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

greenbee

I like Real Seeds for interesting veg seeds.

My forever home was supposed to be a small house with a huge garden. I was looking for 3 acres until I had to mow my mum's 1.5 acres for a couple of months... I've ended up with a larger house than I wanted, and have found that 3/4 acre is more than enough (although I may change my opinion when I'm retired!

Nothing done in the garden today, but I've had my plant labels delivered so I have no excuses now!

Silvertabby

greenbee said:

I like Real Seeds for interesting veg seeds.

My forever home was supposed to be a small house with a huge garden. I was looking for 3 acres until I had to mow my mum's 1.5 acres for a couple of months... I've ended up with a larger house than I wanted, and have found that 3/4 acre is more than enough (although I may change my opinion when I'm retired!

Nothing done in the garden today, but I've had my plant labels delivered so I have no excuses now!

Plenty of room for a greenhouse!

MissRikkiC

Thanks SL for your insight into my tomato situation. I’m not sure still what the issue is, although the tomatoes are older seeds tbf. I used Cior DB as you mentioned (I think actually I got them after you’d purchased them a few years ago) but sun baby which were a GW magazine freebie haven’t got great either. And my peppers were brand new. Most other bits seem to have done okay, although I could argue that courgettes/squash and cosmos (all which have done great so far) would grow in anything! 

I have just picked up some more compost so I’ll get some new seeds and try them again (in both composts just to be sure). Usually at this stage I’m over ran with tomatoes. 

I also use real seeds btw. 

-taff

Check your compost for drying out to a hard pan. I had that last year, the seedlings popped up and then never did anything else. So I went and bought some compost with peat because blowed when someone finally gets it right, probably just before the ban, then I'll buy it.

Suffolk_lass

Disaster here! I went out to the greenhouse yesterday, to pot on all my tomatoes and they were frying under cover in their unheated propagators. I potted on what I could but I am not hopeful. I will check again this morning (bread-making first) and I'm set to re grow from seed. Not happy. I had twenty underway. You know when the stem bends and goes white - that was them

Well, the title of the thread is ups and downs and this is definitely my worst ever in terms of timing. It rivals last year's complete non-germination of squash seeds. Another kitchen windowsill planting coming up!

droopsnoot

^ Oh dear, I hope they can be salvaged.

I have four out of the five Gardener's Delight seeds showing, three Money Makers appeared all of a sudden yesterday, and now have six (out of the five seeds planted) of the Costoluto Fiorentino. Two are very close together, so I don't know if they've come from the same seed (if that's even possible) or whether another one sneaked into the pot. 

ladybird1106

Nothing showing here at all tomato wise. Might have to re-sow also Suffolk lass. Been warming the ground on a couple of beds. Moved the glass to another area to heat up. Sown carrots/parsnips and beetroot in one. All labeled this time plus wrote how long germination is. Hopefully will stop the will they won’t they queries as we can’t remember🥴 sowing date. Under cloches I’ve sown some peas🤞 and in the greenhouse I’ve sown mangy touts in gutters. Another bag of gubbins added to the tip pile and wheelbarrow of random bits of rusty metal. Created a new storage area. 

Highlight today was seeing a brimstone butterfly. Yesterday’s was a red kite. 

Love 🐞

Suffolk_lass

I have resown 24 tomato seeds - individual cells to save the need to pot on. All on the windowsill in the kitchen, along with a tray of deep root runner sweetcorn. The other deep root runner tray has slightly crispy looking sweetpeas - the same as my tomatoes that were underway. The tomatoes are, as anticipated, terminal. All crispy topped stems

KajiKita

Suffolk_lass said:

I have resown 24 tomato seeds - individual cells to save the need to pot on. All on the windowsill in the kitchen, along with a tray of deep root runner sweetcorn. The other deep root runner tray has slightly crispy looking sweetpeas - the same as my tomatoes that were underway. The tomatoes are, as anticipated, terminal. All crispy topped stems

Ugh … 😢 How utterly frustrating. 

All happy plantlet vibes to the new sowings 🤞

@ladybird1106, you are making good progress. You are nudging me into sowing my saved peas. 😊 I saw a butterfly yesterday too ❤️

KK

dND

It's lucky I love my mad cat Gino so much!!  

I was planning a quiet evening relaxing as still recovering from a 7-hour garden stint on Wednesday. 😱 Thankfully I had a bit of potting compost prepared and there was just enough light to see in the greenhouse to quickly fill some pots.  I think that most will survive. 🤞🤞🤞

Apart from that, after 2 weeks on the windowsill and 2 more weeks on a heat mat, I finally gave up on my chillies and peppers and re-sowed them as well.  These have gone straight onto the heat mat so let's see how they do. 😁Dx