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

carinjo

my newest Kitchen Garden Magazine brought quite a gift for the new year!
No planning started yet, came back from holiday to a broken car and work.

Makingabobor2

carinjo said:

my newest Kitchen Garden Magazine brought quite a gift for the new year!
No planning started yet, came back from holiday to a broken car and work.

ooh there's some good ones there

oceandreamer

Has anyone had success growing celeriac and if so can you give me some tips please?  Last year I managed to get it to germinate in a propagator but they just didn't grow once I potted them on.  Don't know if I started them too early/late or the weather was to hot/cold or if it was something else altogether.  

Suffolk_lass

oceandreamer said:

Has anyone had success growing celeriac and if so can you give me some tips please?  Last year I managed to get it to germinate in a propagator but they just didn't grow once I potted them on.  Don't know if I started them too early/late or the weather was to hot/cold or if it was something else altogether.  

Apart from planting out after all chance of frost and into moisture retentive soil and not letting it dry out, I can't offer any insights. If you have a slightly boggy area that would be ideal - and I think they might say remove some outer leaves so the crown develops once they are growing well.

I suspect a lot of people had the same thing last summer, with the hot dry weather - the celeriac would have hated it. 

Re outdoor tomatoes, I only grow them outdoors in pots, against walls so they are sheltered. Sungold orange cherry tomatoes go well (and the spent compost goes straight on flower beds so there is no danger of blight between potatoes and tomatoes as they are the same family, hence in pots)

Mollina_Girl

Suffolk_lass said:

Re outdoor tomatoes, I only grow them outdoors in pots, against walls so they are sheltered. Sungold orange cherry tomatoes go well (and the spent compost goes straight on flower beds so there is no danger of blight between potatoes and tomatoes as they are the same family, hence in pots)

Thank you @Suffolk_lass, I'll be growing mine in pots against a wall so I'll look out for that variety. There's nothing like home-grown tomatoes so I'm really looking forward to try and grow them

oceandreamer

Thank you Suffolk_lass - hopefully it was just the weather.  Will definitely be giving them another go this year.

EssexHebridean

That's a great seed haul with Kitchen Garden - we've just got our first subscription issue of Grow Your Own and that came with 10 packs of seeds too - 5 veg and 5 flower, and pretty much ALL useful! 

I'm about to do an allotment application to back up MrEH's - not least as I see they have thinned out some of the options so one of the plots he put as a selection no longer exists! We're also going to try to get a direct contact for the chap that looks after the allotment sites for the council to see what he might have to say - we're perfectly happy to take on somewhere really overgrown and neglected if it's in the right place. 

Our first tasks for the year are going to be stuctural! 
- Dismantle and get rid of the over-large table and the remaining knackered chair
- Buy and fit a second water butt in the corner which will be freed up by losing the table
- Choose a potting bench type thing to replace the table
- relocate the compost bin to a less sunny area as that will increase the space we have for growing sun lovers in pots! 

Suffolk_lass

Piddled here all day (technical term, that, hopefully no elaboration needed) - so I just popped over to the community garden with five packets of  Guatemalan Squash seeds and four sprouting Turmeric roots to feed into the seed swap. And I took some chocolate dipped Viennese biscuits that Mr Sl and I were in danger of eating when we don't need it! I don't want you thinking he is deprived - we have just had orange ice lollies (because we could!

leftatthetrafficlights

Seed potatoes and veg seeds bought today 🙌 I was very good and took a list of what I wanted and, for the first time, came back with less than 5 things that weren't on it!! 😁😂 

I thought about listing everything but I've decided that I'll wait until I sow them to name them.... potatoes are in the greenhouse chitting now so they can be discussed! 

I've bought a first early (Casablanca) and second early (Charlotte) - we grew Charlotte last year (and the previous one) and have always been pretty successful with them (plus they taste lush!) but haven't done casablanca before so if anyone has, I'd be interested in their experiences 😉