What worked and didn’t work in the garden

 

Florence Fennel – easy to germinate, slugs like it, used half pop bottles with copper tape to deter them.  Left it a bit too late to get any decent sized bulbs but haven’t harvested them yet so who knows.  Some seeds left.

 

Celery – germinates easily, slugs don’t seem too bothered.  Needs a mulch and lots of water.  The celery grew easily enough but long and straggly and tasted stringy.  Don’t know why this happened.  Only one of the plants went to seed.  Some seeds left

 

Gherkins – I think they were called vert de paris from seeds of italy.  Grew well and got a few fruit considering it was a bad summer.  Tasted nice when picked for a few days in vinegar.  Need to boil vinegar to prevent fungus.  Have some seeds left.

 

Courgettes – grew striato di napoli from real seeds – plants grew well and got quite a few seeds but not a glut.  Good texture and appearance.  Will use these again.

 

Apples – another excellent crop (red devil)

 

Grapes – good crop, bigger fruit than last year, thinning worked well, the skins were a bit thick.

 

Cherries – poor crop despite many flowers, I think the birds must have got them, might need to net them, or put up bird scarers.  Also maybe poor pollination, might be worth hand pollinating in future.

 

Raspberries – good crop again.

 

Blackcurrants – quite a good crop, not as heavy as last year, a lot dropped in august. 

 

Blueberries – another miserable crop.  Might take them to allotment this winter, in which case repot them.  There is some new peat-free ericaceous compost on the market, need to try and persuade them to sell it in seed store. 

 

Mushrooms – waste of time

 

Garlic chives – very disappointing 

 

What worked and didn’t on the allotment

 

Broad beans – good crop of aquadulce Claudia and super aquadulce, started off in greenhouse

 

Peas – modest crop of Feltham first

 

Mangetout – good crop

 

Runner and French beans – poor crop due to poor soil on allotment

 

Brassicas – no crop at all, didn’t transplant well at all, next year I will grow them on until they are very strong before planting out

 

Potatoes – very poor crop of everything due to competition from weeds and blight.  Mimi, roseval, sante. 

 

Beetroot – modest crop of sanguina.  Decent size roots.  Tends to bolt.

 

Carrot – modest crop of chantenay in buckets 

 

Leeks – poor crop as didn’t reserve bed for them

 

Onions – red baron, sturon – very poor crop due to competition from weeds

 

Shallots – longor – modest crop despite competition from weeds.  Use these again.

 

Garlic – excellent crop of all despite competition from weeds.  Started off in greenhouse.  Albigensian wight (doesn’t store well), Lautrec wight, Iberian wight

 

Spring onion – rubbish crop again

 

Sorrel, radicchio – have grown well for transplanting next spring

 

Orach – very disappointing, didn’t take well to transplanting

 

Tomatoes – very poor crop of all due to blight.  Also soil very poor.  Modest crop of millefleur in hanging baskets in garden.