Review of the year

Well this year is pretty much acknowledged to have been a dreadful year. Bad weather affected most growers and combined with a heavy work schedule and a slightly slap dash confidence in my abilities, 2012 was my annus vebetablus horribilis.

It wasn't all doom and gloom:

• The fruit did well and raspberries and rhubarb were great
• My (bought) butternut squash plant worked well and yielded 5.5 squash (even if I did then let them go a touch mouldy)
• This was the first year I had success with Alliums and the yield was good as they were given an autumn head start
• Mixed success with broad beans - I wonder if I should leave them in longer as I have a harvest around May but then I read about their season being later in summer in cooking magazines so wonder if they are a result of successional sowing rather than a second flush from autumn sown plants.  My experiment for next year I suspect.

On the whole though, my plot under-performed with usual favourites failing me:

• Potato yields were tiny in comparison to previous years
• Tomatoes hardly even had enough fruit and even they didn't turn red before being feasted on by slugs
• Salad leaves never really got started (slugs again) - the only exception was rocket which is pretty much a weed
• Strawberries are probably in need of a move to refresh themselves
• Jerusalem artichokes, like potatoes, had a small harvest. Considering that they are near perennials I don't think moving them will help (and the place they are in is good as they don't over-shadow other plants) but I do think I need to water them more (both more often and just more water)

I did measure harvests (sort of) but the depressingly small amounts may have meant that I gave up in disgust this year.

Weighing up 2010

Despite the snow and ice thawing and in theory I could revisit the allotment and start digging. But as the rain falls I still don't feel like it.

Instead I am enjoying staying on my sofa and dreaming of the crops to come in 2011. Surrounded by seed catalogues and an insatiable urge to buy more seeds and plants I find it useful to look in my seed store to see what I already have, look over past posts to remember what was problematic and, in a nerdy way, look at my crop spreadsheet.

Not only did I weigh every harvest (apart from a few of the later ones) and chronicle when they were harvested but I also went round a local supermarket getting a guide price per kilo so I can now work out which crop was worth the effort and if the plot itself broke even.

As we were starting from scratch there was some spending (£253) on tools and plants and scaffolding for raised beds (still not built!) which will be spread over the years but on the whole it seems to have worked out well. I slipped up a little in record keeping in the party season and didn't measure everything (including the Brussels sprouts on Christmas day) and don't have prices for all the vegetables I grew but even taking that into account, the value of what was grown was £800 (and 187kg of produce). Of course we had to buy a new freezer to keep them all in!

By far the most productive vegetable was the tomato - 67kg and worth £374 alone. 23kilos of Runner beans while worth a decent amount, £152, was excessive as they are not as versatile as tomatoes and courgettes. I also got 23kg of courgettes (worth £79) however they proved to be great for cakes and stews though not so good at freezing as they get water-logged.   26 kilos of potatoes were very welcome and we are still eating them now. Definitely worth repeating again though I will have to switch our carb habits from pasta and rice to potatoes so we use them up quicker.  Jerusalem artichokes are promising to be very productive too - 3.6kg from just one plant already. Delicious and difficult to find in shops - definitely on the list for the coming growing year. Salad is not only easy and fast to grow but also expensive to buy in shops - another winner.

The Patty Pans were cute but I wasn't fast enough in using them all, equally the excitement of finally managing to grow radishes doesn't overcome the fact I'm not too keen on them.

What else is on the plans for this year? More soft fruit like currants (red and black), gooseberries and raspberries.  I can't wait.