How far behind are you?

[peter]

How far behind normal or average are you with things this year?


I'm interested to see for outdoor crops more than other stuff and the sown or planted out date as well as current situation.

My potatoes went in over a month late, I use St Patrick's day as my in-just-after date and the last three rows are only just beginning to emerge.

[vegpatchmum]

I'd say I'm about 2 - 4 weeks behind both at home and at school, depending on the crop, although I've pretty much got everything in the ground now, it's still weeks behind when I'd be planting stuff out.

VPM
x

[oldherbaceous]

The silly thing here is, i'm still waiting to pick Broad beans, new potatoes, peas and carrots, but i have courgettes that are just about ready.

So i would say we are about a month behind with most things, probably even more for the runner beans.

[vegpatchmum]

My runners have just started to flower this weekend and I have a second batch ready to go into the ground, so I'm not that far behind with them.

My over wintered Broad Beans, on the other hand, have the first tiny pods growing now. I had thought they'd have been pretty much finished by now! Not that I've ever grown them before but the idea was for them to be a green manure with an early Spring crop, not a green manure with an early Summer crop Thankfully the cabbages I planned to grow in the bed after them haven't done well at all (I only have 2 surviving seedlings) but I do have some Kohl Rabi that could use the space now

The joys of growing your own

VPM
x

[Colin Miles]

Looking back at my records I see a lot of variability, especially over the past few years. This past week here has made a tremendous difference with almost continuous sunshine and temperatures up in the mid-70's. So peas and calabrese won't be more than a week late, but broad beans still some way off. As for the potatoes, the outdoor ones only really started to appear at the end of May. But the pot grown ones have done very well and we are about to taste the first ones today - variety Casablanca - not one I've grown before.

And it has been dry! Not a drop of rain whereas last year June gave us 10ins.

But a noticeable lack of bees - honey, bumble and solitary. Cotoneaster normally buzzing but very few there. Comfrey doing exceedingly well in terms of flowering, but few bees. Fortunate the broad beans seem to be well-serviced by a few carder, garden bumbles and some other insects.

[Monika]

I seem to have caught up completely but, then, we tend to be later than most people in any case. The last few very dry and warm days have certainly helped. But, as Colin says, everything is very dry now. I dug five deep holes today to fill them with manure for the marrows and courgettes and it was really, really dry quite deep down. No proper rain since early May.

As for the lack of insects, I am worried about that, too. We have a very insect-friendly garden with, at the moment, lots of flowering comfrey, poached egg flower, aquilegia, dogwood, red campion as well as broad beans and peas, and have seen very few insects. Unfortunately, two of the three bee keepers in the village have given up keeping bees in recent years, but there should still be lots of other insects, but they are just missing. My OH forgot to put on his anti-midge spray (they usually love him!) when mowing a large area at the local cricket field last evening and did not get a single bite.

Please do read the article by John Lister-Kaye in last week's Sunday Telegraph ("Worried about more than weather"), available on the internet. I know I have mentioned it before, but it does make frightening reading.

[Westi]

I'm well behind! Most of my seedlings I put in got munched & seeds disappeared. Re-sowed Runners & French beans today - thought mice but didn't take peas so I'm expecting slimey ones nibbled them. (& work is too busy so not getting down as much)

On a positive note salads are up, garlic is the best ever, asparagus has sorted itself out (lost 3 this year though), fruit trees (not Plum Beauty) are heaving - & a few bees on the chive flowers!

So behind - but OK! (Few more bees would be better)

Westi

[oldherbaceous]

Something i was thinking of this morning as i was looking at the calendar and then my plots, i'm not sure if there will be time to set the follow on crops after the first ones are clearsd. For instance, when the shallots and garlic are cleared, i will fill it with a late planting of runner beans.

We will see.......

[Motherwoman]

About 2 weeks I think. I have been planting out the tender stuff a bit later the last couple of years as they seem to catch up and it's safer! When I started out my apprenticeship in 1972 (Heavens!! Where did it go?) no tender plants were put outdoors for hardening off before the first week in June, perhaps we're running on a 40 year weather cycle.

I've missed out on onions this year, I usually grow from seed but it just didn't happen. At least it means I've got room for the later plants, normally playing musical plants at that stage!

MW

[Chantal]

It's my tomatoes that are worrying me. I have around 60 plants waiting to go outside, but it's just too cold for them - it's too cold for ME half the time!

I am planting some in the greenhouse and the rest will have to go on the plot or be chucked in the bin, so I'll give them a go, but unless there is a dramatic turn around in the weather, I fear they will be a waste of time.

Around 5 weeks behind with most other things I believe

[Ricard with an H]

Please do read the article by John Lister-Kaye in last week's Sunday Telegraph ("Worried about more than weather"), available on the internet. I know I have mentioned it before, but it does make frightening reading.

I read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson about 40 years ago and it's why I spend so much time trying to reinstate perennial wild flower and garden organically and though I still feel uncomfortable using glyphosate it's used all around me to prepare ground for crops.

The thought of a silent spring keeps me feeding birds.

Yesterday I was very pleased to hear the sound of a number of bees attending to the broad-bean flowers, we have ox-eye-daisy in flower, red campion, creeping buttercup in masses, little blue flowers in amongst the grasses and of-course the gorse is still heavy with bloom.

Most things are doing well here other than the French beans though i'm fairly sure we're a few weeks behind on the basis of the sweet pea plants should be three foot high by now and I haven't even got them attached to the netting yet.

[Clive.]

Photographed these a few minutes ago in the garden at home here. Is the variety "Salome" ?

Clive.

[Colin Miles]

I've just put my 6 winter squash BACK into the greenhouse! Had prepared a spot for them on Monday and was intending to plant them out today but the weather has turned and if the wind does get up - they don't like it upum! As they have been recently repotted into large pots I think they will be alright, even though they are almost flowering.

Brassicas are actually looking good, as are the Sweetcorn and I actually picked a few Oregon Sugar Pod Mangetout today. But Carrots and Broad Beans way behind. In '69 I think I actually picked my first outdoor tomato - Histon Cropper - on July 3rd. My indoor toms will just about be setting fruit by then!

Rain is good though - just not the wind.

[retropants]

my sweetcorn are still in a seed tray in the greenhouse about 3" tall. butternut squash is also still in the greenhouse along with the cucumber and courgette seedlings. I shall have to pot everything on, I would normally plant out, but it is both too cold & too windy.

[Motherwoman]

At least the wind's dropped this morning, it was a strong one yesterday. I'm contemplating planting out courgettes this morning and the last batch of climbing french beans(Cherokee Trail of Tears). I have problems hardening off at home as the hens see boxes of plants as a free lunch.

MW