A few years ago I attempted to grow my own food, I did do well but sadly we had some pretty nasty storms during the summer month that pretty much battered my poor plants to death, In the end I enjoyed the little group of tomatoes that managed to grow depsite the death that happened, I gave up, shelved the idea and let winter take hold.
The start of 2026 I was determined to start again, I wanted to grow pumpkins and tomatos, I wanted to grow and enjoy something that I nourished and cared for throughout the months so I started again to grow my own.
Growing my own
Part of the reason why I decided to grow my own easy veg is that i wanted to potentally save some money in the long run, obviously growing your own does help keep the shopping costs down however starting up isnt the cheapest, you need to plan and prepare the space for where things will be growing, buy pots, compost and of course seeds, this year I went onto amazon and found the perfect little raised bed greenhouse type thing to hopefully nourish and grow a pumpkin in, the last time i tried to grow a pumpkin the local cats decided it was a good place to go to the toliet and I think eventually just killed it off.
Putting it together was straightforward as well and once I had set it up in the spot I wanted it to be I put my aggressively sprouting pumpkin in the ground and left it, I only filled it up with dirt halfway so the other half could house my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers during the slightly cooler days and nights of May and started to obessively watch for any growth.
I didnt grow these plants from seed unfortunatly as I just didnt have the time to start them in february, I however visited some local garden centers to get some established plants as I have done this before with tomatos and it worked out well and they grew fine plus with well established plants theres no worry about having to many seedlings to pick from and I got some compost from Field Compost as well as the range and other garden centres in the area, who knew growing your own food takes so much mud!!!
I did start some crops as seeds however, I planted some beetroot and carrots as well as potatoes with seed potatoes in large tubs and recently planted some little gem lettiuce, mint and basil. Mint is a ltitle bit of monster when its planted as it can take over the whole garden so I thought if i plant it in seperate pots I can control its growth a little more and possibly bring it inside during the winter months and sit on my windowsill to be used during my cooking.
This is all extremely early days, I am in that awkward period of growing things where its all going well and growing fine but nothing has really been produced other than some very small but yummy potatoes, everything so far is growing how it should do but I am also preparing and planning for the next season as I think I have developed a bug for it.
I have even started tiding up the garden properly!
My garden in 2027
I already have written down my plans for the next grow season, during the colder months I am going to be planting garlic bulbs which are one of the few things you can grow from stuff you buy from supermarkets, using bulbs that you havent used for cooking to start a harvest and I want to attempt some fruit as well with raspberries and strawberries, I dont want to do too much but also I really want to just do everything, next year I am going to get lots of different raised beds and put them onto my grass as we dont use the garden much so I might as well use it to grow some more food.
I also want to try different tomato types and courgettes, onions is a must as well along with cucumbers again, I am sure there are going to be more I want to give ago and will be writing down and sharing with you my plans once I start planting for the new year.
I am genuinly excited about the idea of doing it all again next year and its become a lovely little routine for me in the mornings and evenings to go into my garden to see whats grown, whats ready for harvest and if anything has sprouted yet and of course I will share with you all the things I grow, I am even considering doing some little videos over on tiktok to show the progress throughout the years.
Sarah
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