Must try harder

It's school report time and there'll probably be a quite a few with 'must try harder'.
A remark I often got on my reports was that I was inconsistent, although one time a teacher said I was consistent in my inconsistency, which I took as an improvement!


If I was getting a report for my vegetable growing this year then it would definitely say I must try harder!
The only thing to eat so far has been spinach, and that had carried on growing from last year so doesn't really count.  There is the red orache of course which there's loads of but I still haven't tried that.


Remember this from March?

Well this is what it looks like now

It looks quite lush but you'll notice there's not a lot growing up the trellis.  There are beans on the right hand side but they're only about a foot tall.  I decided to grow morning glory flowers up the other one but they're about the same height, and in between is a courgette.  The courgette and another two that I planted at the front of the house were really battered about by the wind when I first planted them and they've only just started growing again.  Behind the left hand trellis are some potatoes which are doing really well, but I can't take credit for them because my daughter planted them.

This was supposed to be my main veg patch back in March

and this is it now

under the white grille were peas, which I sowed twice but they didn't come up so I'm now using it as a nursery bed for some perennials which I sowed yesterday.
The twigs at the front were to keep the cat off radishes and lettuce but I think they probably died due to lack of water.
The grille in the background is keeping the cat off my broad beans, here's a closer look at them         

I don't think I'm going to get many beans off them do you?
I've sown other things as well which haven't materialised.  
I think my problems have been that some of my seed is years old and is probably not viable, I have neglected the watering a bit, and we had weeks of really windy weather.  I think the soil could do with beefing up a bit too but I've plans for that.


Have you noticed though that you need to water seeds that you sow, but self sown seeds manage perfectly well on their own?


What I have been successful with, is keeping on top of the weeds.
Can you remember this bed before weeding?

 and after

The following two photos are it now

Those pink poppies and the borage just appeared from nowhere.  I think the seeds must have been lying dormant under a conifer hedge that was cut down last year.


This was in March

and now