The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2024!

Dizzy_Ditzy

Welcome to the new ups and downs of growing your own!

Everyone is welcome. Come and tell us about your growing shenanigans

What do you like to grow?

Are you going to try anything different this year?

Did you try anything different last year? Did you like it? Would you grow it again?

Do you have any tips for growing?

Do you make anything with what you grow?

How much does growing your own save you?


I'll use this post for links that folks might find useful. If you want something adding in, please just let me know 🙂

Dizzy_Ditzy

2023 was a very up and down year for me on the plot. We lost our hens one by one until suddenly we had none left and that’s taken some getting used to! We need a break from having them though because it is very full on, every day in all weathers so our plan is to keep the run as it is and repurpose it as a fruit cage. There is 8 years worth of chicken manure on the ground in there so I’m expecting big things 😂

What did well for us last year? Probably the onions sowed from seed, they were easily the size of my fist! Peas and green beans were good too and we are still eating those. 

Everything else just seemed a bit meh this year. Sprouts all blew in the last couple of weeks before Christmas, strawberries were got by the wood lice, the apples didn’t come to anything, garlic was a bit hit or miss, potatoes were rubbish because they’d been got at by wireworm 🙄 Nematodes are on my list to do but we need to have the right weather for them and that feels like it’s a long way off

In other news, the site rep is telling me that I need to move one of my sheds as it’s apparently on the dividing line. Well it is in exactly the same place that it was when I took the plot on and he made me part with actual cash for it so I’m not very happy to be told now that it needs to be moved. I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll actually move it or not yet. The council are doing a “consultation” which essentially means that it’s already a fire gone conclusion that our fees will almost double so that we can pay for an allotment officer. That reminds me, I need to fill that in… 

That’s enough from me for now. Over to you… 😀

KajiKita

Thank you for staring a new thread for the new year / new season 😊
2023 growing year started okay, but then the rain followed by scorching hot weather clobbered me and the weeds overwhelmed the plot. The greenhouse was hopeless - nothing but Marigolds grew in there - a lack of fertility and light I think. We have chopped back the plum tree shading it and some hazels that were huge a bit further away. In spite of all of that, I got lots of strawberries, quite a few runner beans, rhubarb, blackberries, various herbs and a few onions from seed. 

ATM, when weather permits I am claiming compost from my daleks and old heap to spread on the veggie patch and in the greenhouse, which I hope will help fertility in the next season. 

KK

alicef

Count me in.

2023 - quite tricky for the annuals grown outside the polytunnel.  Early pea crop was very good; garlic all OK; self seeded parsnips grew into monsters; onions grow from seed ok.  Later ripening crops so-so.  Pumpkins and squashes a disaster.

Perennials and polytunnel crops all good and we had an excellent apricot crop.

2024 - will grow garlic in pots as I haven't cleared the ground and it's too wet now to get dug, (plus I'm getting twitchy about planting the crop in the same ground I've used over the last 5 years).  I'm going to haul out the propagators and get chillies started in Jan because I would like to grow as much as I can for the fund raiser plant sale.

Farway

Thanks for starting afresh.

2023 was hit & miss, a lot more misses unfortunately, plums & cherries I never had one fruit to eat despite the promise during blossom time, down to birds, snails and poor weather

Outdoor tomatoes for once came good, the blight held off, weather was just right and quite pleased with the results

My health has stopped me mowing the grass, weeding & general maintenance, so the garden has gradually gone into decline, but I hope to keep on top in 2024. Concentrating on cane fruit like blackberries that I can tend to without falling over into the plants.

bamboo_socks

Hello and happy New Year everyone! New to the MSE forum and new to this thread. I am planning on growing small things this year, probably lettuce/tomatoes/cucumbers, that sort of thing. Despite a relatively large garden, it's quite shady so I need to be able to move my plants about (thinking grow bags, bags for life and so on).

I've got a bit left on a garden centre gift voucher so I might audit the seeds I have then go and stock up.

FreeBear

Stuck a plumcot in last spring and moved it to its final home at the end of November - It will be a few years before I get any fruit on it. Hoping I might get a bunch of grapes off the Fragola vine that got planted at the same time.

If not, I'll have the usual crop of weeds to contend with.

leftatthetrafficlights

2023 was hit and miss for me too - I'm going to be much more proactive this year and improve at succession sowing! 🤦‍♀️😂 I'm hoping to massively increase production by doing better and also creating some new veggie beds in the front garden, it's quite shady but should be good for some crops; I've bought jerusalem artichoke tubers to plant out there in the spring and I'm reasonably confident that it will be a good place for salad leaves which would free up an entire raised bed at the back of the house 🙌 

I haven't decided on exactly what I'm growing this year but dh and I are doing the planning this weekend 😁

droopsnoot

I've got onions and potatoes outside that I planted late last year, I've had six or seven shoots showing on the onions but it was down to three last time I looked. I've put wire netting around them this time, to keep the local cat(s) from using them as a toilet. I'll be growing some chilli and tomato plants later on, but that's probably about it. I got a reasonable number of both last year, still have some chillies in the freezer, but a lot of them are quite tasteless so I'll be a bit more careful with what I plant this time.

silverwhistle

leftatthetrafficlights said:

2023 was hit and miss for me too - I'm going to be much more proactive this year and improve at succession sowing! 🤦‍♀️😂

Not just me then! Another one with patchy results. If only I liked self-seeded Swiss Chard as much as I grew.

Had Cavolo Nero with lunch today, and that has been good as I splashed out on netting. Celery and leeks still available down the allotment. Had some good chillies including one I grew on from a farmer's market purchase and am seed saving.. Dorset Naga is seriously hot and I gave one to my best friend to take home for cooking. Unfortunately she took a bite from it and I spent the next half hour filling her with beer and milk; water didn't help!

I was helpful and laughing at the same time and she was hopping around the patio making strange noises..

I think I'll get some more protection for my redcurrants and gooseberries too: one moment the crop looks good and the next the birds have discovered them. A sure fire sign that they are ripe..

Yesterday my order to Real Seeds went in: I always like to try something new; this year agretti, sorrel and a soya bean as well as new varieties of squash, tomato and chillie pepper.

Suffolk_lass

@silverwhistle have you tried making pesto with your surplus Swiss chard? it works well as a substitute for basil, and any nuts (not just pine nuts) with garlic and olive oil, whizzed and then frozen - a really easy way to use up the surplus.

We have some building and re-engineering of beds to achieve this month if possible. I need to transplant some fruit bushes and take cuttings from others I can't move, and then reduce the width of the raised veg beds. Now in my mid sixties I am a lot less stretchy than I was and the middle of the beds is beyond the comfortable stretch! I have other gardening to attend to any much early spring pruning too. 

The autumn fruiting raspberries all need cutting down this month