[waterbuffalofarmer]

With next year less than a week away I am preparing the vegetable gardens. Thinking of trying some new vegetables in the mix this year. So far because of all the rain its difficult to dig over the raised bed; I have found that planks help to disperse the weight evenly. I am umming and arrrrrring as to whether I should be pruning the trees and bushes due to the warmish wet weather.  The strawberry plants are going to come in and be put in pots, they never fruit much outdoors at all. Well that's my garden what about everyone elses?

[Cosmore]

With the amount of rain and subsequent muddy pools everywhere here I was thinking of trying rice paddying...........lol.

[doganjo]

I wonder if there's a market for mud greenhouses near me?

[Fleecewife]

I don't touch the ground at all when it's that soggy.  Even though you stand on boards, your digging will still alter the soil structure - also it's far too difficult to dig wet soil.  We concentrate on the tunnel through wet weather.
In fact, covering your raised beds with a layer of rotted manure, straw and polythene for the winter will give you a wonderful weedfree soil which you don't need to dig at all.  The manure and straw will have been incorporated, and the surface protected from the weather which can wash away all your nutrients.  I can't do a totally no-dig system here because we still have many perennial weeds, but by covering the soil this way, removing even the worst weeds such as couch roots is quite easy.

Wet winter weather is for perusing the seed catalogues and dreaming 

[pgkevet]

Ive been waitng for a chance to plough the veggie patch... not a chance unless theres a serious week or two of frosts or i'll be the front wheels ploughing instead of the trailed array.
rather than expanding the variety I'm thinking in terms of reducing amounts and workload. And my trees are unpruned still too

[Fleecewife]

Reducing the workload is a really good idea. I realised a while back that I was putting a whole lot of effort into growing large numbers of veg, which I couldn't keep weed free, we couldn't use all at once, we got fed up with eating frozen (quite apart from the effort of freezing it all) so loads ended up on the compost heap.
I've been gradually paring it down by noticing how much we do eat of what I grow, and what no-one really likes (like aubergines).  Then, in theory I can concentrate on weeding the smaller area I have.  Instead we built a large flower garden so the weeds still flourish amongst the veg ......

[Rosemary]

Dan's dad has done the veg garden since we moved here but he's given it up for 2016, so I'm going to be doing it. No digging - raised beds - and they were manured in the autumn apart form the one with winter veg and the one with a green manure.

One bed of spuds; one of peas for sure. Bought kohl rabi seeds and celery seeds this year. Never tried them before. Also shallots - first time for a few years. No onions - take too much room, we never store them well and I can buy organic British onions for a reasonable price in the supermarket.

No aubergines; fewer courgettes. Lots of sprouts - love 'em. Tomatoes - I've got three varieties, I think.

And resolved to make better use of the polytunnel. And we are going to eat the asparagus, not just treat it as a decorative plant.

[ellied]

After a pretty good year in veg for myself I am planning to reduce things I don't eat much and focus on things I do.  One tripod of beans is enough rather than two as frozen ones rarely get used up.  I grew far too many sprouts and cabbages and need more curly kale spinach and salad leaves, tomatoes.  Onions about the same ditto cucumbers and courgrttes, try aubergines again and celery from seed not started which were too dear for what grew on.  Leeks maybe a few more and way more broccoli and PS type to add as I missed that this year.  No point putting in more than a container of tatties or carrots as sacks from local farms are cheap.  I doubled beetroots and still want more but I MUST thin them, not leave everything all season..

And I really pigged on rasps all summer but the autumn ones and Tay and Logan were disappointing as were the currants so I need a plan for them and maybe relocate rhubarb and strawbs runners with some manure.

Apples just ongoing but I need a long outsize picker if anyone sees a Bramley size to over 7' height anywhere let me know!

[pgkevet]

Last year I stored half the onions in nets hung in the bar and the overflow were just spread out on the hay store floor... they kept way better than in the nets. So this year the whole lot is just spread out. We'll see how well they keep but I did start with 900 sets in the spring. 200 were reds more than half bolted - so that's an end to growing reds.
It's spuds that are too much work. I have endemic scab so end up throwing half the crop away as unstorable. The effort in planting, earthing up, spraying for blight, digging up and sorting/bagging ... it's backbreaking for 8 or 9 £5 sackfulls.
I grew lots of lovely red cabbage no-one wanted. kholrabi i love but so do the pheasants. Planty of greyhound and savoy but always have to peel away a lot to get under the slugs. The sweetcorn was planted further from the house this year than last  and the wildlife ate more than i did. last year i ended up with 100+ cobs frozen... this year....none

[doganjo]

Last year I stored half the onions in nets hung in the bar and the overflow were just spread out on the hay store floor... they kept way better than in the nets. So this year the whole lot is just spread out. We'll see how well they keep but I did start with 900 sets in the spring. 200 were reds more than half bolted - so that's an end to growing reds.
It's spuds that are too much work. I have endemic scab so end up throwing half the crop away as unstorable. The effort in planting, earthing up, spraying for blight, digging up and sorting/bagging ... it's backbreaking for 8 or 9 £5 sackfulls.
I grew lots of lovely red cabbage no-one wanted. kholrabi i love but so do the pheasants. Planty of greyhound and savoy but always have to peel away a lot to get under the slugs. The sweetcorn was planted further from the house this year than last  and the wildlife ate more than i did. last year i ended up with 100+ cobs frozen... this year....none

With that record - is it worth it?

[Fleecewife]

  It's quite heartening that I'm not the only one who suffers from overenthusiasm at sowing time, then has stuff wasted.

I love homegrown potatoes though, especially certain varieties you can't buy in the greengrocers.  So even though my hips and knees are screaming after planting each row, I still plant 4 or 5 rows each year.  This year I have some sort of brown swirly marks inside one variety, so that will be dumped for 2016.  We dig them as needed through the winter, as there's nowhere to store them away from vermin, so have more of a slug problem than necessary.   It's not the price saving or otherwise for me, it's the taste.

[CarolineJ]

Spuds were a hit for us this year (got about 40kg left in hessian sacks in the spare room wardrobe), as were the broad beans and the peas.  I tried onions from seed for the first time, which did far better than I expected (I've always failed dismally with sets) and the leeks weren't too bad, just wish I'd grown more of them.  The carrots were a failure, they all bolted in the warm wet weather around late June and I ended up giving them all to the horses, but the parsnips, planted at the same time, loved it and were superb!  The brussels sprouts completely failed to germinate (as did my brother's, which was weird, given we live about 500 miles away from each other).

Not going to bother with calabrese next year, as we didn't end up eating much of it, and I really need to thin out the strawberries, as lots of them went to mould because I didn't spot they were ripe under the leaves - though the sheep helpfully broke through the fencing and ate most of the plants in October, so that may have taken care of itself. 

What's everyone doing about garlic this year?  I've got some ready to go in, but I just don't think it's cold enough to start it off yet. 

[Lesley Silvester]

I am very limited to space but love to grown climbing beans - French and runner - and my own tomatoes. I also grow salad leaves, beetroot (still got a lot in the ground) and cucurbits. For some reason, the beans did abysmally this year but the ground has now been very well manured (thank you goats) so hope to do better in 2016. Tomatoes were great until the blight hit but I managed to slow the spread down by removing affected plants straight away. I did get a crop of potatoes which I didn't sow though.

[Blondie]

Having only moved into our property in the summer and the whole garden being patio and gravel, we have slowly been sorting it out. Wanted to be a lot further along but the wet weather has been dreadful. Our end of terrace is slowing turning into a mini allotment.

There are already cabbages and cauliflowers growing (although a little ropy due to a caterpillar and slug invasion early in the year) and some beans and peas. Loads of strawberries in pots, along with blackberries, blue berries and red currants.

Salad stuff and herbs are growing in the kitchen and also the cold frame.

Hoping to get tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, beetroot, kale and carrots also grown this year. Last year the best tomatoes were hanging basket varieties so will probably do that again.

[muddypuddle]

My OH got a bit enthusiastic this year and planted most of our seeds all in one go so everything came at once and was not thinned out enough, however I did not complain as at least it was sort of a step in the right direction that he was "helping"! 
 We did however end up with loads of strawberries, hundreds of them I gave so many away, they have sort of run into one another so the rows are no longer rows, the plants were so productive that I even though they are probably 3 years old they are staying. Beans were pretty poor I found as were my giant pumpkins which was disappointing as the previous year they were so big my OH could barely lift them!
We need to plan a bit better this year and as others have mentioned just grow what we eat and what we can actually manage and I will go back to doing the sowings I think!