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

ancientmum

I live in a flat with no private outside space so my allotment is my garden where I can sit in the sun when it shines.  I grow the usual veg and have got a few fruit trees and bushes.  Garlic that I planted is doing well but I think mice have stolen the broad beans, bless them, as there are holes where the beans should be.  I love wildlife!

It is messy, but it's mine (well it's the council's really but you know what I mean)

carinjo

I know we don't do too personal info on here, but would like to share. Spending Chrismas in South Africa, and had the opportunity to build my dad an accessable veg patch. Will be making him a seedling station before we leave to start off the next bit of growing. 
A Happy Christmas indeed

DiscountDuck

I’d love to join in if I may. I’ve been growing my own for several years now. The aim is to gradually get more and more self sufficient. I feel guilty about the air miles on a really varied diet and so many of the nutrients are gone out of the long haul fruit and veg by the time we get it that I just want to grow as much variety as I can. 

I’m trying to increase our family’s gut health to boost our mental health too as we’ve had some painful bereavement in 2025 and need every bit of seratonin help we can get! 

We have a big garden with raised beds, had a few hens until the fox ate them late last summer (will replace in spring), and took on a half allotment this autumn that didn’t produce anything yet as we spent the last of the decent weather trying to de-jungle it, being ripped to shreds by the brambles while we worked!

We did however still have home grown sprouts, cabbage, potatoes and onions in the Christmas dinner. Onwards and upwards for 2026! 

twopenny

Carinjo that idea with the shading is brilliant!
My little bungalow has patio doors and a lot of slabs outside that heat like a radiator in summer.
I've tried all sorts but for some reason hadn't thought of greenhouse shading that's light enough to attach between my Dutch blinds and something else yet easily stored because I like what sun there is in other seasons 🙂

I'm mostly a lurker, grow a lot of stuff in a small space. Recent achievement was to eat an outdoor home grown tomato 🍅 at Christmas.
Now aiming for the new year 😉
In a tiny plot I've got Dunster plums, Bramley apple, Cox's apples (when the squirrels allow) gooseberries and redcurrants growing vertically, raspberries, strawberries. Dwarf kale, purple sprouting, onions and potatoes.
Along with lots of flowers and seating, because you should always take time to enjoy your hard work 😊

Silvertabby

The current Gardeners' World magazine has an article on the best tasting tomatoes,  No 1 being 'Golden Crown'.  Never heard of this variety, and the usual suspects don't sell the seeds, which seemed odd.... However, tracked them down from Simpson's Seeds (mail order). 

Has anyone on here tried them?

Farway

Silvertabby said:

The current Gardeners' World magazine has an article on the best tasting tomatoes,  No 1 being 'Golden Crown'.  Never heard of this variety, and the usual suspects don't sell the seeds, which seemed odd.... However, tracked them down from Simpson's Seeds (mail order). 

Has anyone on here tried them?

Not tried, but I had a search once you mentioned them

Here's a review I found, not impressed it seems, so depends on price of the packet I guess

https://myvegpatch.co.uk/tomato-goldkrone/

Silvertabby

Farway said:

Silvertabby said:

The current Gardeners' World magazine has an article on the best tasting tomatoes,  No 1 being 'Golden Crown'.  Never heard of this variety, and the usual suspects don't sell the seeds, which seemed odd.... However, tracked them down from Simpson's Seeds (mail order). 

Has anyone on here tried them?

Not tried, but I had a search once you mentioned them

Here's a review I found, not impressed it seems, so depends on price of the packet I guess

https://myvegpatch.co.uk/tomato-goldkrone/

Thanks.  £2 for a pack of 20 seeds (I bought other seeds at the same time, so postage was for the whole lot).

Will give them a try - they won't be the only toms I will be growing.  

KajiKita

Finally got my bocking 14 comfrey plants in the ground - two by the compost heap to absorb any run off and one under the apple trees 😊

KK

DD265

Maybe I'll be able to keep up with posting in 2026

We have a small garden, so I got an allotment a 7 minute walk away. It's my sanctuary most of the time; it's next to the 5 a side pitch and the games get quite rowdy! My husband recently started working shifts again but his hobbies are all in the house and I was feeling a bit like I never got time to myself, except at the allotment. He'll give me a hand if asked, but it's very much my domain.

In 2025 I had a mixed year. Our last frost is up to the 21st May so I held off planting my seeds and seedlings out, only to find that the heatwave kicked in and many plants couldn't establish themselves. I sowed roughly 300 parsnip seeds, 10 germinated and quickly vanished, but I have 3-4 which germinated within the last 6 or so weeks! My squash which I've never successfully grown before did brilliantly and are taking up space in the garage. Elephant garlic didn't let us down but the onions and maincrop potatoes were not great - the maincrop is usually plentiful but small and they always have scab. I've still got some spring onions and salad leaves out now; the salad leaves being seeds from my previous sowings that decided to make an appearance. Haven't checked if they're actually edible though! Plenty of tomatoes and some cucumbers, the mangomelons produced plenty of female or male flowers but no counterparts, and my dahlias put on a stunning display. I got a couple of apples from my patio (the 1.5m ish) trees, summer raspberries and strawberries did well, I got a few blueberries autumn and blackberries were a bit less happy. Annoyingly the council trimmed most of the wild blackberry canes. Other casualties this year included (I think) a rhubarb, which I just can't seem to suss, and one of my blueberry bushes turned into a willow - no idea what went on there!

My aims for 2026 are:

• Tidy up and add structure to the strawberry patch
• Create 2-4 compost bays above the shed
• Repair/replace my Belfast sink pond and tidy up the wildlife area
• Fill the remaining space in my 'orchard', given how long trees take to get established
• To show my produce at an agricultural show (in May) - need to start planning soon

carrotstick_2

I'd love to join! The garden was clearly once very loved, and has good bones, but was neglected for a number of years. We had to cut a lot of things right back, so they look quite dreadful but have slowly started putting out some new growth.

I also started growing flowers from seed spring last year, had a few disasters my pop up green house blew over and I lost 99% of the seedlings. (Although I did have way to many, but I was heart broken). I did another batch of biennials and some perennials, which I managed to plant up at the end of autumn and these are coming along nicely now.

I've also planted multiple varieties of bulbs over winter, all of these will naturalise over time. 

My goals for next year is to create a new border in front of the hedge for some perennial flowers (I have already purchased way to many seeds, I keep seeing beautiful varieties) 

I don't have  a large budget for the garden, and have even less time. So the progress is likely to be slow as I will be growing from seed and planting dinky plants to save money. 

I recently got some wood shavings for no cost from a neighbour, I noticed the pile had started to compost beautifully within a couple of months so have applied as mulch around majority of my existing borders. They have plenty more to get rid of, so I plan to take it off their hands, in the hope that by this time next year it will be great for mulching again, and I may even be able to use as compost.