Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[beach chick]

I cant be the only one who has failures, surely?! (please tell me I'm not ) so I'll start:

 

carrots: only ever done them in pots, always plant them too thickly, dont have the heart to thin them because the foliage is so beautiful. as a result the carrots are so small they are practically invisble... even for salads

 

broccoli: it was the caterpillars that made me give up! ate several gorgeous meals of home-grown brocc, and then picked the next lot - riddled with the beasties throughout!

 

asparagus: planted 12 crowns about 4 years ago. it does come up - but only one spear at a time. by the time there are 3 or 4 (enough for a starter for one?!) the first two are way past it. still, the fern looks nice...

 

globe artichokes: I never have the heart to pick them, they are so ornamental!

 

tomatoes: they need too much watering too regularly for a feckless type like me...

[Chickvic]

I haven't had any failures yet cos we only started this year our potato plants have gone mad so hopefully we will get some spuds and we planted onion and carrot seeds in big bags. I have lots of seedlings at the moment so hopefully we will get something out of them. We were going to try broccoli next year when we have proper raised beds and not just bags everywhere!

[Egluntyne]

Broccoli. Never amounts to anything worth picking.

 

Rhubarb. I have planted more crowns than I care to remember, and they have all done absolutely nothing.

[Alis girls]

Ditto the rhubarb - total failure on allotment and at home. I inherited a healthy plant from my grandfather and it grew well for yrs - when we moved 5 yrs ago I didnt bring it with me - regret it now as nothing has ever grown since. The allotments are awash with it - but me I'm a failure on the rhubarb front

[Cinnamon]

Brassicas of all sorts - I just cannot grow them here.

They go all leggy,then get eaten by caterpillars....I know I should throw netting over them,but it just looks ugly.

They also take up way too much space in the beds for my liking.

We don't really eat much of that sort of veg anyhow,so not growing them is no biggie

[chickencam]

We don't grow many Brussel Sprouts now because even with enviromesh they still get grey aphids and are no where near as nice as those that you can buy on stalks in the shops now. I battled with cauliflowers for years on our sandy soil and can now grow them but often wonder how worth while it is, they have a long growing season need loads of food and water on our sandy soil and all come at once. This was just about ok this spring when we got 12 within a fortnight because there was nothing else much to harvest. I will probably grow over wintering ones again but not summer ones.

 

Peppers are a lot of work for the fruit that you eventually get as are aubergines. We struggle with leeks too an brocolli isn't really worth it, even with nets you get very little for the effort involved and it so cheap to buy I do grow purple sprouting though, because that is so tasty and expensive to buy.

 

You would be very jealous of our rhubarb which we inherited with the allotment 11 years ago, it has been divided and moved once during that time is a vigorous green variety and is the envy of many a plot holder. I have a much more red variety which we inherited from a different plot which is much more of a challenge, we moved it last year and fed it and watered it and it is still puny, new crowns do take a few years to really get going.

[craftyhunnypie]

Cucumbers!

I've tried again this year, they've not germinated yet. I don't hold my breath though - they seem so sensitive to being potted on, moved out & watering!

 

Rhubarb - we've just split a crown & it's taken really well. It's grown like mad since about 10 days ago & it has this strange flower / bulb thing now that looks a bit rude. What's all that about?

 

Emma.x

[Minnie&Moose]

Rhubarb, calabrese, and cabbages - either don't grow or come with too many 'extras' Mind you, the chickens love the 'cabbages with extras'

[stehaggan]

Rhubarb - we've just split a crown & it's taken really well. It's grown like mad since about 10 days ago & it has this strange flower / bulb thing now that looks a bit rude. What's all that about?

 

You need to pull off the flower/bulb or you will grow more and more, basically the rhubarb is going to seed and if you don't pull it off you won't grow much more rhubarb this year.

 

Mine didn't do it last year but this year it has and I have noticed a lot of other peoples who has.

[chickencam]

I find that when you cut the flower heads off rhubarb it tends to flop, I think that it lets too much moisture out of the plant. Ours flowers every year but still produces loads of strong sticks. There do seem to have been more rhubarb flowers over the last few summers than I ever emember before, climate change?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Our rhubarb is amazing . I do nothing with it (and in fact it was ignored for years until recently) and it just keeps coming back.

 

I had a disastrous year last year with seeds not germinating, munching caterpillars, too short a growing season ... but I'm trying again this year .

[..lay a little egg for me]

Our rhubarb seems to think it ought to be some kind of triffid. It's huge and keeps throwing flower spikes that I keep cutting off. The stems are about 3ft long and 2 inches diameter! I have heard that if you should not harvest any rhubarb in the first year after planting a new crown or moving one.

 

However, rhubarb seems the only thing that grows reliably. Notable failures have been purple flowering broccoli (the slugs loved it), strawberries...same problem as beach chick's asparagus, never enough even to sprinkle on breakfast cereal let alone have a bowl of strawberries and cream, leeks...we left them grow too big and they were like wood, blueberries and last year our pumpkin plant produced just one small pumpkin .

[C&T]

Carrots - as above, I don't thin properly, and I get nothing to eat as a result...

Broccoli - had a brilliant crop the first time - caterpillar fodder the next two years, and given up!

 

My worst crime is over crowding - getting better at that - slowly...!

[craftyhunnypie]

So what do I do, cut the flower bulb off or not? Hows about pulling it of & giving it lots & lots of water frequently?

 

Emma.x

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I yank the flowers off (and the whole stalk, which is hollow anyway). I never water my rhubarb but it doesn't seem to mind .

[chickencam]

It may be our sandy soil that causes it to flop.

[redhotchick]

I've not completely given up on anything yet...I've only been growing stuff for 3 to 4 years, and I'm still trying new stuff, but I might give tomatoes a miss this year. I've had no luck with them....I once had enough green tomatoes to make a lovely chutney....

[Daphne]

another interesting thread - I have given up on toms (I'm too lazy), carrots (not enough crop) and purple sprouting (ditto)...oh and asparagus (tried once, nothing happened. Now I live next to a brilliant asparagus grower I don't need to worry if I'm lucky . I don't grow peppers and aubergines as I don't have a greenhouse and I'm just not suited to watering things in the conservatory all the time - I don't have houseplants for the same either! Rhubarb likes lots of moisture and lots of muck.

[craftyhunnypie]

That's probably why our rhubarb is growing good. It's on ground where a lot of muck was dug in. It's going absolutely mad!

Emma.x

[chickencam]

I wouldn't grow standard tomatoes without a greenhouse, but the tumbler variety that grow in hanging baskets are ideal for outdoors and tend to ripen very early too, you get a massive crop of cherry tomatoes from a very samll space. They still need plenty of food and water, but is you stick a basket outside where you will walk past it several times day it is not too hard to remember, we often add lobelia to the baskets and hang one outside the front door, they are very pretty.