Last year was a bit of a washout - the wettest year on record. The rain rarely stopped for long enough to let the ground dry out enough to work. It was gloomy most of the time, colder than normal - veggies didn't grow very well.
When it stopped raining, it was like "commando gardening" - get as much done as possible before the heavens opened up again. I planted out loads of brassicas for the winter - pigeons stripped the whole lot within days before I had a chance to set up frames and netting. Cauliflowers rotted. Demoralised, I kind of gave up.
However, I did sow a few more things in the greenhouse for overwintering - I had every intention of planting out, sowing more, but the weather was just depressing and I couldn't be bothered. The last time I went to the greenhouse was early December.
For the last week we've had sub-zero temperatures and thick snow - overnight it warmed up, rained, the snow melted away and we now have bright sunshine, so I'm off to the veggie patch and greenhouse to find out what's survived.
From memory, we should have:
4 elephant garlic in large tubs outside the greenhouse
1 sack of new potatoes in the greenhouse - they were meant for Christmas, but weren't doing very well so left them longer
3 seed trays of winter onion sets - the aim was to plant them out late October, but it didn't happen
1 tub of peas - these were the handful of seeds (about 13?) that came free with Grow Your Own magazine last year
24 broad beans (Aquadulce Claudia) - I did want to plant them out late last year, but no chance of that
80-100 small leeks planted out
various broccoli / kale (probably all just skeletal after the pigeons fed themselves)
I'm also going to sow a few seeds today. The sooner I start, the better. I've missed the growing .....
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