How was the growing season?

David · How was the growing season?

It's been an unusually wet summer (understatement of the month), so how did your crops go?

We had a great crop of onions...a few got rot from the wet soil, but most did really well, especially sturon. Not one bolted, good sized bulbs, all hanging up to dry now. We Planted through a black film for the first time...what a great way to grow onions...no fiddly weeding, they grew like mad, and you get away with tight spacings because you don't need to leave room for the hoe.

Outdoor tomatoes? they were a joke...beaten by hail, blighted, actually they are flowering now...like a bad joke.

Outdoor sweetcorn got shredded by marble sized hail in july, but came back and look like giving a decent crop, but late.

Kale: excellent

Swedes: looking good but a bit mildewy

Sprouts look good, Delaway cabbage growing like mad ready for the winter.

Beetroot: terrible. I kept trying to sow beet, but it kept raining on the days I had available, so no beet this year. I love beetroot. Reckon it would have grown well, i just couldn't get it sown. Ground was great in april, should have sown then. You know the story, it was almost impossible to get a tilth here in June/July and most of August. Can't believe I was watering the spuds back in Spring.

Runner beans were good, sowed them early, got lucky with frost and had a good early crop of BUton from the seedsavers.

French beans...worst year in ages.

Good crop of chili peppers in the tunnel, and sowed uchiki kuri in tunnel for the first time...glad I did, as the few I put in outside did terribly. Ate our first uchiki squash yesterday...lovely...nutty and dry.

How did everyone else get on?

And any ideas for preserving chili peppers?

D

Camile

Hello,

It sounds like you did well compare to us ..

we didn't have much time this year to take care of the garden having way too much other things to do ..

so what grew well against adversity (1m50 high weeds in some parts) were:

onions -> first year for us and all the bulbs were great .. not a rotten one, all nice sizes .. really surprised. .

shallots the same as onions

lettuce/radishes at the beginning of the season but didn't replant any after.

broad beans but we still didn't harvest them .. peas too .
courgettes mostly all died off ...

pumpkins are doing great ... first year too .. and are the haloween ones so still plenty of time to grow because one fruit might be between a golf and tennis ball ..

can't find me carrots amongst the weeds !

and french beans starting well then all died off ..

cabbages are doing ok .. but only plenting 5 dead looking seedlings ..

big hopes for the polytunnel this winter and next year !

Camile