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

droopsnoot

I put some chilli seeds in trays yesterday, on the kitchen window sill, in the hope they might do better than last year. I think I might have over-watered them before, so I'm trying to resist this time.

Suffolk_lass

In contrast to you @zafiro1984, I have all my seeds. I like some specific seeds so always buy them as soon as I see them! I am going to try Blue banana (Guatemalan) squash after a recommendation on another thread on here. They are meant to be good eating. Bought from an apiarist in Scotland, they arrived at the weekend! I am set.

I retrieved the sprouty potatoes from the brown paper sack in our larder and popped them in the egg box with the seed potatoes I bought earlier (just ten seed potatoes is plenty for us). That and the garlic planted in November, before the frosts that make the separate cloves, is all we have underway.

In terms of seeds, I like to wait until February before starting tomatoes and chillies on the kitchen windowsill.

Outdoors it is time to cut down last year's Autumn-fruiting raspberries, buy compost (about 2 tons this year), and take cuttings from the blackcurrants and gooseberries. I have two heeled in gooseberries I want to move inside the fruit cage too.

On the non-edible side I want to split and move a large Yucca filamentosa with three crowns. It is huge and by the gravel path and I want to put them in the middle of the same bed at the front, in a row around which to plant. This is where we have been controlling creeping thistle, bindweed and ground elder for the last two years but I want to completely remodel it now. I plan to buy a few herbaceous plants and plant out others I have grown from seed. I also plan to make the bed a little smaller, and the parking area that joins it, a little wider, so we can get three cars in when we want to. Having removed a dying hedge, there is "grass" over the area I want, and I have the membrane, and mats to be topped by more gravel.

ArbitraryRandom

Nothing much to do in the garden right now. Potatoes chitting and I keep poking out a few more broad beans each week. Garlic, shallots and onions planted earlier in the month are starting to shoot. Rhubarb is poking its head up above the manure I put down.  

Next month is perhaps planting some early pots (if the weather stays mild) and the rest of the broad beans outside. I might also start some peas and runners indoors. I don't think I'm doing any tomatoes this year... I still have a ton in the freezer from last year and there's only really one spot in the garden that's suited to them, so I might rest it (plant peas there) each year rather than rotating. 

MissRikkiC

Thanks @ArbitraryRandom for the reminder to use some of the manure we have on the rhubarb! 

We got some for free at a farm about 10 miles away before Christmas but this week I found somewhere about 2 miles away for £2 a bag so I had 10 bags. It’s not free but it’s less hassle than having to load it into bags ourselves and have my friends trailer available. I’ve used about 2 tonne so far and I think I need another tonne. Then the compost will follow. That should be from another local farm at £50 for a large bag however judging by the amount I have already used, I might be better using shop bought. 

For reference, we have converted a large section of our lawn into a veg patch. It’s a  triangle shape and will have 2 very large growing areas as well as a green house. There are also 2 smaller areas for growing too. I’ll share some pictures after this weekend as the GH is being built on Sunday. 

Today I bought some asparagus crowns and come bare boots strawberries to plant with them, following advice elsewhere. They were quite expensive so I’m hoping they work out! 

I stated garlic off before Christmas and have onion sets to get in asap! Once the green house is up, I’ll start off some bits in there although it’s still a bit cold! 

Silvertabby

droopsnoot said:

I put some chilli seeds in trays yesterday, on the kitchen window sill, in the hope they might do better than last year. I think I might have over-watered them before, so I'm trying to resist this time.

I'll be starting off my chilli seeds soon  - but in a heated propagator.  Your seeds may be struggling because they are too cold, especially at night.

droopsnoot

^ I don't expect they'll do much, and I might just end up re-planting in a month or two. But these are seeds I already had, in many cases have been harvested from chillis rather than bought, so it's a no-cost experiment. I don't have a heated propagator, I'm not into it enough for that sort of stuff. I ought to stick them in the airing cupboard, really, as it's a bit warmer in there. 

Farway

droopsnoot said:

^ I don't expect they'll do much, and I might just end up re-planting in a month or two. But these are seeds I already had, in many cases have been harvested from chillis rather than bought, so it's a no-cost experiment. I don't have a heated propagator, I'm not into it enough for that sort of stuff. I ought to stick them in the airing cupboard, really, as it's a bit warmer in there. 

Funnily enough, I was going to suggest that, good idea, just remember to check daily 'cos they soon go straggly once germinated in the warmth

rachmac3

I bought my house and then pretty straight away went back to uni and got ill, so although I've had my garden for 5 years I've never really given it the attention I'd like. Anything that's grown has been through luck on my part and determination of the plant! I think I need to give the soil in the beds and pots some attention, sort out my compost bins and use whatever is usable in there. I have pets so anything I grow in the back garden needs to not be harmful to them, and be able to take a bit of damage. 
Last year I had some amazing blackcurrants and raspberries, I made a little bit of jam from the glut. Wild/Self seeded fennel, and my mini cucumbers in the conservatory. Not much else grew. Everything struggled to take off and then chickens ate the strawberries and the snails ate everything else. I've got some tomatoes overwintering in my conservatory, they grew so slowly they didn't fruit last summer but they are still alive so worth a try to feed them up if they are still alive in a few weeks. 
I've got lots of seeds in a big box so I'll have a lovely afternoon going through those soon. I'm not sure I need to buy anything, I'll sow them even if they are out of date because they'll have more chance of producing something than if they go in the bin. And if nothing grows at least I've sorted out my seed collection and I'll replenish it next year. 
My front tiny courtyard is mostly pots of anything that has survived from random packets of flower seeds or the bulbs my grandfather planted about ten years ago. I think I still have some stocks flowering at the moment, looks like some unknown bulbs are poking through. 
My goal really for 2025 is to spend more time in the garden, keep on top of the weeds (mostly nettles now) give it some decent love and attention, and give the plants a better chance of thriving. 

KajiKita

@rachmac3, you are living in a house your grandfather used to live in? (He planted bulbs about 10 years ago.)

Well done on overwintering your tomato plants! 👏 I’ve tried that in the past and never succeeded. 

In the garden I would start in one area, improve that and bring it under cultivation and then gradually expand. I think you will definitely have to find a way to keep the chickens out / contained though …

KK

rachmac3

Sorry, I should have explained @KajiKita My grandfather died in 2019, and he was such an amazing gardener, when my grandmother died a few years later I couldn't bare to lose everything in the garden too (after losing them both and the house), so I nagged two of my friends to help me bring 5 quite large concrete planters, full of soil and the bulbs he had planted years before, to my house in their van and then up a very steep hill by hand. So I have a little of his garden at the front of my house,. There are/were primroses, ink splodged irises, gorgeous dark almost black tulips and a few other things in them. I know they won't come back every year, but I still get excited when I see a little green poking through in spring. 
The back garden is much more 'lived in' so the front can be the pretty bit.