A Good Year in the Garden

[Catweazle]

I don't use any poisons or sprays, so I suffer butterflies, greenfly, slugs and snails. My gardening efforts were pitiful this year, it started badly when I had to confine the chickens and ducks to the polytunnel because of avian flu warnings, and never recovered. Early shoots in the tunnel is usually my motivation to get the beds ready for planting.

Must try harder.

[kenneal - lagger]

That sums up our summer Cat. We've got a reasonable crop of very large tomatoes but overall the yield is down because of the extreme heat early on which made our tomato plants grow very well but with few flowering trusses. Cucumbers have been very good if a little late. The aubergines and peppers went into the other polytunnel late because the chickens were in there and we have a few small peppers but the aubergine plants are only just starting to flower. Not much hope there.

Potatoes have been good as have runner beans and our leaks are enormous. Eating apples have been excellent but the Bramleys have been very poor due to cold weather when they were in flower. We've had a few plums and no pears for the same reason. Kale is coming on nicely. We planted a new to us squash this year, Trombone, and the plants have gone barmy with about two dozen large fruit on the plants and dozens of smaller ones. I've been cutting off the very small fruit and we've been grating it into minced beef and cooking it up together. Tasted very good indeed and saves wasting the smaller fruit. The large fruit seems to keep well: we've had one which was showing signs of end rot so I cut it off the plants and cut the end off. We've eaten part of it and the rest has been sitting around for a couple of weeks and is still in good condition. We've got four large fruit on one pumpkin plant as well.

[careful_eugene]

Middling year at the allotment for me too, Asparagus, onions / shallots, Parsnips, courgettes all good, potatoes were a disaster (presumably due to not enough water), not many peas in comparison to plants. Not a great year for squash but I think the problem is that I'm not hand-pollinating just relying on the insects to do the work. I'm in the process of changing over to a no dig system as others on our site are doing this successfully.

[kenneal - lagger]

A no dig system requires a lot of compost which we have at the moment from a large heap of mixed gorse clippings, old hay and cattle dung on the common where we graze our cattle. There's about 50 tonnes of the stuff and no one else seems to want it. Shame!!

I really must source a grass catcher for my ride on mower so that we can easily pick the grass up for composting. Doing that would encourage wild flowers in the grass and also add a lot to the compost heap. All the grass clippings would probably speed up decomposition as well. We've got a WWOOFer in at the weekend so I'll have to get her to turn some of my compost for me!

[BritDownUnder]

I harvested about 10kg of potatoes yesterday morning. About one square meter in area so I am quite pleased with the yield which I expected to be lower as they have been in the ground for nearly six months since planting. They were starting to grow some new shoots.
I have not had time to go in the garden or it has been too wet due to rain for most of the last three months. Mosquitos have been a problem in recent months and I have bought a few fixed to the wall bug zappers.

[kenneal - lagger]

I was worried about my leeks which have grown really well this year. Apparently that is the problem: they have grown too well so the outer leaves are too soft and are rotting. That is according to the Radio 2 allotment holder on the Jeremy Vine Show.

[emordnilap]

23rd December 2021 west of Ireland: tomatoes are still ripening on the vine in the conservatory. Outdoor temperature: 11ºC.

[kenneal - lagger]

Make the most of it, Em. If the Gulf Stream slows much more we could be looking at the climate of Newfoundland or South East Alaska.

[emordnilap]

Make the most of it, Em. If the Gulf Stream slows much more we could be looking at the climate of Newfoundland or South East Alaska.

True.

[BritDownUnder]

More potatoes planted yesterday. The weather has been a bit cold here by local standards. Some peas and beans were planted earlier in June along with some spinach and lettuce in the greenhouse. Oranges, lemons and mandarins are on the tree ready to be harvested when required.

[kenneal - lagger]

You're lucky, BDU. We don't usually plant much in December! Broad beans can go in in a mild November but December and January are usually a no no unless you are planting in a greenhouse of polytunnel.

We've had very little rain here for a month and none likely for the next ten days or so. I'm running out of stored rainwater so will have to go over to expensive metered mains water!! My early potatoes have produced well but the main crop are still growing and the soil is getting dry. I have put a bit of water on them and they cover the bed well so that the sun doesn't get in to dry the soil. They are also in a Heugel Kultur bed with lots of tree trunks and organic matter in so hopefully they will get enough moisture from that.

[automaticearth2]

This is not the normal place that I would post. However, my plum tree has exploded with fruit - 2 months early, plus my chili plant has been growing outside. Is this proof of climate change?

[kenneal - lagger]

This is not the normal place that I would post. However, my plum tree has exploded with fruit - 2 months early, plus my chili plant has been growing outside. Is this proof of climate change?

Probably but not certainly. If it happens a few years in a row or gets worse/better, depending on how you look at it, you can be more certain.

[Catweazle]

This is not the normal place that I would post. However, my plum tree has exploded with fruit - 2 months early, plus my chili plant has been growing outside. Is this proof of climate change?

My plum trees flowered very early, there were hardly any bees around, so very little fruit. Raspberries are crazy though, and the blackberry crop looks to be huge.

[clv101]

Similar - zero plums from half a dozen different varieties.