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

Suffolk_lass

I've got an aggregate bag of horticultural grit on the front drive, and someone has reversed a towball through the side of it, so that needs moving, decanting and spreading. My gardener is here today - first time this year. He is finishing off edging the front beds with concrete tiles, after removing the rotted down scaffold planks. It looks much sharper and smarter! I might get him on that. I also hope he will lay some paving slab stepping stones across the grass (dug in to level) so the path the Mr Sl's workshop from the house looks a bit less like a sheep trail on Snowden going forward!

Good timely mention of the chilli seeds. Start of February is my target. I also have ten Charlotte seed potatoes in egg boxes on the window sill in the kitchen, and have bough shallot sets. I have never pot or tray planted these before but I am going to try with half of each pack

Yorkie1

I've got the propagators out of the shed … !

Charlotte is always the spud of choice for me; I waver each year and then plump back for it because it's so versatile and is quite happy to sit in the ground when I fail to harvest promptly.

jivjules1

must sew some seeds soon! Need to finish prepping the veg bed too. Not enough energy!!!

carinjo

Well, we started. And promptly stopped after halfhour! To my defence i invited a colleague that semi-retired to wales. Gave him seeds, plumbers pipe and next will be large pots. He setting up from scratch at his new home, so we had lots to talk about! Ms C cleared the greenhouse of chilli and aubergine plants, worked in chicken manure pellets.

I removed the soil from one raised bed that has maretail in it. Decided instead of getting rid of it, will use to raise a section of plot. Spray and cover.

In other news, i had a lovely adventure sharing my extra seeds from 2years of magazine subscription. Thanks to a website, i managed to reach out to two groups and shared seed packets. The one an organic growers association and linked with several allotments. The other is a volunteer allotment scheme that provide fresh fruit and veg to almost 200 families. They also run cooking classes and linked with a local school and library.

the plan for this year is to do less. We have several trips planned around some milestones.

zafiro1984

Started on the greenhouse today. Moved the geese pen to one side and started on the rubbish and clearing out what is not needed. plus assessing just what needs doing. Despite the weather it was quite nice and warm in there.

Outdoors, the rhubarb has just poked it nose through, looks ok but needs a tidy up, but it's a bit soggy out there just at the moment. DH went last weekend to collect five fruit trees - 3 apples and 2 pears - the local 'green community' organise this every year and at £15 a tree they are very good value. At the moment they are in huge pots until the soil dries out a bit. He's going to add them to the ones we bought over the last three years. They are well netted to survive the deer and all but one (a plum) has survived. Years ago, I'm told, where we live used to be an apple farm. I can believe that because the house down the back is called the 'Apple Barn.

Hopefully I can do a bit more tidying up in the green house over the next few days

Suffolk_lass

Hooray, it is not raining. I think, after painting some (new poly nuc) bee equipment I shall have a bit of a greenhouse sort out and bring a propagator or two in to get my chillies going indoors. And I am going to try shallot sets in pots to see how that goes too. I might move the seed potatoes out of the kitchen too. I am sure they will chit better in the glass house.

KajiKita

Set my seed potatoes to chit on a north facing windowsill in the living room, opposite side of the room to a radiator. Had to relocate a model steam train and two model space ships to make room - starting to feel like I live with a 7 year old! 🙄😂

Horribly wet here. We have a break in the rain atm, but with no real paths and wet ground everywhere I think I admit defeat for today at least …

KK

droopsnoot

I started tidying the greenhouse yesterday as the weather was fairly decent, found a few more seed trays and pots that have been through so many hot/cold cycles that they crumble to the touch so they went in the bin. Moved some things around a little so flat surfaces are a little more accessible now. I need to do something about replacing the top of one of the pieces of staging - a box of fertiliser (or something like that) got damp and spilled directly onto the aluminium and ate a hole into it. Also there are some plastic shelves that have gone brittle and are now starting to break up, so I'll be trawling the local recycle groups in case any metal staging is going.

KajiKita

My first batch of pot sown peas are starting to germinate 😃 and my pot planted shallots are also starting to sprout in the conservatory.

Dry, albeit cold weather tomorrow. I shall get some thermals on and continue pushing on with the veggie beds.

KK

Makingabobor2

Ok all you knowledgeable people, if I start to put some seeds in and bring them on indoors, what sort of temperature would they need to be at? . Don't want to put them in and then find it gets too cold at night and they all die off. This is not something I have done before, I normally buy plants and only use seeds that I can put straight in the ground later on, but want to branch out a bit this year. We don't have a conservatory, so it would have to be on a window sill indoors. Should I cover them with a plastic pot as well, to keep them warm?