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

-taff

What do you like to grow?

Vegetables and herbs mostly but I have started branching out into flowers

Are you going to try anything different this year?

I got an allotment in October so I'm scaling up this year, which means the veg can be grown at the allotent and I can concentrate on flowers and fruit at home

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

Not really, last year was completely pants, nearly everythin got eaten

Do you have any tips for growing?

Grow what you will eat or admire. Search online for tips and tricks according to how you learn, with youtube, or reading etc. Anything pretty much can be had for free, keep your eye out for stuff.

Do you make anything with what you grow?

Jam, picalili, sugo [ tomato sauce] , bread and butter pickles, sauces, etc...

How much does growing your own save you?

By the time I've bought compost [ not something I can usually find for free unfortunately] and seeds, and other things that take my fancy, like raised beds, probably nothing... But then, I've never kept a record. Maybe I should try that this year...I look at it like a hobby, so if I spend a couple of hundred punds a year, or maybe a bit more, then it's worth it for me, mental health wise, and excercise wise...

Suffolk_lass

Welcome to both of you @redofromstart and @-taff. We are well used to reports of things not working the way we hoped here. I need to rein it in a bit this year because either my home-produced food or my beekeeping seems to explode every year. Much later than normal, I am going to get some tomato (and possibly a few chilli) seeds started this weekend. I have two heated propagators to assist me.

greenbee

Can I join too please? I moved 18 months ago, put in a greenhouse during the winter and spent last year building no-dig beds for the veg plot. 

What do you like to grow?
Things I like to eat - I eat a lot of fruit and veg, so pretty much everything is an option. I also like flowers, and like to include them in the veg plot to encourage biodiversity.

Are you going to try anything different this year?
Not sowing a billion tomato seeds for starters... although I'll probably still grow too many. I have Luffah seeds which I want to try, and also a bed for cut flowers.

Did you try anything different last year? Did you like it? Would you grow it again?
Squash (blue banana and musquee de provence - liked it, will be growing again but hopefully building a better frame for it to climb up and actually reading the instructions and looking after them!

Do you have any tips for growing?
Be realistic about how much time it takes and how much time you have.

Do you make anything with what you grow?
Mostly it gets eaten fresh, although I do have a fair amount of tomato sauce, tomato tart, scarpaccia, and courgette fritters in the freezer. And beans that didn't freeze particularly well.

How much does growing your own save you?
I suspect it costs me quite a lot (particularly at this stage), but it saves me using the car.

Last year I put in:

• raspberries (3 summer varieties, 2 autumn varieties), the autumn ones are doing well but the summer ones aren't looking great so I may need to get more. I also need to get the frames up for them so they can be tied in and netted this year.
• one blackcurrant, and realised I like them more than I thought, so two more are on the way
• one gooseberry, which did very little. Two more are on their way
• rhubarb - although it's still in pots and needs to go into the ground
• strawberries - the strawberry bed was built based on the size of the cage I was buying and I didn't think about the fact that the bed is too deep to weed/pick from easily when the cage is on.

I successfully grew:

• cut and come again lettuce (right outside the kitchen door in raised planters
• rocket (likewise)
• carrots (likewise)
• radishes (likewise)
• courgettes
• peas
• mangetout
• borlotti beans, runner beans, climbing french beans (next year plant separately so I know which is which!)
• tomatoes - they were very slow, but so were everyones
• cucumbers - would have done better if I'd looked after them better and kept picking!
• masses of cosmos, nicotiana, sweet peas, nasturtiums, marigolds, and forget-me-nots

Less successfully:

• broad beans (late and very small first crop, second late planting was marginally better)
• dwarf beans (they were more dwarf than they should have been!)
• fennel (all eaten as seedlings)
• cavalo nero (thought it had all been eaten but it turns out there's a bit there now)
• squash (needed more space and better supports)

Failures:

• aubergines (possibly sown too late)
• peppers (ditto)
• asparagus

I've just done a soil test on the asparagus bed as I'm planning on trying again. I think the old crowns were hanging around for too long before I planted them and dried out. I did get a few fronds on a couple of them, but they then disappeared. When I weeded the bed a couple of weeks ago they were all there and clearly dead. I also tried the no-dig way of planting. I thing this time I'll use the same bed, but dig a trench and create a mound. I'm holding off ordering until I've actually prepped the beds, but want to make sure I don't miss the boat. Soil test is neutral so I'm also debating adding some lime. 

dND

I thought it was about time I shared a peek at the disaster area that is my back garden. 🤣



The big frames are for a catio and the greenhouse in the background needs replacing - most of the glass (normal glass) is cracked or missing and the aluminium badly corroded so the vent doesn't move and the door is dodgy.
But I'm slowly getting the raised beds in when my back allows.


These 2 are for blackberries (nearest the fence) and raspberries.  The beds are made from secondhand pallet collars and the uprights are salvaged uprights from 2 rotting rose arches that were in the garden.

I was hoping to get this done last autumn and into winter but the builders had other ideas so I'm very behind for this year.  I do hope I will get something from the garden but I have very little expectation.  

I still need to remove aforementioned greenhouse and erect the new one but before that I have to put in the supports for my cordon orchard as the bare-rooted trees are here and they need planting asap.

Suffolk_lass

Welcome @greenbee - I have a similar experience with beans. I am told they are better if you blanch them, but let them come fully back to the boil before plunging into cold and then drying and freezing. I have just taken to growing far fewer, often having steamed beans with butter and poached eggs on top and a grating of cheese, as though they were asparagus. And I give them to neighbours! Dwarf French beans are good as they crop much earlier. Yellow and purple are easier to spot too! When we decided to grow squashes in frames, I got DH to make some arches from copper plumbers' pipes. We painted the bits in the ground so no metal leaching in there but they are great - we use a few bamboo canes in between but they work brilliantly for cucumbers, (beans) and squashes if you support the bigger ones (Crown Prince and some butternuts might have been a tad ambitious for 15mm copper tubing, but nothing a but of net can't help with.

Re asparagus, ours is very poor and has a persistent bramble in the bed, and some runners of Autumn fruiting raspberries that would really like the asparagus gone. What variety of gooseberry are you growing? I'm about to take cuttings of mine that the pigeon found, and hopefully in a year or two, have them in the fruit cage (that arrived later). Ditto the blackcurrant, needs cutting now!

Gosh @dND that is a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure where I would start but do keep us updated with your progress.

greenbee

The asparagus is frustrating, as my dad grew it very successfully - we were on a chalk hill, so I think lime may well be at least part of the answer. 

How tall are your climbing frames? I have a LOT of coppiced hazel I can use to build structures (currently using it for tree stakes!) so need to think about what I need to build. I also have some sections of wire mesh which I used last year, but they're not really big enough. I think they may be better to stick over the compost bin to sieve out the bits that need to go back for a second round!

Gooseberries are hinomaki red and yellow. It looks like the one I have is still alive, so I'll have two red and one yellow. Mind you, the order was placed two weeks ago and still says 'processing'. I'm guessing it's been too wet to lift bare roots - and it gives me time to prepare  

I've been to the greenhouse and shed this morning and come back with some small pots and some modules. So I need to decide what I'm going to sow in the heated propagator and how to keep the cats and dog from investigating it. There's a big floor-to-ceiling west-facing window that gets plenty of light where I think it should be OK once they realise it's boring. 

Suffolk_lass

Our climbing frames go over the path, it is probably over 2.20m (8 foot maybe) at the top. I am 1.75m and can reach to pick at the top. DH is 1.97m and still arms above his head - here's a pic. You can also see our rabbit fencing; a mix of roof battens and either chicken wire or tennis court netting in the panels. This pic was  two years ago, March 2023, as my fruit cage (in the white packaging at the far end on the left) is not yet erected.

dND

@Suffolk_lass At the moment I can only dream of my garden looking that organised and productive.
I love the idea of the copper poles - what sort of paint did you use?  We need copper as a trace element but can't find a simple explanation of how much is too much if it's in the soil and also of course surrounding our drinking water. Dx

Suffolk_lass

From memory, it was red oxide paint as it was to be buried. I cant remember why now, it was, probably, ten years ago. The big plus is that they don't rot and they look lovely and weathered these days. He used a bending tool to curve the arch pieces, as each arch is in three push together sections. We saw something similar at Helmingham Hall on a much grander scale, but unrepentantly copied and gloried in it since!

redofromstart

I really like the idea of that, and own a pipe bender, red oxide paint and have some copper pipe, although probably not enough.  I used to have some cheap arches in a row over a path (woolworths!) but after ten years or so they basically disintegrated.  20 (10 x 2m) metres of copper pipe is £78 delivered from Sc4wf1x, something to think about for me at least.

dND - that looks like a project to really get involved in.  Are the builders still in the way?