2011 Roundup

Before we get too far into 2012 I thought I'd share last season's veg-growing successes and failures in one giant wordy post. 

On the whole the summer crops weren't a huge success, but we did better at planting winter crops this year, and made better use of our confined space by making sure as soon as one crop finished, we put another one in its place. It wasn't all roses though...

The Good:
 

Potatoes: We grew a variety called Anoe, and they were brilliant. I think they might have got blight near the end, but we cut the foliage down and left them in the ground until we needed them, and they were perfect, tasty, useful, and undemanding.
 

Black cabbage/Cavolo Nero - grew well in the autumn, and lasted all winter and into the spring. We didn't eat everything we grew, but that's only because even with posh cabbage like this it's hard to eat tonnes of it. Good value.
 

Purple Sprouting Broccoli - has grown all winter, and is now providing us with yummy shoots. Well worth growing.
 

Broad beans 'Aquadulce': sown late 2010, overwintered with no problem despite the intense cold this year, and did pretty well. Provided us with a decent crop early in the year before black fly set in too badly.
 

Strawberries (not sure of variety): a fantastic crop this year - more than we could possibly eat. All down to good weather I think. 
 

Perpetual spinach and swiss chard: These are the most reliable greens we grow, and the only greens the slugs and snails don't destroy Good yield, easy to look after, and can be eaten when very young or when mature. I think we'll try actual spinach next year though for a bit of variety. 
 

The Bad:
 

Climbing courgettes: The variety we grew 'Tromboncino d'Albenga' were good strong plants that gave us loads of courgettes, and were amazingly efficient in terms of space. They should have been ideal for the small garden, but they fell down in one key respect - taste. Picked very small they are OK, but any larger than your finger and they become woody and flavourless.  
 

Peas: we got a reasonable crop from the supposedly tall 'Hurst Green Shaft', but all succumbed to powdery mildew. Our first batch sowed directly into the ground was destroyed by slugs, so we had to sow in the cold frame then plant out once they were up.
 

Sweetcorn/Bean combo (corn and climbing beans grown in the same space with the beans supposed to grow up the sweetcorn stalks): I had high hopes for this, but the US variety of corn we grew ('Silver Queen') didn't have time to ripen in what was a pretty poor summer. The beans (the normally reliable 'Cobra') weren't happy either. I don't know whether this was because we timed the plantings wrong, or that the ground wasn't rich enough/wet enough for the combined crop. I don't think we'll try this again. 

The Ugly:

 

Tomatoes: Epic fail. Planted way too late. Then they got blight. We salvaged a few green tomatoes in September, but that was it. Must try harder! The varieties were 'Rosada' and 'Black cherry' but our crop failure had nothing to do with them and everything to do with bad timing.
 

Patty pans 'Jeune F1': whether we didn't water them enough, or they weren't tough enough, we didn't get a decent crop, and what we did get wasn't that tasty.
 

Leeks: I give up on leeks. For two years now we've have leeks no thicker than pencils. I think because we don't start them early enough, and they get too little water.
 

Garlic: No crop at all as they got overrun by strawberries we couldn't bring ourselves to cut back. Pathetic.