Crop reports 2015

Basil	Excellent crop when grown in pots in conservatory. 3/4 pots are plenty.
Beetroot	Some edible golfballs. Not sure if it's worthwhile though.
Broad beans	Excellent. Need to stake all plants early. Have a follow-on crop ready to plant out early July.
Candy tuft	Nice plant. Best use in mixed pots at the front.
Carrots	Early trough did well again. Sowing in bed did not produce much. But a later sowing in a large pot gave a fair crop. More for fun than for serious harvest.
Catnip	Several plants raised to go in garden, though not without difficulty! Planted in the "Apple garden"
Chard	Cropping well in August. How long will it go on?
Coriander	Tried several methods. Nothing gave a good crop. Give up on this.
Cosmos	Great plants, though flowered rather late this year. Perhaps pot up into larger pots earlier.
Courgette	Very bad. Partly put out too early but mainly awful year. 2 courgettes from 5 plants. Most rotted before growing.
Cucamelon	In conservatory, good. Many little fruits used to make pickled gherkins. In greenhouse, very long vines but fruits did not swell.
Cucumber	One plant in greenhouse. Fed and watered profusely. Gave good crop - at least 6 fruits.
Foxgloves	Looking OK in September, sitting in biennial plots
French beans	Useless! Maybe planted out a bit early. Slugs destroyed a lot. Replacements never got going. I don't really know why. Maybe still slugs. But no significant crop at all.
Garlic, elephant	Good growth. Two plants gave good bulbs with big cloves. Some small ones grew into "rounds". Saved rounds and 24 bulbils to plant again. Also saved some good cloves.
Hesperis	Mostly OK in September, sitting in biennial plots. Those that turned purple in the tray did not survive transplanting.
Hollyhocks	Seeds sown in September 2014 grew slowly. Planted out into the Apple garden at end of June. They have grown on well (October 1st). I think they will flower next year.
Kale	Steady growth. No problems. 4 plants is probably enough. Standing up well for winter greens in November. Meal from tops on 20 March.
Land cress	Failure. Not nice enough to be worth the effort.
Larkspur	A bit weak when planted out. Saved some seed though. Try sowing in a pot that the plants can stay in to avoid transplanting.
Leaf beet	Those sown in trough did not do well. A later sowing planted out into bed did better. Still growing in November, should provide greens till March.
Leeks	My best crop! (Lyon Prizetaker) Have been harvesting as needed since August. Now, in November, there are plenty left and offsets of those harvested have been planted out for next year. This may be an all-year-round crop. Last ones used in January.
Marigolds	Did really well in Apple Garden. Those brought on in pots for a long time did best.
Mizuna	Early crops did poorly. Late sown in conservatory did well. Kept in pots they keep going.
Nasturtiums	Grew OK in good beds. But did not keep the blackfly off the beans. Some seed saved.
Nigella	Really poor. I don't think they transplant well. Grow in large pots, sown in place.
Pak choy	Germinated well in September. Growing on strongly in conservatory. (November) Two in pots outdoors did not produce a usable crop. Those in beds were devastated by little slugs and did not recover. Conservatory plants gave good crop all winter. Still two plants to use in March.
Parsley	Italian giant still doing well in November. A couple of pots near the house would be good. Survived snow and frost. Still good to crop at end of January
Peas	July sown Piccolo Provenzale did not produce a real crop. Maybe the very poor summer was to blame.
Peppers	Greenhouse grown plants produced 1 pepper each again. But conservatory plants are fruitful! The supermarket Ramiro type seed produced a strong plant with about twenty peppers - so many that the stem broke under the weight and I had to ripen them in a box. Better staking needed. The California Wonder also cropped well and has just flowered again and set more fruit. Green peppers growing in November. Last one used in January.
Potatoes	Best year so far. Those planted in open ground, however poor, did best. Bag-planted ones gave fairly good crops but lots of small ones rather than fewer larger ones. I think they need more light and sun and maybe less sprouts allowed.
Purslane	Germinated well and was growing well in garden. Most of crop was lost to squirrels or mice digging holes in the bed.
Salad leaves	Early summer in the beds did poorly. Excellent results in conservatory pots from September. Planted out in bed in October also did well. Both lots cropping still. (16th November!)
Spring onions	Outdoor sowing failed. Tray sowing came on well. But was slow in bed. Even when it grew we didn't seem to use it though. Not worth the trouble then.
Squashes	I hope this was just a bad year! 2 small squashes was my total haul! First ones out never grew (too cold). Later ones grew but did not set fruit. (cold and lack of sun)  Try mainly in a big compost bed next year. Raise plants to good size first.
Swede	Complete failure! Give up on these.
Sweet peas	Fairly good crop from small number of plants. Try some buckets of these trained in strange places.
Tomatoes	San Marzano and Black Russian did not set fruit in the greenhouse. Outdoors SM set loads and BR some but blight got the lot. Tumbling Tom also got blight. The only small crop came from Gardeners delight in greenhouse - picking in November! (No sun this summer)
Valerian	Got one plant to maturity in pot at front of house. Needs planting in back garden and stopping main shoot to get lower flowers.
Vipers bugloss	Two big plants in Apple Garden and two smaller ones still growing in pots. No flowers this year but maybe there is hope for next year.