I am not gardening next year! ??‍♀️

We bought a small Polytunnel, spent a fortune on soil and seeds, tomatoes were amazing until one day they all fell over covered in big brown blotches, nothing else grew larger than 3 inches until I planted them outdoors.
Only had about 6 runner beans
About 20 carrots
And about 40 small potatoes
8 pea pods
Plenty of lettuce though and a couple of courgettes.
Peppers didnt grow
Ditto Leeks
Ditto spring onions

Bearing in mind I had to water most days morning , noon and evening, it wasn’t worth the hassle.
However, it was lockdown and gave me something to do and the wild rabbits loved it all.

I’m just about to pull up some Chinese cabbage which has been ravaged by caterpillars, I failed to put up the protection before the butterflies did their bit.

You win some you lose some

Everyone I speak to seems to have had tomatoes problems this year. A hot spell followed by a cold spell didnt do them any good at all.

However, everything else seems fine and we've had loads of beans, too many cucumbers etc.
?

I've planted three lots of carrots in different places, 2 lots were eaten when just beginning to make good leafy plants, the others were scrabbled up by, I suspect, a neighbouring cat when the seedlings started poking their heads through the soil.

2 sowings of peas were eaten by something

No seeds of large tomatoes germinated, (the cherry ones did, and they've been fine)

Planted out some nice healthy cabbage seedlings, 3 days later they were just stalks - I suspect pigeons..

Leek seeds mostly failed to germinate, seedlings that did come through were demolished by slugs/snails

Elephant garlic went to seed..

Radishes remain resolutely thin then go to seed..

Had a bitter courgette plant

Isn't gardening fun

Peppers didnt grow
I got some peppers but they went soft.
Goodness knows why I persevere with peppers.

Rose and dahlia flowers eaten by squirrels.
Osteospermum and geranium eaten by caterpillars.
Me eaten by mosquitos.
Ill probably be back out there again next year though !!!

Aw, these are sad tales of woe! I’m sorry your efforts came to little but I admire your sense of humour. ❤️

I sowed 5 packs of nasturtium seeds in the borders and had zero results. However a small area we are rebuilding where nothing had been planted at all this year produced a superb display of different nasturtiums. Somehow seeds from last years flowers must have planted themselves in that spot. They obviously like it there.

There's always next year ----we've got another 6 months to go so just in time for more planting if all goes to plan in 2021.

Callistemon

Everyone I speak to seems to have had tomatoes problems this year. A hot spell followed by a cold spell didnt do them any good at all.

However, everything else seems fine and we've had loads of beans, too many cucumbers etc.
?

Just to be contrary, I have lovely tomatoes every day at the moment. They grew themselves in the borders from seeds which must have been from last years crop. All I have done is prop them up and trimmed off the bits that need trimming.

I have been making a tasty veg to add to meals by frying onion in olive oil, adding tomatoes, reduce down a bit and add balsamic vinegar.

I am looking forward to another good year in the garden. After half a century of gardening- I have learnt one main thing - grow what grows well where you are, and nothing else.

This old country house has a cottage garden full of hardy perenials and roses - and I love it. And I only grow easy veggies and fruit that slugs can't reach. Given up on strawberries and swapped for raspberries - easy peasy and no worry about foxes contaminating them. Chard, leeks, small tomatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, etc. Peppers in large pots with copper collars, now inside on table by window sill in sun.

I don't want to fight with wildlife, and no joy in growing stuff that is not suitable.

We had some good cucumbers, a few good potatoes earlier on, radishes were good, beans mediocre and not many of them, lots of tomatoes but watery and tasteless so, yes, a disappointing year in the garden. It was something to do in the lockdown though so I'd probably do it all again.

We have had really good crops this year but we have did as Nina said and just planted what us usually does well.

We have had a lot of tomatoes,onions,French beans,carrots and beetroot.A few cabbages survived the butterflies?

The rhubarb has gone mad!We cut it back to nothing twice but it has grown to triffid proportions again!

Our potato yield has been low because of the hot dry spells and they were planted late.

Half the cauliflowers went to seed in the time it took me to nip indoors and put the kettle on!

Hispi cabbages didn't heart up as well as last year.

Swede and Turnips disappointing.

Not as many runner beans as expected and something ate the French ones.

Successes were, courgettes, onions, shallots, all salad crops, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, kale, celeriac, leeks, fennel and beetroot.

We've had about three or four tomatoes from the 3 plants given to us by our SiL. The rest are still green. The cucumber has done well with lots of beautiful long fruit.
DH planted sweet peas of assorted colours, when they flowered they were all red. I picked some for a vase in the house, the scent was overpowering.
Pests such as greenfly and whitefly have been prolific though.

I am in the process of potting bulbs. To say that my relationship with bulbs has broken down is, to say the least an understatement. Pop them in the ground and they are ecstatic, they bloom profusely. Introduce them to a pristine pot, fill it with the best compost for bulbs, measure meticulously the depth they should be planted, and give them a nice winter top coat and they lie their sulking, then realising they are on death row, push out a profusion of greenery thinking I won’t notice there are no blooms. Well they have been replaced, and this lot had better do what they are supposed to do or else next spring .....................

We have had loads of tomatoes, still more to ripen. The outdoor ones planted in the ground have been especially good - even after they got frosted they recovered. Cucumber, just picked the last one after having good crop.
Runner beans are on their second flowering, so plenty of those. Plenty of french ones as well.
Carrots have been good this year, sometimes they are rubbish.
Chillies not so good, think wrong variety was chosen.
Loads of rhubarb.

My OH built a cage to cover the cabbage/sprouting broccoli plants so they have stayed clear of caterpillars.

I had hundreds of tomatoes this year from 4 plants-my last green ones are on the kitchen window sill now in the sun. All my flowers did well too. I'm on the south coast though so have had hours of sunshine. Only had one decent courgette though and lots of baby tiny ones.

Bluebellwould. I am guessing your soil is exceptionally dry. Autumn is a great time to introduce lots of organic matter and it can be simply dug in at this time of year.
Lawn clippings lightly sprinkled over the soil then loads of shredded leaves dug in to rot down over the winter and a green manure over every inch of bare soil should give you more successful results next year.

We've had a bumper year for potatoes, onions, peas, French beans, courgettes, brassicas and parsnips. This may be because we keep our three horses next to the veg plot, so manure is in abundance! It was very good for the weeds too, unfortunately.

The beans were battered by high winds and some were broken, but most survived. Cauliflower and broccoli went from good, to riddled with caterpillars, to gone to seed in just two weeks. I couldn't keep up with them.

We've had a poor year for tomatoes. It's my first year using a greenhouse and I have done better growing them outside in the past. The tomato plants leaves curled up and their growth was stunted. The only explanation I could find suggested it could be weedkiller in the air, sprayed by someone nearby??

No, everyone has mentioned the same about their tomatoes this year, Beauregard.

Bluebelle you could spread manure and let the worms do the work for you over the winter.

We've had better vegetables this year and it is probably because of the manure spread out and left to do its work last winter.

Tomatoes good, though been getting blight warnings for last month, early potatoes lovely, main crop poor, courgettes sooo slow, French beans good. Swede, parsnip looking good at the top, Cavale Nero, kale, sprouts caged with debris netting, flourishing.
Carrots have been rubbish this year, I’ve been growing veg for 15 years, every year it’s bugs or weather! That’s how it goes, but I’ll be cracking on again soon.

Not a year goes by that I don’t say “I’m not bothering with this b****y garden next year!” Then one morning you're out there and see new green shoots, the first sight of hellebores, crocus and other early birds and you’re suckered sucked in again. “A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, fringed pool, Ferned grot.....”. Thomas Edward Brown.

jazjacky unlike you my courgettes have grown at breakneck speed and I ve had so many per plant

Bluebelle you could spread manure and let the worms do the work for you over the winter callistimon where did that come from I haven’t been on this thread yet ?

My tomatoes are only just going red now everyone has said the same but they are going and even the slightly turning ones will ripen inside
My chard was excellent sweet corn a bit iffy some not as full as I d have like Radishes were like cotton threads Potatoes were plentiful but had some black spots on the surface but it made no difference to the potato it was surface only shallots were very good and plentiful Excellent strawberries and raspberries
I m happy and looking forward to next year