Summer has been over for weeks

[innocent_lex]

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. And wind. And greyness. And did I mention the rain? I've just had a look at the forecast for the next few weeks and it seems to be more of the same. I wonder if I should install UV in the house to improve my mood?

Just as an aside, tomatoes don't grow well without sunshine. Actually, they don't grow well in my garden, but the lack of sunshine is a bigger issue. I have two tomatoes on the plant (that's two more than last year) which are small and still green, and it doesn't look like they're going to turn into tomatoes that can be eaten.

I've given up on growing veg. Honestly, this is the second year where I've tried and it's been crap. The potatoes gave up and died several weeks ago, garlic just... isn't. Tomatoes as mentioned. *sigh* 

Comments

[readerjane]

We had similar problems the one year we tried gardening.

Not much grew well, and what did, fell prey to squirrels or raccoons or rabbits whatever it was that nibbled the vines and broke up the tiny pumpkin. Humph.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I have slugs, but I don't think this is their fault. They ate one of my plants earlier in the year, but these days they're more interested in the bird seed. No idea why.

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

There are small lamps you can buy that help a lot. I have one on my kitchen table that use while I eat breakfast, and I vary the length of exposure depending on the time of year.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen them. Does it work for you? I've seen research on some of them that say they're entirely ineffective, but that seemed limited to a subset.

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

They absolutely help me. I can actually feel a difference. I'd be a depressed, angry mess if I didn't have one during the winter, and it certainly helps on dark days in the summer due to the fact that I also work indoors with no windows.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I have lots of windows. They look out onto greyness at the moment.

[wildcard-sej.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, all this rain means I don't have to water everything myself at the moment, but on the other, I don't have much left still planted either.... I had to bring up all my potatoes early this year because the plants suddenly turned yellow, and I found they'd been infested with tiny little thread-like worms. :(

Last year was my first growing veggies so I'm still definitely at the hit and miss stage. Mainly, my garden faces the wrong way and doesn't get enough sun anyway, except for a very small corner, so I'm still trying to find what works where. Also, when it was hot earlier in the year, it was too extreme - some stuff was ending up so parched and wilted during the daytime that it couldn't recover even being watered twice in the day, and a few very heavy downpours damaged the young plants as well.

I have tomato plants for the first time this year, but like yours mine aren't showing any signs of ripening, so I think I'll have to find some recipes to use them green instead at this rate. I did have a successful crop of onions this year though, a few leeks, lettuces (in a raised trough to keep them away from the slugs this time), and a brief crop of mange tout, plus my sweetcorn is looking very hopeful.... *fingers crossed*

I'm going to keep persevering now that I've finally started, but I think my next step is to get a potting shed sorted out for next year so I can start my seedlings off under cover and hopefully they'll then stand a better chance of taking. Maybe.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everything's waterlogged at the moment. I suspect that's the real problem for the tomatoes, not just the lack of sunshine. I can't be bothered to make all this effort for no reward, any more. It's simpler to just rely on Waitrose *g*

[superbadgirl]

My landlords have a bunch of grape tomato plant in the backyard. This year I have yet to see red on any of them, and if grape tomatoes can't even ripen you know it's been an excessively cool, cloudy summer.

No one without a hothouse even bothers planting other varieties of tomato out here, to my knowledge.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

People keep telling me tomatoes are ridiculously easy to grow. I guess I'm not ridiculous enough.

[sg1jb]

Either those people are mistaken, or they live in a different climate entirely from you and me. Afaik, tomatoes are known to be difficult, because they are reactive to varying conditions.

'Easy' things to try include carrots, beans, some varieties of peas, and especially zucchini (they generally grow like weeds, in any type of soil and weather).

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

It's soooo cold over here, and has been nothing but lashing rain and wind for days. Which is great, for drought reasons, but I'm getting cabin fever stuck in the house with sick child and no other adult company.

Potatoes are tricky, I've heard. Carrots and green beans are pretty much failsafe - do you like them?

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I keep getting pics from NZ of sunshine and clear skys in the middle of winter. Am unimpressed.

Carrots aren't easy - it's a lie. My carrots didn't produce a single piece of carroty goodness last year, though the leaves were pretty. Nor are potatoes easy. Nor broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, tomatoes, courgettes or any other damn plant. Bugger global warming, I'm flying my veg in from countries that can actually grow it.