So, as we near the end of the fruit/veg season, what was a success/failure for you

[FagButt]

cucumber - only had a few from 2 plants
victoria plums - bumper year, best ever.
apples - not many this time, no idea why?
carrots - another bumper year
climbing beans - seemed to be not so tender this year
baby toms - bumper crop
courgettes - a good crop but a great many rotted on the plant before mature
strawbs - very good season

and no idea why my sweet peas were few and far between

so a mixed season for me.

you?

Carrots - great
Onions - great
Strawberries - late but tasty
Radishes - early crops brilliant (Feb-June), later ones very slow
Beetroot - great
Courgettes - great

Sweet peas - fail at home but reasonable success in school garden
Outdoor tomatoes - almost total fail, very few ripened before blight set in
Cherries - far less than last year

Runner and broad beans reliable as always, potatoes ditto.

oh yes i forgot my potatoes - they gew in bags, not a massive crop but very tasty nonetheless

Cherries obviously I have no control over, but my garden suffered a bit this year, I helped set up a gardening club at the DCs school, put so much effort into it that my own took a bit of a back seat and I was late planting a lot of stuff (tomatoes and sweet peas especially). The tomatoes at school which were out earlier were no better though, just not enough hot weather at the right time.

Oh yes and sunflowers - total fail - slugs or birds ate the seedling as soon as I planted them out.

Had a great year with everything except tomatoes (again), would like my cucumbers to have been a bit more productive, and my aubergine produced lots of flowers but none set into fruit (again). Need a greenhouse....

I give up with cucumbers & peppers. Next year I'm only going to grow tomatoes in the greenhouse.

We have quite a few fruit trees in our garden. We have had a fair quantity of fruit keeping in mind the ages of the trees but the flavour has been disappointing.

On the allotment:
Strawberries produced a good crop but with only an ordinary flavour. The plants have all come out and I am now waiting for 75 new plants to arrive to create a new bed.
Early plum did very well
Good potato crops
Dwarf french beans were nasty (leathery)
Broad, runner and climbing beans were all good
Beetroot was a revelation (only ever had pickled as a child which I roundly loathe)
Courgettes were good

Having tried out a few things on the plot I now only grow the things we like and which are good value to grow.

On the tool front:

Rotavator is a god send, the soil is breaking up beautifully now
Strimmer is really useful for keeping things tidy though after a couple of near misses I am wearing safety glasses
My new latest toy is a ridging hoe. I was playing with it today while putting in tulip bulbs. Worked a treat.

Garlic - Brilliant
Onions& shallots - good flavour but small
Runner beans - loads as usual
Peas - nice but got slugged
Blueberries - lots and tasty
Raspberries - great
Parsnips - huge!
Carrots - fail
French beans - a couple but disappointing
Blackberries - fail but new plant
Brussels sprouts - giant
Strawberries - not that great

pears - good.
raspberries not bad though they got botyris part way through the season
courgettes - reasonable
sweetcorn - miserable - many turned out deformed
apples - brilliant
tomatoes - almost total fail - blight.

For next year i have thought i may grow for the first time

sweetcorn
garlic
beetroot

good idea or waste of time?

Strawberries and garlic weren't good, tomatoes got blight. DD's daikon bolted.
Chilli Plants aren't doing well, Brussels got eaten but are growing back. Killed indoor toms, aubergine and melons as had no time to water.Pumpkins didn't germinate.

Have got sweetcorn coming out of my ears, cucumbers have finally slowed down and I had to stop picking beans and let them get big in their pods fir drying.

Rainbow chard is massive and a show stopper with the tourists (don't ask ). Raspberries and potatoes great. Scarlett kale good and so is White Beetroot.

Too early to tell on Yacon and Oca, parsnips look ok and so does Florence fennel.Tried a squash called something like Melonette de Jaspee de Vendee which is fantastic and have loads of butternut squash.

Finally got some golden sweet mange tout on third sowing and courgettes produced at a sensible level.

Beetroot were dead easy to grow, seeds straight into the ground and water, job done. But I don't like them very much to eat. We grew them at school and they were the first thing to sell out in our end of summer sale last week though, so a lot of people must like them.

I'm giving up on tomatoes both at home and school I think, get blight every single time.

At home I haven't got a lot of space and have tended to grow a few each of lots of different things, next year i'm going the other way with more each of fewer types, and looking at things that keep or that we eat all the time thus avoiding gluts. So, probably onions, carrots, rocket, radishes, and I might give over my three tubs that I use for tomatoes to peas.

Beetroot is good to grow, and best of all you can get non-purple varieties, so no staining issues. The other varieties taste the same, but are golden or striped - I do a delicious salad using a few different varieties julienned with pear with feta cheese and a lemon dressing, it tastes great and looks fabulous!

oooh thanks for the beetroot info. A friend has been giving me some fab ones from her alottment and i thought i would give them a go.

allotment

FagButt we have a small allotment so I have decided to concentrate on the 'high margin' items like new potatoes, garlic and soft fruit. As Wynken said, in the season you will have sweetcorn coming out of your ears (ooohh a gardening pun!). We found it occupied a lot of space for one big glut with nothing before or after.

If you do decide to grow it plant it in blocks not rows for maximum pollination.

great: garlic, onions, courgettes (still going!), plums. blackberries

ok: apples, potatoes (needed more water than I gave them, fall apart if boiled but great roasted), tomatoes (grew in a polytunnel for first time. they're ripe, but fewer than I expected, will do fewer plants next year), sweetcorn

poor: carrots (again), peas (forgot to pick!), cauliflower

next year will do fewer spuds, add some raspberries, shallots and flowers for cutting, remember to water the carrots and pick the peas :)

was at the allotment this morning digging and planning, love the planning stage.

Oh I love the planning phase!

fail: peas, cauliflower, sweetcorn, garlic (don't ask me how! I thought it was indestructable) carrots, spring onions (grrr), courgettes (very disappointing), radishes (again.. how?), blackcurrants got disease,

success: strawbs, tomatos, chillis, tomatillos, beans, potatos, sweetcorn, squashes, a melon outside!! beetroot, parsnips, onions, broad beans, gooseberries,

Highlights were
Strawberries
Raspberries
Asparagus peas
Peas
Sweet peas
Potatoes
Cucumber
Peppers

Failures were
Tomatoes, not many & not ripening

Fail
The tomatoes in the greenhouse were a disaster, the spares that I couldn't bear to throw away and slotted in the veg garden outside were brilliant.
Peppers and cucumbers also poor. Chillis - well it's a good job the freezer is still full of last year's bumper crop as there were none this year.
French beans - where did they go?
Garlic - a bit small, I was late putting it in.
My tubs and baskets were a failure as well this year in spite of me being organised early.

Success
Runner beans -freezer bursting with them.
Raspberries.
Blackcurrants.
Dahlias are abundant.