Crop Failure…

It has been another wildly unpredictable and difficult year for the world’s weather with record hot and cold and wet and dry spells that defy expectations. We had been warned early on that we were in for a drought and with a warm spring and hosepipe ban it seemed it would be true, then the rain came, and didn’t stop drenching everything. It turned cold and froze the ground and then rained again. For us personally we escaped any of the disasters that seem to plague so many people and had a relatively mild year, however our allotment has suffered and we have had one of our worst year’s harvest since we have been growing. We got virtually nothing off the land; even reliable crops like the runner beans were poor this year.

We have now put the allotment ‘to bed’ for the year and we only need to prune the fruit bushes and plant our garlic, over-wintering onions and broad beans until we get back to it next year.

It is an interesting thing growing your own food and we a lucky that we do not have to live off what we grow, but the endless cycle of preparing the ground, planting an nurturing the seedlings, battling the pests and picking the bounty is quite a thing to be involved with at such a hands-on level. There are the rewards of a good harvest and of being able to share it with others, but too there is the disappointment and frustration when it doesn’t work, and then we go and do it all over again the next year.