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

FreeBear

Tomato seeds are all coming up. Selected Blue Bayou this year (a blue/black skin variety), and it looks like I'm going to have surplus plants to trade.

Bare rooted pineberries (a white strawberry) turned up a few weeks back. Got most of them planted in 12" pots and they look as if they have established themselves quite well.

Apricot was in full bloom at the beginning of March, and I was hoping it would cross pollinate the plumcot. The latter didn't flower until the end of March, so I think it missed the memo that they should cross pollinate each other. Fingers crossed that I'll still get fruit on both trees. Picked up a bare rooted plum from B&M which has gone in to a very large tub. Hopefully, once established, that will act as a pollinator for the plumcot if the apricot is too early.

The spuds that I couldn't be bothered to dig up last year are poking out of the ground, so I should have a crop to lift in June/July.

And for an early treat, I've sown a few watermelon radishes that should be ready in a couple of months.

Hopefully, I won't have to do anything more in the garden - Buggered my back, and after spending a day in A&E, I might have Cauda Equina Syndrome.

Kantankrus_Mare

Cauda Equina syndrome!! Poor you……Id heard of it but just googled and sounds awful. Look after yourself!!

carinjo

Ouch @FreeBear , hope you feel better soon!

greenbee

Sorry to hear you're suffering Freebear. Hopefully you can get some help with the garden if necessary.

I've just weeded and mulched two raspberry beds, two asparagus beds, and one bed with a blackcurrant and a gooseberry in it. There's a lot more weeding to do, and there are several beds of onions to take wire off and mulch as well as the broad beans and peas to sort out. Once that's done, I'll have a better idea of where I can sow the stuff that's rapidly germinating inside (I also need to direct sow stuff like carrots).

I'm grumbling a lot about the compost as the gardener has been putting stuff into the compost bin in neat layers and compacting it to fit more in - despite me telling him not to. He's insisted that the bins are too dry/not hot enough, but actually the problem is the compacted layers of soggy grass and lack of air. So I'll use what I can (lots of worms, so I'm sure they'll soon sort it out!), and give the rest a really good stir. I just need to stop the gardener putting anything else in there, so grass clippings will have to be bagged up each week and I'll then spend an hour or so incorporating them and some of the woodchip pile into the compost heap in a way that means they'll actually rot down.

FreeBear

Sorry to hear you're suffering Freebear. Hopefully you can get some help with the garden if necessary.

No one willing or able to help with the garden unless they get paid for the effort. Funds do not allow for a gardener and if I end up on SSP, there will be be even less money available.

Best I can do is to cover most of the garden with a weed suppressing membrane and forget about it for another year. Much of what I'm growing will be in pots, so the garden isn't a high priority. Had been planning on taking out a few trees over Easter (cherry plum, black locust, and a canker riddled apple tree), but they can wait for another year.

greenbee

Sorry to hear that - I'm lucky that I currently have both paid and unpaid help (although friends may stop visiting if they get given too much manual labour to do!). More importantly, I hope you get the investigations and treatment you need as soon as possible, and are able to come to some kind of arrangement that allows you to continue to work through the process.

fionaandphil

@FreeBear sorry to hear of your health problems and hope that they are resolved soon. Is it worth asking if anyone would like to help in return for a share of the produce?

FreeBear

Is it worth asking if anyone would like to help in return for a share of the produce?

Do you like nettle soup ?

Not going to get huge quantities of strawberries, grapes, apricots, or plumcots - Most stuff is being grown in pots (saving on weeding).

carinjo

@droopsnoot i found some seeds out of date, going to sprinkle then in a planter at home.and hope for some baby leaves for salads.

Treated myself to a few chilly and aubergine plants on weekend, still hope the ones i've sown will come up soon.

A trip to P0und1and yesterday and they have loads of bargains.

Suffolk_lass

I am going away for the weekend today and leaving Mr Sl in charge of my greenhouse and windowsill 😱. The replanted chillies have at least one of each type with seed leaves - in the kitchen, under a cloche 🤷‍♀️🤞. The tomato pots are a week ahead and in the greenhouse. I went to my Mum's in March and they were at this stage and all dead when I got back. I have delayed planting anything else