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I’ve always tended to refer to the ‘senior’ gardeners on our allotments as the old boys, but I like your description better, Sue – much more respectful and acknowledges the fact that they are generally senior in experience as well as age!
Charles, I like the idea of covering the whole plot and planting through the membrane – if the membrane would last for a year it would be worth doing just to get the ground clear again, and give me back the illusion that I’m in control …
I think this has been a terrible year for vegetable growing, whatever method you use – the weather has been on the side of the slugs and snails, and we have also lost the best part of our crops to them this year. I know we gardeners are always at the mercy of the weather, but I’ve been growing veg for over twenty years and have never had such disappointing results before.
Two crops that have always been pretty reliable for us whatever the weather are onions and beans, and these have been more or less a total failure this year. Two beds of onions raised from seed had their leaves eaten away so many times they couldn’t come back, and the few onions that survived are so small they’re not really worth harvesting. The same goes for the beans – we grow lots of runners and french beans, and again most crops didn’t survive the slug attacks, in spite of repeated sowings. We are being pathetically pleased at the moment to harvest a few runner beans from the three or four vines that survived against the odds.
As for the squashes, only half a dozen plants have survived from the 30+ that we planted out as strong young plants, and they were all well hardened off before planting out with protective rings around them. I always put so much care into growing the squash plants that I feel almost maternal about them, and was devastated to lose so many!
I used to get very excited about permaculture mulched gardens too, but have never had any luck with them, even in a good year I think they are just a breeding ground for slugs and snails. Maybe they were designed for a climate that had different challenges than our own. I think the best defence against slug attack is to keep the ground clear and use barrier methods such as cut-off plastic bottles, but in very wet conditions even this doesn’t work.
There may have been one very small moment this year when I wondered whether it was worth all that effort … but it was soon replaced with a determination to do better next year! And at least our fruit trees are cropping well
I feel your frustration Roger, but we haven’t used any nasty chemicals in the garden since having kids over twenty years ago – sometimes it takes more effort, but I usually feel that it’s worth it in the end