The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2026!

Suffolk_lass

Welcome to the new ups and downs of growing your own!
Everyone is welcome.

Come and tell us about your growing shenanigans
Maybe tell us a bit about yourself; 
What do you like to grow?
Are you going to try anything different this year?
Did you try anything different last year? Did you like it? Would you grow it again?
Do you have any tips for growing?
Do you make anything with what you grow?
How much does growing your own save you?
How about growing from seed?

Here we share our approach and our successes and failures too (everyone learning from each other) - don't be afraid to ask - also maybe share any bargains to be taken advantage of!
Also, here is the 2025 link, should you wish to take a look, or check us out, before joining in
I'll use this post for links that folks might find useful. If you want something adding in, please just let me know 🙂

Suffolk_lass

I'll start. Out quite large garden is where we grow.

We have several fruit trees, three really old apple trees left in place to pollinate others, the russet retains its apples into winter so that the birds can feed on them. Two much smaller apple trees and a cherry in what we call our orchard, but is a rather small area. We have four damsons and a couple of mirabelle plums in the hedge that we added, and a greengage that we love. We also have a Bramley Apple that is just getting into its stride.

We have gooseberries, blackcurrants and strawberries and ten raised beds that we grow veg in. Currently there is garlic sprouting, and over-wintering chard, broccoli, kalettes and Black kale.

I have already topped up my seeds for next year and hoping for a good one. We have taken out all our raspberries that had the virus, we would like to grow more but might not have enough distance from the contaminated soil. We also removed our asparagus which has never recovered from our son digging up all the crowns one year when he was "helping".

I didn't rate the compost we bought in bulk last year so have bought a large bag of pelleted chicken manure to try. We don't use chemicals, we do keep bees, but not at home.
I make passata from our tomatoes, and grow far too many squashes, which we store, along with garlic, onions, beans, potatoes and salad.

I find it relaxing and positive for my head, emptying the unnecessary and thinking things through as I go. I especially like pottering in my greenhouse in Spring. I also have a gardener who helps me one daya week so my garden does not save me money, but it does give me pleasure.

KajiKita

I'm in!

My veggie patch is a disaster in one way - rammed full with bindweed and I struggle to find the oomph to keep on top of it. However, it does also grow quite a bit of food if I do tend it to some degree.

I had success this year with pretty much giving up on growing from seed (don't have enough time to do all the juggling required and no sensible place to keep young seedlings where they either don't get fried by the sun or eaten by slugs) so I bought the majority of my veg plants from the local plant centre. 

I have a countryside hedge running down the back of the veggie patch which is full of hawthorn and bramble - ouch! which also likes to invade the actual growing space, both with roots and top growth. In January I have booked the landscape gardeners I manage in work to come and create a cordon sanitere down the front of this hedge of c. 1m deep. This will have a good quality membrane put down, pegged and a thick layer of bark over the top - landscaper thinks he can get that done in a day. This will shrink the size of the veggie patch by quite a bit (a relief if I'm honest and make the whole space easier to manage.

The same landscaper came in October to rotate my compost bins and riddled c. 10 bags of compost for me, so that will go to being a good, bug and soil life enriching mulch for the remaining area - my soil is thin, silty and seems to be very infertile. It also 'sets hard' in dry weather and becomes very impenetrable - I saw something on GW in one of the winter specials recently about using a land fork to loosen up the soil - based on my experience of my soil this makes sense to me, so I will be trying that this year, before each planting session. 

I enjoyed the cut flower patch in the centre of the veggie patch this year and got a lot of flowers from it, so I will be repeating that next year. Flowers always seem to be easier for me than veg! 🤣

I have shallots and garlic in stock - some of them are from this year's crop which grew particularly well and I'm hoping if I keep going with them I will get spectacularly large shallot bulbs eventually ...  

I have bocking 14 comfrey roots in pots in the greenhouse which I need to find a home for in the garden before next spring. That could be a job for over Christmas actually ... 🤔 I suspect they will end up in the patch of apple trees at the bottom of the garden, part way between the veggie patch and the compost bin Another 'job' for over Christmas will be to re-read my permaculture books - every time I re-read them a few more principles 'stick' with me or it triggers other ideas in my brain

KK

Suffolk_lass

@Kajikita We found using old bamboo canes for the bindweed to climb up, then painting with SBK stump and brush killer works well, but we also do a Spring removal of the fleshy roots when the ground is easy to lift and move. Better than the year my darling husband used his new rotavator on an extra bed to be helpful; starting thousands of new bindweed plants

KajiKita

Suffolk_lass said:

@Kajikita We found using old bamboo canes for the bindweed to climb up, then painting with SBK stump and brush killer works well, but we also do a Spring removal of the fleshy roots when the ground is easy to lift and move. Better than the year my darling husband used his new rotavator on an extra bed to be helpful; starting thousands of new bindweed plants

I am petrified of weedkillers ... I am so clumsy I am absolutely confident of the likelihood of me accidentally smearing it, dropping it, spraying it, on things I don't want to die ....  Plus, I feel inherently guilty at using something that kills other beings (we never use poisons for rodents - we either use live or kill traps). I would rather learn how to manage it organically, so root removal / knock back in spring like you say and make the growing space less attractive to it (Land fork and deep mulch), plus keep knocking it back with trimming. It was better this year than last, ever so slightly ...  

I ignore the existence of rotavators - on my patch it would be absolutely DIABOLICAL!! Like detonating a bindweed Bomb!🤣 I'm impressed Mr SL survived such an action ...  

KK

greenbee

I haven't yet cleared the greenhouse from this year...  or cut back the asparagus or sorted out the strawberry bed!

The paths in the veg plot need clearing and cardboarding/woodchipping again as they are full of couch grass. And I need to find the rhubarb crown that the gardener has helpfully covered up when he mulched with bark (it had leaves on and was growing through the cardboard before he did the mulch). I also need to check all the fruit bushes in the area he mulched as he doesn't seem to agree with the idea that you keep mulch clear of stems/branches. 

I do have lots of onions/garlic/shallots in, and also sowed lots of peas and broad beans. Spinach/broccoli/cavalo nero are scattered between the rows. But there is a bed that is half full of onions that needs something adding to it, and there is another bed that needs weeding and something put in for ground cover until spring crops can go in.

The strawberry bed is hugely overgrown, so the plan is to weed the asparagus beds and edge them with strawberries, and use strawberries as ground cover between fruit bushes. And thin the main bed a little. 

Autumn raspberries have done well, but summer ones less so. I also need to get the supports in for the summer ones and finished for the autumn ones. 

So still lots to do.... along with finding space in the orchard for a damson... 

ButterCheese

We have grown our own herbs outside, bought from supermarket and then split into 3 pieces and planted in pots.  Basil, Rosenary, Corriander and Parsley.  The Corriander grew suprisingly well over summer but now we've chopped it back it hasn't grown again.  Hoping for new leaves in spring or maybe we'll have to buy another pot

-taff

I have an allotment now, had it for a year ish, the first year was wait and see...this year, there's more action going on, with a fruit cage to dig out the old raspberries and the fruit bushes to move because I do like blackcurrants and I would like to eat some. It's in a shadier area of the plot so once I've moved the fruit bushes [ and got my behind in gear to finish digging] I can put fennel and spinach where that was. That is the major works for this year, just to do that. Otherwise, I am no dig for health reasons, so I do spend time sourcing cheap or free things to grow in, like hay, woodchip [ finally found some free, no idea what it's like yet] or weeds [ I bag up bindweed, also a problem on the plot, and let it rot in a bag for a year. ] I've just installed some new waterbutts, [large barrels] and made a raised bed out of the sleepers taken from the back garden ex veg growing area. Hoping the artichokes and cardoon survive the winter..no asparagus yet. 

EssexHebridean

I'm back in! Thanks for the new thread SL!

Small  north facing garden here - but my word we make it work had for us! Permanent residents are the Rhubarb (AKA triffid), gooseberries, blackcurrant and redcurrant, along with a large bronze fennel which has made it its mission in life to throw its seeds everywhere before we can harvest them in order to give us many thousands of teeny fennel plants each year. the fruit bushes are mostly still getting established as we've only been in the house for a couple of years.

Intentions for next year:
- get rid of the enormous table (left behind by our sellers when we bought the house) and replace with a smaller one
- install a second waterbutt to take the run-off from the back roof - this will need a robust overflow setup back into the drain though as it will fill in a heartbeat! 
- relocate the compost bin so it's no longer in the sunniest part of the garden as this will be better used making more space for tomatoes, peppers and other sun lovers. 

We have applied for an allotment but so far haven't heard a peep in response, and there are horror stories locally about it taking years to get a plot, so we're hoping, but not expecting that to come to pass. 

A subscription to a magazine provides a lot of our seeds - previously Kitchen Garden, but this year we've gone for Grow Your Own for a change - so we try to work with what comes free and buy as few as possible. Specific varieties of things, and stuff on clearance mostly tops up the freebies! 

Makingabobor2

I'm in for next year. I am quite new to fruit/veggie growing, for years I was just a flower grower. But since retiring and having more time, I have decided to give veggies a go and am finding it so enjoyable. I only have a smallish garden and most things are grown in tubs/planters and pots, apart from the rhubarb which is under the apple tree. First year for rhubarb, blueberries and raspberries. Up until now I have only done tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes, carrots and squash. Still learning about all of it, and hoping to improve each year. Planning on buying a small greenhouse before the spring, but think I can only fit a 6' x 2'6" one in. Would like something bigger, but just don't see how it will fit. 

leftatthetrafficlights

I'm in for 2026! 

2025 was a bit of a nightmare for growing for us - the tomatoes, potatoes and squash (spaghetti, butternut and pumpkin) were really the only things that thrived - everything else either died completely or performed poorly 🙄🤦‍♀️ 

We have 6 raised beds in the back of the house and 2 in the front of the house that are used for veg - there are more beds available but they are in deep shade for much of the day so not really useful for veg growing (I tend to chuck salad leaves into the one that gets the least shade). We also grow our potatoes in bags (1st and 2nd earlies only - we don't bother with main crop) and my grandbaby has his own bed for his Halloween pumpkins 😉 

We decided that due to the poor performance we needed to basically just start again so ripped everything out of the raised beds and sowed green manure - we're having a load of mushroom compost delivered in the new year which we will mix with our home grown compost and chuck into the beds. 

My dh is the one who does most of the gardening generally - I barely went into the garden this year as I couldn't cope with the heat! - but I've decided that I'll be much more involved from now on with the food growing as I have more time and it's important to me that we get as much as we can from the space we have so I will start doing early morning gardening when/if the weather becomes unbearable! 

I'm not sure what we will grow in 2026 but it will definitely include: tomatoes, potatoes, squash, beans and peas, cavolo nero, leeks, garlic, beetroot, carrots, cucumbers and salad leaves.