This year is turning out to not be that great for my veg

[nymphadora]

I have a lot of tomato plants that have finished already & I have a huge pile of green toms. Just stripped the cabbage & there is enough for 2 jars to pickle.

Lots of stuff has bolted due to the drought/flooding cycle we seem to be on and loads going mouldy if I miss a day picking fruit.

Startedso promising

I was talking to my allotment neighbour who has had his allotment for 15 years. He was saying that he can't remember such a difficult year for growing so I think we should all congratulate ourselves on anything we manage to grow.

My cucumbers are very happy - everything else not at all. The raspberries failed completely - very about that.

Wynken what is it about this years weather that is so bad for veg?

runner beans are late here but look promising crop wise atm, rhubarb is stunted but was needing rescuing anyway, and courgettes look as if they are about to take over the world. tomatoes are looking very poorly, worse then last year and i killed the pepper plants this year whilst they were seedlings, just thought it was my gardening and memory skills.

Interesting.

My beans have not be yielding at all well, peas pathetic. Early potates were OKish but not a good yield despite loads of manure and water. Tomatoes lower leaves gone yellow. Lettuces were good grown indoors with intensive nursing but outdoor ones got eaten by weevils. Maincrop potatoes flowering but tall and leggy and not hopeful. Carrots have already been invaded by root fly, parsnips did not grow and courgettes not flowering at all yet. No pears at all but good apple crop which are prematurely dropping. Disaster.

My Dad (ex farmer) says the drought has stopped the sillage crop stone dead and cereals are all dying off early with poor yields.

In 9yrs of growing veg, this is the worst year ever for soft fruits and most veg.
The only thing was is doing well is the apple tree.
The late spring and drought has not helped at all

It depends where you are but down here we haven't had any rain to speak of since April 2nd combined with a hard frost mid may that did over a whole load of stuff on the allotments, some very harsh winds recently and everything is just very parched.

Having said that we're not doing too badly considering. Have come home today with raspberries, runners, garlic, carrots, spuds, courgettes, cucumbers, spinach, chilli and a yellow squash.

Our strawberries were pathetic and something has got under the netting and nicked all the gooseberries. The potatoes are not producing much per plant. I'm just amazed how well the courgettes and beans are doing with no water.

Yup, def a bad year this year. I follow a few gardening blogs and everyone all over the country is reporting similar. I've just taken on an allotment and we're all struggling (not helped by lack of running water, hard clay soil and perennial weeds left to run wild for the previous 9 years) Some things are doing well but some crops have been an out and out disaster.

So far we've had nice sized potatoes, strawberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, onions, peas and a couple of tomatoes/courgettes.

But saying that, it is a bad year, our beans don't look very healthy at all (nor my mums apparently and she's been gardening all her life). Its just so dry. You can water, but its just not enough for them.

We're in the West Midlands.

One strawberry and three raspberries so far here, but found out that the Autumn Bliss raspberries are summer ones, so pruned all wrong. Runners and dwarf beans have been good as are squashes, and toms ok so far.

Carrots and radishes all leaves and no veg because dh put manure on bed in the spring and not autumn!

Nowhere near as good as last year for me on my second year of allotmenting. The peas & broad beans weren't great (OKish, but much reduced crop on last year), my sweetcorn has mostly perished in the drought, onions bolted, even my beetroot (which should be easy) hasn't germinated that well (ditto the parsnips) and the early potatoes were pitiful. Strawberries didn't crop heavily, ditto rasberries and redcurrants, but the goosberries and especially the blackcurrants were loaded. Runner and French beans are just begining to crop, but don't look as if they will be all that prolific. Courgettes have gone mad as have the other squashes and the tomatoes are fruiting some.

Strawberries did well but were over earlier. Raspberries were doing ok but last coupleof days there has been loads of mouldy ones. It's v wet here (Cumbria)

Greenhouses are doing ok but they need more sun.

At the moment I think I have had a greater weight in strawberries than potatoes! On the plus side the potatoes are clean!

Courgettes are doing well but they are high maintenance as having to water every couple of days.

It's all doing okay but only just is my feel.

Potatoes shoeing no signs of being near yet

Peas did ok as did carrots on the first cycle but later ones are failing

beans and potatoes have been pathetic. Strawberries were good.
wish I had grown courgettes this year
carrots took several attempts but going ok now.
Cauliflower first time I've grown it - not bad but starting to bolt a bit.
currants amazing - utterly stunning amounts.

loads of my stuff bolted too
the old boys at the lottys said it had beena bad year for eveyone

I have to live off courgettes and perpetual salad

I planted loads of salad stuff & it's one thing I've gone off being pg , so ended up not refreshing it

BeenBeta - we can only make silage here as the weather has been too wet for hay. It has rained constantly for almost six weeks now. Perth had a month of rain fall in one day.

Good have been cucumbers, courgettes and raspberries. Apples and plums have a good crop but will not ripen unless we get sunshine.

Poor year for strawberries, tomatoes (no sun), runner beans, onions and the flowers.

My whole garden's looking pretty bad - the drought is slowly seeing everything off. We've had no rain to speak of for over a month, now.

On the other hand, my aubergines are looking good - wish I'd planted more. And a few exotics that I'd had out last year as annuals have germinated in the drought!

Swans - am I right in thinking you used to go by another name until fairly recently?

Glad you got something to feed the cattle on anyway. My Dad was saying the farmers round his way (N Yorkshire) have nothing in the barn for winter and nothing in the field for cows/sheep to eat now.

[BeenBeta -

I think the prices of cereal have risen and heaven knows what will happen if it is another cold winter. Most of the local farmers stopped growing barley (no demand) and are trying either wheat or oats this year.

The cold, wet weather here is very demoralising and even with the short pockets of sunshine, the fields are too wet to use machinery.
I feel so sorry for the farmers affected by the heatwave as it will cause untold worry in the months to follow plus extra expense in having to import winter feed, straw etc.

STrange - we were just commenting today what a good year it was for fruit and veg....

All our trees are overloaded with fruit - apples, pear and plums.
Only have a small veggy plot, but incredible crop of french beans, mangetout and courgettes (is it possible to have a bad crop of courgettes?). Garlic hasn't been dug up yet, but DH did look at one and that doesn't seem very big yet. Tomatoes are still doing fine and were the earliest we have ever had this year.

My tomatoes are rubbish this year and a lot of my veg has bolted.

However I'm hoping for bumper crop of apples and plums.

This is the first year we have had a garden and we have dabbled in lots of veg. So far I thought it was all doing well. We are in London and the weather has been dry and sunny most days. I water daily. Everything went in the ground late as we moved in Easter weekend and didn't have the garden ready for use until a month later so we are probably behind everyone else. Most was grown from seed.

We have what seems like hundreds of tomatoes. Today I noticed some turning from green to yellow which I presume means they will ripen soon.

Carrots have done really well. We have picked some early ones already. The sweetcorn looks like it will do well. My aubergine and french beans have started flowering. Cucumbers have flowered loads - waiting for the cucumbers to grow. Peas have been so sweet and lovely. I have peppers growing and loads of chilli peppers too. Hopefully they will all ripen.

Strawberries were few and far between. Raspberries seem good though.

Lettuce is plentiful and delicious as are the herbs.

There's a nice (very short) BBC piece on the drought in the East of England affecting gardeners and farmers here.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10766501