What has been your biggest success this year?

[Parsons Jack]

Amidst all the doom and gloom of blight, cabbage root fly, and caterpillars, what has really surprised you this year with how well it has done.
For me, it has to be Autumn King carrots. In all my 30 odd years of growing, this years have to be the best ever. I've never had them come out so clean and undamaged.
Can't wait for next year again now

[oldherbaceous]

Morning PJ, i have to say it's got to be root crops, especially beetroot, they have been quite special this year.

[heyjude]

sweet peas!

That might not usually count as a vegetable but this year they were grown in the new fruit/veg patch and they were brilliant, withstanding wind and rain that could have flattened them.

And we've had a pretty good block of sweetcorn. Ate some with friends last night and one said it was the sweetest corn she had ever tasted. The cobs aren't gigantic but fully pollinated with at least one on each plant and two on many.

[WestHamRon]

It's only our 2nd year with a garden to grow in. The biggest success has been Beetroot, closely followed by Courgettes, Broad Beans, Garlic, Tomatoes (despite Blight), Onions, Swede and French Beans.
Our less successful crops have been Parsnip (nil), Aubergines (nil), Peppers, Squash, Marrows (weird as we had dozens last year) and potatoes.

[Primrose]

Courgettes, and strangely enough, Chiogga beetroot. Previously have not had much success with beetroot as our soil is very stoney, but this variety seems to have grown like a weed. Disappointed with the way the colour mutes and blurs when cooked, but we've taken to eating in raw in salads where it stays attractive looking.
My celeriac looks very healthy but again like last year, all the growth seems to be above ground in the leaves with very little in the way of bulbs appearing yet.

[Essexboy]

Just like PJ, it has to be Autumn king carrots, a huge crop and no sign of fly. Also greenhouse tomatoes, absolutely enormous crop of Alicante, some individual fruit very large. Runner beans and pumpkins have done well, my beetroot was a dead loss.
regards, Essexboy.

[Compo]

My Sarpo potatoes have been heavy croppers and stood up to the blight when everything else fell over with blight on the allotment field. The crop was massive and they are not a bad eater. Carrots berriculum and autumin king fantastic. Parsnips also. This year I have managed to keep my lettuc in succession and have been self sufficient in salad since march. Eventually Marmande tomatoes yielded a heavy crop with a tad of contained blight getting into the greenhouse.

[goldilox]

Grapes, courgettes, tomatoes, courgettes, potatoes, courgettes, French beans, melons . . . oh yes, did I mention courgettes
Very hopeful of the sweet potatoes, fingers crossed.

[Parsons Jack]

Grapes, courgettes, tomatoes, courgettes, potatoes, courgettes, French beans, melons . . . oh yes, did I mention courgettes
Very hopeful of the sweet potatoes, fingers crossed.

Hi Goldilox,

Sounds good. Did you grow any courgettes this year

[pongeroon]

As with Parsons Jack, our carrots have done very well, except for a few which have split down the length and nearly turned themselves inside out; a bit gruesome really.
Beetroot huge.
French beans rubbish.
Parsnips nil (well, one which got some sort of bug thing. )

[oldherbaceous]

Well i dug the first of my Parsnps this morning, and i'm rather pleased with the quality and dimensions.

Sorry yours weren't up to much Pongeroon.

[Parsons Jack]

I had very poor germination with parsnips this year, and what there is growing doesn't look very special at all. I bought some Palace seeds yesterday, so next year should be OK. Otherwise Chantal is in trouble

[Chris]

The best ever year for runner beans with Charlotte spuds a close second. Broad beans, carrots and parsnips also good and the sprouts are coming on very well. Shallots much bettr than last year and sweet corn in the tunnel as reliable as ever. The tagic disaster were the peas - the leading shoots of most plants from all sowings were eaten by birds and possibly the rabbits that seem to have found a new home in the bottom of the garden - so much for biodiversity and wild life gardening!

Already planning and looking forward to next year.

[Catherine]

Courgettes, broad beans, dwarf beans, canellini beans, borlotti beans, Hestia runner beans despite being replanted three times and believe it or not cabbages. Next year I am going to make a planting diary to remind me when to plant what then I wont be so lacksadasical. No carrots due to not putting up a barrier we wont make that mistake next year.

[Monika]

Broad beans, beetroot, runner beans, red and green cabbage, calabrese, kohlrabi were probably the best ever. Potato crop is ok but the Sarpo Mira suffered badly from slug damage whereas the earlies like Ulster Sceptre and Kestrel were very clean. Many carrots split, presumably because of the long dry spell we had here, followed by prolonged rain, and we haven't tried the parsnips yet. The foliage certainly looks healthy and thriving.

The greatest disappointment have been the onions - after last year's brilliant crop which lasted until about May, almost all this year's plants (same variety, Rijnsburger Balstora No 5) threw out flower stems and are not likely to last beyond Christmas. The garlic, however (Solent Wight), is huge.

Well, you win some, you lose some.