!
Also aubergines - we have a polytunnel and tomatoes, peppers etc do well but only ever got one aubergine despite trying a number of years.