Success:
The polytunnel has been absolutely fantastic for the chillies. I heard on Breakfast tv this morning that this year has been the best for home grown chillies in the UK. Very prolific - some are still flowering even though fruits are ripening.
Tomatoes - outdoor ones have done exceptionally well.
Greenhouse peppers
Courgettes, winter squash and butternut - looking on course to be a good year
Summer/autumn cabbages
Sprouts coming on nicely
Garlic
Shallots
Mangetout (although the heatwave produced a bigger glut than I could manage)
French beans
Broad beans
All the currant bushes and blueberries
Apples
Plums
Jerusalem artichokes - I don't know about the tubers yet, but last year when I first planted them on this plot, they barely got 3 or 4 feet tall. Currently they must easily be 8-9 feet high LOL
Container herbs on the plot - the peppermint, Korean mint and the lemon "mint" (bergamont) have done great with some spectacular flowers
Middling:
The heatwave and lack of rain sapped a lot of moisture out of the soil - more my fault for not doing more watering that some of the potatoes have not done as well as I would have liked. Still, a good crop of Kestrel and Maris Pipers, the Vivaldi were small but very tasty, Charlottes died back too early so a mix with too many small spuds, the earlies Lady Christl also smaller than I would have liked and not as prolific considering I had over 40 seed potatoes.
Onions - I was late planting so perhaps my fault. Some really decent sized ones, some small but most a small-medium
Celery - again, due to heatwave and lack of water, are not as big as I would like compared to last year but not a disaster
Failures:
The raspberry canes have got old so no reflection on this year but just needed replacing.
Swede, winter cabbage, broccoli/calabrese - ran out of time getting beds cleared (spring was dry so the ground was very hard work and took longer, also did not spend my Easter week at the plot which is usually when I get it ready for the season) As a result, the heatwave took its toll and then the cabbage white infestation finished the job off.
Fennel and Caraway did not do so well in the containers
I lopped too much off the pear trees in spring but they needed a serious trim - result are just a few pears
Lessons learned:
The debris netting I got was worth the investment - normally I use pond netting but is not always great at stopping the cabbage white butterfly from getting close enough to lay eggs if leaves are just touching the net. Normally this time of year all brassicas are covered in white fly but so far have been totally free of them so maybe another plus?
Ground preparation - I put a lot of effort into the squash beds digging in lots of compostables. Not only was the soil nice to work (it used to be heavy clay) but the plants have really responded well.
Green manure - last autumn I sowed rye and although it took a while to dig in and rot down, when I came to plant the cabbages, it had composted down and the soil (again, another bed with a seam of heavy clay close to the squash beds) was lovely to dig.
Sowing too much - well, it's a lesson but do I learn?
Far too many plants in the polytunnel and greenhouses and such hard work keeping up with the watering in July. I sow several seeds with intentions of keeping the best to grow on but I can't bring myself to compost the rest and not everyone shares my enthusiasm.
Growbags - normally I use them just for the greenhouse tomatoes but the peppers and chillies that I planted have done exceptionally well and will certainly use them again for those.
