'My Sprouts Looked Like Triffids' – 9 Plants UK Gardeners Regret Growing

Gardeners have had a busy year so far.There was the early heatwave to consider (which, despite providing a boost for strawberry growers, also put the UK at ‘medium’ risk of drought); there have been the thunderstorms since then – not to mention June’s “toxic” caterpillars.Still, the first summer month draws us closer to the reward for our backyard efforts. Tomatoes, salad greens, cucumbers, and more are currently, or will soon be, ready to eat. If, of course, they grow well enough to begin with. In a post shared to r/GardeningUK, site user JollyFunctions asked: “What’s the one veg or fruit that you’d never try and grow again?” Their previous attempts at growing corn, they wrote, had resulted in a squirrel-mauled disaster. Here are some of the most-upvoted responses: 1) “Cauliflower. Way too much hassle.” Credit:u/BeccaaCatRedditor u/tubaleiter agreed, writing: “Most brassicas, for that matter. Lots of them take a long time, suffer from pigeons and caterpillars, and aren’t especially better or cheaper than store-bought.“Cavolo Nero is my primary exception to my ‘brassicas aren’t worth the hassle’ rule.” 2) “Chillis. I tried last year.”“They were all getting nice and big on the windowsill when my cat decided to prune them all overnight after leaving them alone for weeks. I saved three and grew them on, but they got badly ‘slugged’.“By the end of the summer, one plant had several chillis on it – not yet ripe. The plant blew over in a storm one night, and slugs ate all the unripe chillis.“I don’t even like chillis.”Credit:u/ThestolenoneChilli plant3) “Butternut squash.” “Leaves the size of dustbin lids and took over the greenhouse with one decent fruit. The rest went wrong...” Credit:u/Retro_infusion4) “Aubergines.” “I can get lovely big healthy plants which flower, but every time the flowers just fall off. I can’t find a reason.” Credit: u/JocastaH-B5) “Carrots have never worked, cauliflower is always eaten, corn is too hard and takes too much space, cabbage gets eaten, peppers are not big enough.”“I’ve tried about 30-40 different things all in. Sticking with potatoes, parsnips, courgettes, chillis, onions, tomatoes, pumpkins, chard, beetroot and asparagus.” Credit:u/lankwell73Courgette growing in garden6) “We grew potatoes in the ground once. Rookie mistake.”“Every year since then, we get nice little purple flowers as a reminder that somewhere under the patio is a long-lost potato we missed the first time.” Credit:u/SmallLumpOGreenPutty7) “Sweet potato.” “Got a beautiful big plant, no potatoes.” Credit:u/watthebosh8) “Sprouts.” “They were attacked relentlessly by pests at every stage of the process, and eventually we abandoned them to the bugs. Sprouts look all kinds of weird when they’ve gone to seed. Like triffids.”Credit: u/Hephaestus18169) “Leeks or brassicas.” “I don’t like dealing with alium leaf miners (they creep me out), and brassicas of all kinds are just caterpillar food. I don’t enjoy eating them enough to waste my energy on them!”Credit:u/KatbearwolDo you have anything to add? Let us know!Related...UK Gardeners Urged To Put Garlic In Plant Water 'Til OctoberUK Gardeners Warned Not To Touch 'Toxic' Caterpillar This JuneMonty Don Urges UK Gardeners To Do 1 Job First Thing In The Morning This June

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