The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2025!

droopsnoot

Three of my tomato seeds have made an appearance today - I planted five each of Money Maker, Gardeners Delight and Costoluto Fiorentino, and it's the latter that have appeared first. Chillies continue to grow a little, though the ones I've potted on from the seed trays aren't really progressing visibly.

carinjo

Quick question: i am ready to buy some compost and topsoil for my raised beds, but on the packs it says: provide feed for 4-6weeks (as an example). Won't it make sense then to only fill beds once i am ready to plant seeds/seedlings?
I am way behind at the moment, so hoping for some good weather next week!
Happy pottering everyone this weekend, i'm off to France tomorrow!

Suffolk_lass

It depends what is in the bed you are feeding - currants and gooseberries are into budded leaves now here so I have top dressed with compost. The same with rhubarb - around the crowns in January. For annuals I am waiting (except potatoes and onions).

To be honest, I would be more likely to use compost in containers and just use liquid feed on annual F&V in the ground, once they get going

FreeBear

Suffolk_lass said: Oh well, they will look and smell lovely, and they will encourage pollinators for our beans

Cherry plum is in full bloom. Standing under the tree, the buzzing of insects sounds like you are next to a beehive. With any luck, the bees will hang around to do their magic when the apricot bursts in to flower.

greenbee

We've just moved three of the four IBCs that have been cluttering up my drive for months round to the back of the shed so I can get one of my neighbours over to measure up/quote/install a hard standing for them. 

The apple tree has had a haircut - it's full of canker, but there's only so much we can take out. And a huge bay that was about 10ft higher than the hedge is now a couple of feet lower and a much better shape. It's nice that we're on to the things that feel like progress. 

This weekend I need to empty and clean the greenhouse, put down cardboard on the ground, and put compost one side to make a deep bed and work out where I'm planting what and how it will be supported. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself and attempt to get the whole veg plot sorted this weekend, but it would be nice to work out what will go where. 

Peppers, aubergines and a few tomato seedlings are happy in propagators on the windowsill. Padron peppers and more tomatoes are in the heated propagator and hopefully the padrons can move to the windowsill and I can start some more tomatoes (I have a lot of different varieties!). 

moneysaver1978

Suffolk_lass said:

Those look great! Cold here too! Frosty overnight again. Lots of propagators deployed currently and the planting plan updated!

As a spreadsheet fan, I love this! What do the colours/shades represent?

ladybird1106

Short visit to the plot. Potato bed is finally dug over. Compost bays are fixed. Started removing couch grass that’s took up residence around the rhubarb bed. Collected water butt and outdoor storage box (plastic) from dads. We sat and listened to the blackbirds singing as the light slowly disappeared.Must remember to pay plot rent next week. 🤞we don’t get too much rain tomorrow.
love 🐞

MissRikkiC

droopsnoot said:

Three of my tomato seeds have made an appearance today - I planted five each of Money Maker, Gardeners Delight and Costoluto Fiorentino, and it's the latter that have appeared first. Chillies continue to grow a little, though the ones I've potted on from the seed trays aren't really progressing visibly.

I’m fairly sure that’s the same 3 MD is growing on GW. I’m only just catching up on last weeks episode so apologies if I’m stating the obvious. 

I have had aubergines, tomatoes, peppers and chilis going for about a month now and the roots just are not getting them selves going! They’re in the heated propagator and I’ve never seemed to experience any issues before! Am I being a bit too inconsistent with watering? (They easily get forgetten about as I have to keep them in the spare room locked due to melding little hands!)

Suffolk_lass

moneysaver1978 said:

Suffolk_lass said:

Those look great! Cold here too! Frosty overnight again. Lots of propagators deployed currently and the planting plan updated!

As a spreadsheet fan, I love this! What do the colours/shades represent?

They are to make it more straightforward when I rotate forward the crops each year. Just a visual thing where I copy the cell to it's new rotation location, then DH can help. Things like corn and onions, that don't rotate usually stay white but when I started it, I gave colours to more crops like (last chance this year) asparagus, which has obviously been in the same place. It is a yellow colour, and strawberries are red. Garlic looks too similar in monochrome but is blue on screen.

It lets me look back to so I can check where something went well or badly. I realise that in the hidden columns (for a print to plant guide) it's not there but the asparagus has been in since 2016 so this is its last year. It was pathetic last year and suffers from being in the shade of an old russet apple tree, and the plum tree. It takes up too much space for the size of the bed really. If I had my time again I would do more double height half width beds with wider paths around them, but with the sleepers it is not that easy to change (or economically viable to do so)

Suffolk_lass

MissRikkiC said:

droopsnoot said:

Three of my tomato seeds have made an appearance today - I planted five each of Money Maker, Gardeners Delight and Costoluto Fiorentino, and it's the latter that have appeared first. Chillies continue to grow a little, though the ones I've potted on from the seed trays aren't really progressing visibly.

I’m fairly sure that’s the same 3 MD is growing on GW. I’m only just catching up on last weeks episode so apologies if I’m stating the obvious. 

I have had aubergines, tomatoes, peppers and chilis going for about a month now and the roots just are not getting them selves going! They’re in the heated propagator and I’ve never seemed to experience any issues before! Am I being a bit too inconsistent with watering? (They easily get forgetten about as I have to keep them in the spare room locked due to melding little hands!)

I planted tomatoes in individual pots of a loam/topsoil mix in heated propagators in my unheated but warm in the day greenhouse in mid-February. They are all miserable little plants or just not germinated. In contrast, I have the second sowing in the kitchen, next to the UV light of the bug zapper in a multi-purpose compost from last year, in unheated propagator with a cover and they are all ready to pot on. Only two weeks old! I think it is the compost, forming a seal over the seeds, which came from the same packets. Actually, one exception, my own saved Black Russian beefsteak tomato seeds are best of all.

I'm growing cherry - Sungold F1, Back Russian beefsteak, and St Pierre, the French field grown variety - I prefer the latter to the ridges on Costoluto Fiorentino which are prone to bottom end rot if I miss any watering (as they need the warmth of the greenhouse here in the East where the winds are cold). Costoluto Genovese are pretty good but not always available here., And Cuor Di Bue, a large mainland field grown heart shaped variety that have only worked in hot summers for me (even in the greenhouse). I love them from the market or supermarket when in Italy, but just not the same here!