Winners & Losers 2011

Although I did review my growing year in an earlier post, I thought I'd list the winners and losers of last year, inspired by Amy over at the Souper Allotment blog.

Winning Veg: Carrots. No problems beset the orange beauties and because of the mild winter we're still pulling them up now.

Winning Fruit: Gooseberries. Although we lost some of the harvest to the birds, these low maintenance bushes produced masses of fruit.

Best Newcomer: Cucumber. Belied expectations as I left them pretty much to their own devices and despite being neglected, the one plant which survived produced lovely fruits all summer long.

Last Chance Saloon: Sweetcorn. Not because the plants don't do well, they always produce lovely big cobs, it's the fact that something gets to them before we do. I'm not going to grow so many this year and will concentrate on trying to get the protection right. Not sure if it's rabbits, mice...

Most over-grown: Parsnips. I'm not sure why I grow so many. We like them and they always do well, but they take up quite a lot of ground and we never seem to eat them all. Getting all the old roots out of the heavy clay soil before the new season starts is always a pain in the backside too.

Sadly Missed: Cabbage. I prefer to grow cops which don't need cover as I don't like faffing about with netting, which meant there was no cabbage this year. It was sadly missed, so it's back on the agenda for 2012.

All my seeds for 2012 are ready to go and as I'm doing chilli peppers this year, sowing starts next month.