Year in Review

It’s the time of year to watch the sun go down mid-afternoon, and reflect on the year. This year started quite well, and was full of promise, but a few things went a bit wrong that I’ll try to do better in 2026.

Garden at home

Greenhouse delays

We were beset with delays getting the landscapers in to put in the foundation for the greenhouse. Landscaping work is bloody hard, so I really don’t want to do this sort of thing myself any more – and the landscaper we asked to lay the greenhouse base had been quite good for the patio before. This time though, they messed us about for several weeks which put a pretty major delay on constructing the greenhouse. It was only ready at the beginning of June, which is a bit later than we’d have hoped – and our chillies got quite leggy under grow lights waiting to go out into natural sunlight.

Sweet peas

I bought these from the garden centre and let them languish a bit too long. They should have been planted sooner, and the tips pinched out.

Dahlias

They were planted too close together and suffered from powdery mildew later in the season when things got too damp!

Strawberries

Need to be watered! Maybe I’ll experiment with hydroponics for fun.

Allotment

Onions

They were not planted in the best conditions. I should have prepared the soil more thoroughly and got a finer till on the surface – they really suffered very uneven watering and run off, which killed several plants and left the rest without enough water during the drought from June – mid-August.

Squashes

I planted them way too close together. The very wet late-August into September/October and their proximity meant they all succumbed to serious powdery mildew. They also crowded out the aubergine very quickly. I think I could plant these 2 or 3× further apart. We could try to harvest them a little sooner (early Oct) and cut them properly to prevent the crown from rotting early.

Leeks

Similarly, these should have been placed further apart to help with rust.

Broccoli

We need to build a cage for these to keep the cabbage white off them. We had them netted for a long time to keep the pigeons away which was important, but as they got bigger it became hard to keep them netted.

Carrots

Need to be thinned out a bit, and need even deeper sieved soil to be prepared to prevent forking/kinking. Regardless, I think these were the most successful veg we grew.