has anyone ever felt like quitting??

[hiyatim]

I used to think i had green fingers but im positive i havent now!

Courgettes and cucs have powder mildew and the wind has really hurt them all plus the courgettes leaves are getting more yellow everyday
Cant get melons to fertilize at all. Pepper plants just dont want to grow bigger than 3 inches. Tomato plants wont grow fruit. Brocolli gave me tiny heads then started to bolt, caulis have all had to be binned as they went mouldy. Cabbages all have something wrong with them. Beans are being eaten by the birds i think, peas havent grown bigger than 4 inches. Carrots are tiny or strangley shapped or both. Lettuces bolted and the little gems i planted to replace them dont seem to want to grow. I think thats all ive got to moan about right now, oh and my whole one season compost thing too.

well if anyone else wants to rant and winge this is the post to do so

maybe i should put my name down for an alloment then at least ive the people around to tell me what im doing wrong

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Tim, 'course you have got green veggie growing fingers!!

Courgette leaves don't go yellow with powdery mildew - so how about posting a photo, please??

Cauliflowers are so difficult to grow and even experienced growers find them devils! At least you have harvested one and realised how tasty and useable the leaves are!!

Your cabbage have a problem so please post a photo!

If your beans are being eaten by the birds then you need to keep them covered over with netting - check out Freecycle to see if someone has some they don't want.

Tomato plants aren't growing fruit. Have they flowered?? Are you feeding the plants (too soon!)??

Carrots are only small, so let them grow for a longer time - I wouldn't even look at mine until September at the very earliest. Strange shaped organic carrots still taste really great!

Lettuce do bolt. They don't stand well in the ground so you have about a week to harvest them once they are ready before they bolt. Next year grow salad leaves instead, then you won't have that problem.

Tim, it's your first time ever growing veggies - a learning year. As for fellow allotment holders offering advice, well, I can count those on just one finger - they will not share their knowledge.

[hiyatim]

thanks lesley, u make things sound better already

the cabbage is posted on another thread about brassicas.
caulis i wont grow again nor broccoli, at least for a while anyway

the courgette photo will be posted tomorrow.

not feeding toms until the fruit, the outdoor ones have a couple of tomz the greenhouse just arent pollunating. i knock them all the time but doesnt help. i might bring them outside and risk the weather

[Little tom]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck Tim, don't despair!
I also have mixed results for my first year but if that helps, I try to keep thinking I'm happy I managed to grow anything at all :-)
You tried an impressive amount of different vegs so you'll have learnt a lot from this year that you can apply for the next one!
I tried to keep notes of what I could improve or stop for next year - so much to do because I did loads wrong!

- I sowed far too many tomatoes for my space so I had to give plenty of plants away. I then didn't harden them off properly, they had too much wind during the day and many wilted, so I ended up loosing the plants I had kept. I had to take some back from my friends (oh, and also my next door neighbours 'barbecued' them one day, because they had their grill so close to my plants!! That can't have helped).

- I had my radishes eaten by a caterpillar. At first I thought it was bird damage so I put a net on (I felt really stupid the day when I found the fat caterpillar who had quietly eaten all the leaves in total safety behind the net).

- My courgette also has its older leaves yellowing; I think it's mostly the wind?...They still produce delicious (though little, but I don't really care about the yield) courgettes so maybe don't despair!

- I had 3 strawberry plants...and 3 strawberries in total so far. Unsatisfactory. One plant was eaten by vine weevils that climbed to my 2nd floor (...or were there from the start), one kept producing runners but no fruit. It's so pathetic that it makes me laugh. But at least now I know what vine weevils look like so they'd better watch their backs next year (they seem to love wild strawberries more than anything so I keep a pot of that, as a lure, and when it gets dark I take this pot in and pick the culprits. It my revenge).

So look forward to next year to apply this year's learnings!

Good luck :-)

[Principia]

Hi Tim, my first year of growing was three years ago - when we had almost constant rain all summer and hardly any sunshine, my tomatoes went mouldy, my alpine strawberries actually dried out as I hadn't realised that the place they were in the garden was sheltered so much they didn't get rained on. I massively overgrew the seedlings so had no space on the windowsills. Even my mint dies

It was pretty much a disaster and I gave up the year after

However last year I had a great crop from two blueberries I'd bought in the first year (they were just sticks then ) and some spare alpines I'd just shoved in a spare container cropped like crazy so I thought I'd try again this year

Thankfully things are going much better (fingers crossed) and it's so nice to have found somewhere like this where I can ask all my questions

[hiyatim]

Thanks for the replies, im glad to hear its not just me, i think next year im going to grow alot less variety, things like melons are simply a waste of space at this stage, and im relying on tiny greenhouses for tomato plants giving me nowhere to start seeds when i could just use outdoor tom plants. i went in at the deep end but this time ill get myself a plan and know what im doing before i do it

[Little tom]

Yes it's nice to be able to share our mistakes, great way to leaarn!
Looks like it's a common 'mistake' to be too keen on the first year and grow too much stuff...hey, can't be right first time :-)
Principia my mint is also poor this year! (yellow and leggy, not sure why...I'll have to start a new plant from the root. I'm quite excited about that actually but I wish I knew what was wrong with it).
Also, just like you, having too many plants on the windowsill meant that they competed for light - my toms grew leggy...It's a miracle I've now got some toms at all really!!

[vegnovice10]

I'm having a bad day too - a cat is walking all over the recent seeds I planted, lettuces, radishes and spring onion. Tried to keep it off by resting hose pipe across edges of bed but hasn't worked.

Lettuces are getting eaten by slugs inspite of beer slug trap and copper round the containers. Whitefly is eating parsnips and on kale - tomatoes and cucumbers taking over the greenhouse!

However am still enjoying salad sandwiches with lettuce slugs haven't eaten and kale as have 5 plants! Left one uncovered which has whitefly but have 3 under netting and one taking a chance in the front garden. Hoping peigeons will eat that and leave rest of garden alone! In the books it says kale isn't harvested till Oct - Mar but as have so many plants am eating from a couple and it is lovely. Will they keep on producing?

Gave up on courgettes cos of aphids - decided the battle wasn't worth fighting as washing up liquid doesn't seem to have worked and it's so difficult getting stuff off the leaves. However just noticed it has put out several new leaves as had picked all courgettes so we'll see.

Anyway perhaps tomorrow will be better and there's nothing touches home grown lettuce for taste. Tho sometimes I wonder if I am eating weeds as had mixed leaves and can't tell if any stray weeds have got into it!

[Little tom]

Originally Posted by vegnovice10

In the books it says kale isn't harvested till Oct - Mar but as have so many plants am eating from a couple and it is lovely. Will they keep on producing?

I think that kales can be used as cut-and-come-again plants; they are not fast-growing but I read somewhere (can't remember where now) that you expect 2-3 regrowth. And you're right, the baby leaves taste lovely I harvested some too!

[Principia]

Originally Posted by Little tom

Yes it's nice to be able to share our mistakes, great way to leaarn!
Looks like it's a common 'mistake' to be too keen on the first year and grow too much stuff...hey, can't be right first time :-)
Principia my mint is also poor this year! (yellow and leggy, not sure why...I'll have to start a new plant from the root. I'm quite excited about that actually but I wish I knew what was wrong with it).
Also, just like you, having too many plants on the windowsill meant that they competed for light - my toms grew leggy...It's a miracle I've now got some toms at all really!!

I definitely suffer from overenthusiasm syndrome

I'm hoping that each year I will choose a few permanent features for the garden, fruits or berries and a few annual features, different kind s.

Lots of learning going on. I was disappointed to learn that my hanging basket strawberries are unlikely to survive more than one year. I am going to try and extend their life for two years, and I have to say they look spectacular this year

So next time I'm going to go with cherry tomatoes.

I'd like to try for some rhubarb and gooseberries for my permanent features.

Here's one of my hanging baskets of alpine strawberries (hopefully)

[Little tom]

Wow that's lovely principia!

I agree with all you say - about over-enthusiasm, having lots to discover (but not so much time and space to try all you'd like..), and having to find my balance between permanent / annual garden features.
I think I'll have cycles of 'oh no, my plants die I'll quit' and 'Ah never mind I'll try something different next time'
Just like you I've planned which crops I'd like to try next year (it'll be hard to wait until the next spring but I'm learning patience!).
This year I've grown Gardener's Delight Tomatoes, but next year I'll do tumbling toms (I think they're better adapted to containers and more compact so I'll have more space for other things! this year space was a problem...).
My only perennials are alpine strawberries and a small 'TopHat' blueberry (all suited to containers), plus violas but that can't be a staple food. Rhubarb sounds great Principia I'd go for it! Plus, you can use the leaves to make a brew that's good to tackle aphids...
I'm toying with the idea of growing asparagus - another nice to have perennial, if only I could manage it...
Best of luck with your future plans and enjoy the strawberries!