My year hasn't been too bad for fruit & veg. Some winners and some losers as with most years.
Garlic was hit & miss at the start of the year. Not really enough rain in the spring to fatten them up so they went over quite early. The white stuff was pretty small and most of the bulbs split so I broke them down into cloves and have been using them first. The purple stuff was bigger and better but still not great. Only got 2 plaits worth of good bulbs and the rest is just loose to be used first.
Onions were looking ok until the very wet May/June time when they should have been drying out. I found it very difficult to dry them for storage this year and have probably thrown half of them in the compost heap
Potatoes were doing very well following the early rain and then lots of sunshine. First time I've seen the flowers go all the way to fruit. Then the blight hit and I lost all the lush & healthy halums in the space of about 3 days. I cut them back to the ground & left the tubers in the ground for at least 2 weeks. They're all up now but not a very satisfying size. Desiree faired better than King Ed's and were much more even in shape so I'll definitely be doing them again next year.
It was the first year with a greenhouse so I had it stocked with tomatoes, cucmbers, peppers and chillis.
Toms did very well, no disease and a good tasty crop.
Cucumbers were off & on, oddly having a second flush at the moment.
Peppers took an age to come on but gave some good green fruit and the
chillis have been prolific (even though all my cayenne got eaten) but not particularly hot.
Peas were an okish first year experiment. I need to sow more, more often and rain them properly.
French beans were good on a later second sowing - the first failed completely.
Squash need more space and more feed despite the 2' spacing and a good pile of manure in their planting holes but the
sweetcorn I interplanted (another first year experiment) has done brilliantly well and is sweet and tender.
Parsnips are looking good for this year and the
beetroot is going great.
We got loads of juicy
gooseberries, a couple of pies worth of
blackcurrants and enough
raspberries to keep my daughter happy grazing while she's at the plot. I'm marking the
rhubarb down as KIA.
