Beetroot - what on earth happened there? I had new varieties, burpees golden and chioggia to try but they came to nothing more or less; partly because next door's cat thought that the freshly sown bed was put there for his benefit, but even subsequent sowings were poor. Old faithful boltardy did better, but I still didn't get as many as I should have done.
Brassicas - the less said about these the better; I'm not even going to detail them separately as absolutely nothing grew.
Broad beans - my first proper attempt was devastated by blackfly.
Courgettes - not a single fruit formed on any plants... actually, that's not strictly true; there were a couple but they just shrivelled up, and I have never failed to grow courgettes before.
Cucumbers - after the first couple the plants just seemed to give up so I also gave in and pulled them up.
Herbs - failed to germinate... end of story.
That's enough of that, now onto the good stuff.
I had more berries than previous years; a constant supply throughout the summer, from strawberries
to raspberries
and blackberries
Onions were spectacular
and tomatoes were consistent; they kept cropping until November
This year I also kept a tally of how much it would have cost to buy all of the fruit and veg that I produced; excluding the few things that never made it to the kitchen scales the grand total was.....
... drumroll
... £115.85 and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I'm under no illusions that I'm near self-sufficient (especially not this year), or have broken-even but still, it means I didn't spend it on produce.
The highlights were:
Potatoes £29.00
Tomatoes £15.31
Parsnips £10.55
Raspberries £8.62
Onions £8.54
Peppers £8.48
Strawberries £8.29
So, onwards and upwards to 2013 and next season!
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