The Lemon Fool

I do not think I have had such a prolific show of sweet peas for a long time. I guess the dry weather has helped because rain spoils them no doubt, but I of course cut them on more or less alternate days and there are just as many two days later as before. I grow them from seed, starting in February and get them in the ground in their final spot by mid April, depending on the weather. They have to be the best value seeds on the planet. I spent maybe £5 on 2/3 packets and they are quite magnificent and so easy to grow.

My cosmos also from seed is pretty hopeless although I also bought plug plants which have done well.

Dod

I'm glad you've got something to grow, Dod. It's been a totally rubbish year for me. Less than half of the carrots germinated, sowed some more and the same problem, then some more but rather late. Most look very sad.
I like radishes, easy to grow, can't go wrong. Maybe 10% of them become big enough to eat. Most just become spindly.
And the tomatoes in the greenhouse are just sickly. I bought them from the usual place, usual four varieties, in the usual brand of growbags (Levington Tomorite). Normally, the plants are big and lush with an abundance of fruit. This year there's not many flowers, and most tomatoes are small and worthless.

Good crop of weeds, mind.

--kiloran

kiloran wrote:I'm glad you've got something to grow, Dod. It's been a totally rubbish year for me. Less than half of the carrots germinated, sowed some more and the same problem, then some more but rather late. Most look very sad.
I like radishes, easy to grow, can't go wrong. Maybe 10% of them become big enough to eat. Most just become spindly.
And the tomatoes in the greenhouse are just sickly. I bought them from the usual place, usual four varieties, in the usual brand of growbags (Levington Tomorite). Normally, the plants are big and lush with an abundance of fruit. This year there's not many flowers, and most tomatoes are small and worthless.

Good crop of weeds, mind.

--kiloran

I have not grown veggies or tomatoes since I moved here 16 years ago. In my old place I had a big and productive vegetable garden but I confine myself to flowers nowadays. I have a had a very good year this year I must say. We have had a lot of heat in June and July after a cool and dullish spring, plus we have had a fair number of sometimes quite heavy showers which do not last long and that adds up to good growing weather. I only water seedlings and baskets and tubs.

Sorry to hear of your woes because it is very frustrating when you think you have done everything right and it does not seem to work, and of course inevitably it all takes up time.

Dod

kiloran wrote:...the tomatoes in the greenhouse are just sickly. .... Normally, the plants are big and lush with an abundance of fruit. This year there's not many flowers, and most tomatoes are small and worthless.

I've had my worst crop of tomatoes ever, and I grow the same variety each year (Ailsa Craig) from seed. Plenty of flowers, few if any set. Then half those that did grow got blossom end rot. The handful that survived everything were smaller than normal, but usable (just). Those on my daughter's allotment (some 80 miles from me) were just the same.

Dod101 wrote:I have not grown veggies or tomatoes since I moved here ... I confine myself to flowers nowadays. I have a had a very good year this year I must say.

Peas and beans on the other hand have had a bumper year. My daughter has more broad beans than she knows what to do with, and they just keep coming. Same for her sweet peas.

Breelander wrote:I've had my worst crop of tomatoes ever, and I grow the same variety each year (Ailsa Craig) from seed. Plenty of flowers, few if any set. Then half those that did grow got blossom end rot. The handful that survived everything were smaller than normal, but usable (just). Those on my daughter's allotment (some 80 miles from me) were just the same.

I nearly gave up last year after getting wiped out by blight before a single tomato had been harvested. But when January arrived I got the old familiar urge, and I sowed some Costoluto Fiorentina (the big ugly beef tomatoes with the amazing flavour.) I do like to get my tomatoes started early.

They've rewarded me with a fantastic crop - I've been eating them for nearly a month now, and they'll carry on until October, when either the blight or the frost will get them. They've obviously decided that Wiltshire feels just like Mamma Italia, and they're probably right. But my trailing miniature tomatoes (Red Alert, etc) haven't been worth the bother.

Peas and beans on the other hand have had a bumper year. My daughter has more broad beans than she knows what to do with, and they just keep coming. Same for her sweet peas.

My climbing french beans (Cobra) are in mid-season and I've already got five kilos in the freezer with probably twice that number still to come. Courgettes all good, red onions excellent despite my not watering them at all, and my sweetcorn are nine feet high and all ripening about a month early. Forty or fifty chillis in the greenhouse, which will pep up my veg soup throughout the coming winter. Central heating for the days when the central heating doesn't work.

Sweet peas? I sowed them in January, after soaking and chipping, and barely half of them germinated, dammit. Those that appeared then sulked for months, But they finally got some speed up in June and they have been giving us a pretty good display ever since. And plenty to give to the neighbours.

BJ

well I am glad (not really, but,,,) that I am not the only one with poor tomato results this year...seems I am in good company!!

re the sweet peas..........as Monty said the other day/week...pick off most but not all of the seed pods to encourage better and larger pods, and so keep the seeds for next years crop

the birds love the bugs and flies that gather on discarded pods...I just thrown into our 'meadow'
(the scruffy bit we leave to go wild)...the grass grows so well there!!!

The Black Eyed Peas can sing us a song
Chick peas can only hummus one.

GrahamPlatt wrote:The Black Eyed Peas can sing us a song
Chick peas can only hummus one.

Except for one Chick who made a Corea out of it. (Sorry, obscure jazz joke. )

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:Except for one Chick who made a Corea out of it. (Sorry, obscure jazz joke. )
BJ

I always thought it bizarre that he was named after a movement disorder!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorea