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

dND

Hi @Suffolk_lass may I please join?

I probably won't post much as I still have to rebuild the garden after a couple of years of neglect and then being trashed by building works.  On top of that the house needs completely renovating after many years and trashing, ie complete rewiring and inserting a support beam by builders.  I need to do most if not all of the renovating myself with the occasional assistance of my son for the really heavy work.  I'm a state OAP so on a very restricted budget.

Where I've ordered plants, like you I've gone for a lot of fruit as that's expensive in the shops and fresh, fully ripe fruit is divine.   I have a stack of pallet collars that I am using to make raised beds - I'm trying to forward plan for getting older. 

Previously I was living in SW France and am now in S Wales so there's going to be a bit of difference to what I've grown over the last 16 years to now. 🤣  The first thing I found out last year was just how rubbish some of the peat-free compost is.  My plants germinated and just sat there looking at me as I believed what was written on the sacks - 5 weeks of nutrients.  I then started watering with seaweed extract as recommended by all the TV gardeners and that just ran straight through all the pots I was using. 😱

So it was quite a disappointing introduction last year although I got a reasonable crop of Pink Fir potatoes from my grow sacks.  I will be growing these again this year and they will be in the potato sacks.  The compost, - and I will buy better compost than last year, - won't be wasted as it will top dress the raised beds in the autumn.
Dx

Suffolk_lass

Welcome, and yes, feel free to join in @dND. Similar experience here. Fortunately good sources of spent mushroom compost and well rotted horse muck near us in rural Suffolk

FreeBear

Potatoes from last year are throwing up shoots (should have stored them in the fridge), so I've got earlies to put in real early.

Plumcot got transferred from a holding pot to it's final home. Too early to say if it will fruit this year.

Tomato plants that were put in last year are still alive, and I might take some cuttings later on.

ArbitraryRandom

Suffolk_lass said:

Welcome, and yes, feel free to join in @dND. Similar experience here. Fortunately good sources of spent mushroom compost and well rotted horse muck near us in rural Suffolk

I bought two builders bags of horse manure/approx 2400 litres for ~£250 delivered (nationally) 

Not sure how that compares to regional pricing, but it did all my beds (plus a bit for where I'm planning on putting a rhubarb) and much, much cheaper than buying it by the sack. Took my lovely garden helper about 4-5 hours to shift it all. 

MissRikkiC

I’m looking forward to this years growing, it might only be potatoes and onions given it’s a new veg patch this year, but that’ll will be good enough. I’ve just sourced some manure from local farms here, my OH and a friend collected about 2 tonne yesterday in big old bags and then we will go back either this weekend or next weekend for more. They’re also selling compost for £50 a tonne which would be great! 

RAS

@dND A couple of thoughts.

Do you have a local Lidl? They sell small packs of seeds at 5 for £1 and peas and beans at 5 for £2. Limited selection but often enough for a season, though availability is random. Often don't appear in February when advised but a few weeks later.

Check out Welsh providers Real Seeds. Much more expensive but will give you a clue as to which varieties might work?

And is there a local allotment site? Some allow gardeners to join their joint purchase schemes and there may be free or cheap cuttings or plants to be had.

droopsnoot

I'm intending to do the same as before and hope for better results. Tomatoes, peppers and chillies in pots, maybe some potatoes though I don't really do anything with them so possibly a waste of time. I intended to lose the vegetable plot and stick an apple tree in there, but haven't done anything about it.

Suffolk_lass

@droopsnoot our local garden centre's email said that this is the perfect month to order your apple trees.

Personally I am tempted by a three in one grafted tree (three varieties grafted on to one rootstock) having lost one last year (the tree snapped as the variety was too heavy for the rootstock). I might buy one and graft two on to it myself. It's a Feb March job so you are not too late if you want to grow an apple tree.

If you do, take a quick look at pollination groups and consider whether there are other apple trees nearby, or crab apples, which are called "universal pollinators" as they flower across multiple groups. You typically need three (ie your tree and two others) that flower at the same time (so the same, or one pollination group either side) - from memory Ashridge Trees have good look-up info on their website - let me look... yes, here you are - not nearly as complicated as it seems on first look

Dizzy_Ditzy

Hello 👋 thank you @Suffolk_lass for starting the new thread. I moved house a week ago… brand new blank canvas garden too 😆 

In other news, we decided to give up one of the allotment plots. Having two just became too much so we are starting again with just one plot, which should be so much more manageable. We’ve got garlic planted already but nothing else is going in until the spring, by which time we will have the greenhouse put back together in the garden

droopsnoot

@Suffolk_lass thanks, I will look at that.