France in Focus

Growing your own is very satisfying, won't get fresher, but I think it will be abandoned from here on in. This weather has wiped out everything, watering in the greenhouse 3 times minimum per day never saved the tomatoes and cucumbers, a few cherry but the allongees, where they did form, then went brown from the bottom up. Always been a bit of a faff in so much as when you have whatever ready to enjoy, they are in abundance at a good price in the shops. Anyone want to buy a greenhouse

Did you shade the greenhouse?

Did you spray water on leaves etc or the roots? Tomatoes need water and feed at roots.

Sounds like blossom end rot - https://www.rhs.org.uk/problems/blossom-end-rot

But you are right - you can get good-priced stuff in shops - and you can be safe in the knowledge that the farmers know what chemicals to spray on it to help it grow.

Shaded where the sun was penetrating, yep sprayed roots, evidently spraying the leaves encourages that black rot

Growing veg of any type is not my bag but then I don't have to as all my French neighbours like depositing bags of veg on our doorstep - I do say there is only two of us and I can't use it all but it doesn't stop them so I have to admit to sneaking some of it in with the garden dechetterie stuff and then putting it in the town centre's communal garden's composting bins that they use for the chickens!

I reduced what I grow this year primarily because of my husbands health and I'm so glad I did. My flower borders are essentially dead, huge swathes of glorious perennials all shrivelled to dust. But I won't use tap water and our well is all but dry. Our world is changing and we will have to change with it. I dread to think what future generations will have to cope with. For once I'm glad to be childless.

Last year everything got mildew and drowned because the summer here was cold and wet all the time, we virtually had no summer it went straight from a wet cold spring to a wet autumn, and this year everything is baked.
I shall still persevere though as it still works out cheaper and nicer than buying fruit and veg.

It's a very difficult year! As Char says, last year was wiped out by mildew, this year is being wiped out by drought. My tomatos are unhappy but they're hanging in there nonetheless, and we've eaten quite a few. Ditto for the courgettes.
It's more of a hobby for me - if you don't save the seeds of the veg you want to grow again, you'll never balance the books. However, the taste of home-grown has no rival.

OH has been very successful with his long tomatoes but he has had to shade the greenhouse and fight the ants. We don't get the temperatures you do, Hughnique, so it's probably easier for us. However, peas didn't do well, neither did the rhubarb but spuds are fine. Strawberries are still going but they're in pots in the shrub beds so well shaded.
We have a couple of farms very close by, one bio and one "almost" bio and their stuff is well worth having. How they've managed, I have no idea ...

If you are growing veg to make a profit*, then forget it for most crops. Asparagus is profitable for us but only because you cannot start full cropping until the plants have been in the ground for 3 years and the commercial grower has to price in that period of time with no returns.

* In the sense of having veg cheaper than in the shops.

But as suggested, what we pick is as fresh as it can be - important for crops like new potatoes and sweet corn where sugars rapidly convert to starch after harvest (and we are talking about hours).

We know what has been sprayed on the plants - usually just water but very occasionally a bit of washing up liquid if the green-/black-/white-fly get to be too much.

We also grow varieties that are not available in the shops normally -
Potatoes - Belle de Fontonay and Pink Fir Apple
Tomatoes - Gardeners delight, Tangerine, Vintage Vine etc..
Tayberry
Parsnips - now becoming available in the shops but previously not to be seen.
Beetroot - Chioggia - striped flesh, as well as yellow and white varieties - different flavours as well as colours.
Peppers - Jalapeno, Mild spiral, Friggitello etc..

No problems here in our tunnel. Water them around their base once a day.
Just picked these.