Gardening 2025

Have been enjoying the garden, helped by the [feels extravagant] purchase of a Niwaki hori-hori, which has made weeding slightly less onerous. I'm genuinely pleased with it (though need to have a "no drunk gardening" rule with it.)

Not having loads of success getting things growing this year - I wonder if I've bought shit compost (I definitely bought one bag from a supermarket).

Really enjoyed visiting a nursery in St David's, Wales, where it felt like most things had been grown in-house and were a bit behind what you'd find in many garden centres and all the better for it.

Yeah, I recognise that sense of buying stuff grown in greenhouses and it reacting badly to being left/planted out. I guess that's experience?

I've never wanted anything so instantly as that hori-hori! (I'd not heard of it before.)

I welcome this thread. I have recently acquired a garden for the first time in my life including a lawn, a shed, a lawnmower and actual plants. I’ve also learnt the lesson that supermarket compost is substandard (this one has petrol odour). I’ve also decided I like visiting garden centres, but only really if they have a cafe. My main challenge has been foxes defecating on the lawn.

I am a major crank about yard and garden stuff; I foster gently guided chaos and keep it very close to natural/organic.

I go through spurts of wanting to grow foodstuffs, with a functioning herb garden some years and occasionally a vegetable or two. This year we are working on a no-till lasagna bed, with a focus on native pollinator-attracting and bug-repelling plants.

I resist buying bags of soil, mulch, bark, compost. To the extent possible all the yard waste stays where it is (insert cranky old-man-yells rant here about the model where you pay people to take your leaves away and then pay people to bring you chopped up leaves. Nature did fine with recycling in place for millennia before gardeners, hmph.)

Anyway current stuff includes blueberries, blackberries, rosemary, basil, parsley, oregano, sage, mint.

I've always tended to focus on salad veg but have tried to grow flowers in the (neglected) front garden which has involved digging out lots of blackthorn and lots of hacking up roots.

Rudbeckia are looking decent. Echinops took a hammering from aphids before the ladybirds did their thing (planted is a bit distorted). Have planted quite a few fennel plants (generally green but some bronze) and have been enjoying how they are all a bit different (the neatest being one growing by accident in a crack in the path). Phlomis feel slow to grow but perhaps just what they do? Achillea and helenium seedlings have stayed dinky. It's been a good year for various salad leaves. French beans are looking promising. Runner beans, too.

For many years, I had several of this plant with lovely yellow flowers that flowered all year (if you deadheaded them) known commonly as "Giant Sea Dahlias". Unfortunately, they all died: Some of them got trampled maybe from passerbyers. Some of them maybe succumbed to too much dog urine (which I've tried to mitigate).

But I can't find them anywhere: the plant store that I originally got them at doesn't have any right now. They're apparently native to the Catalina Islands near LA (I live in San Francisco), but it doesn't seem like they're commonly sold.

I found someone selling seeds, so have started growing some from seeds. I have about 6 sprouted, but months on they've stayed dinky too...just barely grown an inch even though I have kept them moist and given them filtered sun. I wonder what's stalling them out.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/28/man-allotment-gardening-tools-arrest-armed-police-manchester

Really enjoyed a visit to Great Dixter but differently than I expected. Was expecting to be amazed by particular plant combinations and think "I need to go home and do that". More, the whole place just felt bountiful and abundant and it was the mass of planting that brought joy - it was differently skilled than I was expecting, maybe? Loved the giant fennel obviously but also enjoyed the seemingly "rogue" plants that popped up over the place. Enjoyed one of the compost heaps that had been planted with squash and nasturtiums (the heap itself was bigger than my own garden). Seemed to be lots of joy/contentment in the staff and volunteers, too. Also, they sold French workwear, which is always going to get bonus points.

Should I buy some tulip bulbs ... or should I spend my money on something else?

I have never seen so many acorns. We don't have a big garden, but there are oak trees planted all along the alleyway/rat run that runs along the back of our property. This year, maybe because of the hot summer and wet and windy September, they have produced and dropped an unholy amount of acorns. I spent all morning raking them up and physically digging them out of the lawn, and filled the council garden bin 3/4 of the way up. Insane. There are still a shitload left, too - on the lawn and in the trees.

Mast years are nature’s clever way of ensuring the next generation of trees. Producing fruits and nuts takes a lot of energy, so trees can’t do it every year. Instead, they build up resources and release them all at once.

The strategy is known as predator satiation. In normal years, squirrels, mice, and other seed-eating animals consume most of the crop. But in a mast year, there’s so much food that the animals can’t possibly eat it all, so some seeds inevitably escape and grow into new saplings.

https://ribbletrust.org.uk/what-is-a-mast-year/

It''s been a bumper crop for loads of things, I picked 2 kilos of sloes from bushes that were empty last year - and our (very small) apple tree fell over and died from the weight of apples!

xp the explanation I heard was the dry weather stressed all the trees and shrubs and made them fruit (and nut) like crazy in case they died.

Well, there it is. Makes total sense.

There have definitely seemed to be more apples than anyone can make use of this year - more boxes of them left at the end of peoples' driveways than usual. (Oxfordshire, UK).

I have 2 1 metre by 1 metre raised beds which I've tended to grow veg/salad in. Crop has been so rubbish this year that I'm contemplating sacrificing one of them for just growing flowers next year. It wasn't just the quantity but some of the things like squash just weren't particularly nice.

Does anyone have rec's for what to do with slugs that've drowned in beer? Like...*a lot* of slugs across a bunch of traps. Or other ways of controlling these things? Nasty.

I guess once they're drowned they probably decompose harmlessly?

This might be of interest?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/slugs-and-snails

Hugely irritating woman on Gardeners World this week - the "I'm not horticulturally trained but I volunteered at Great Dixter". She couldn't countenance yellow flowers in the garden - a thing that I've heard people say before. Aside from preference, is there any good reason for this?

Anyway, had got so into gardening after work that am finding the darkness weird and a bit challenging.

Would RHS Wakehurst and, perhaps, Knepp be worth a visit in January?

I've got a mate who works at Knepp. It's great. It's not spectacular to look at necessarily, but what they're doing there is pretty astonishing. I'd get a guide if you can manage it - to get a proper sense of the history and what's happening where.

You could watch the Wilding film. It's a bit of a hagiography, but it gives you a good sense of what's happening.

https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-wilding-2024-online

Thanks Chinaski.

Asked this on the Nature Reader thread (really, just looking for recommendations for garden books - more for reading than looking at pictures).

Gardening more than "nature" but ... just finished Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd's "Dear Friend and Gardener" and quite recently Lloyd's "Cuttings" - a collection of his writing for the Guardian.

Any other recommendations for books by Chatto or Lloyd? Or anything of that ilk?

Ah. Last "Gardeners' World" of the season (UK) yesterday. Any "gardening telly" recommendations that are likely to be found on the internet. Nowness did some decent short films on various gardens (inc Great Dixter and Prospect Cottage) but anything else?

Mooching through a copy of Gardens Illustrated from January 2025, I found an article on the difficulties starting a nursery that mentioned all the below. Off-work, I Googled each of them (Partly in the context of fancying buying some plants and getting emails with discounts from the likes of Farmer Gracy and Sarah Raven). I'm not sure any of them were making me think "Buy from me!" more than, say, Beth Chattos or wherever. The Field Garden seemed like it might be of interest (seems local-ish to me) and No Name seemed to have a decent website. I admit that I'm partly putting this here so I can look back at the links but also had a vague idea that it might be interesting and supportive, even.

Avon Bulbs, Lincs - https://www.avonbulbs.co.uk/

Bright Green Fox, Lewes - https://www.instagram.com/brightgreenfox/ (Seems to hold sporadic open days).

Cotswold Garden Flowers, Evesham - https://cotswoldgardenflowers.co.uk/

Cliff Bank Nursery, Leeds - https://cliffbanknursery.co.uk/shop/ (Closed for the season).

Edulis, Reading - https://www.edulis.co.uk/ (Online online, as far as I can tell - with some open days).

The Field Garden (Jonny Bruce) - https://www.instagram.com/j.bruce.garden/ (Seems to be a work-in-progress and/or at plant fairs).

Freckles & Flora, North Yorkshire - https://www.frecklesandflora.co.uk/shop (Mail order only).

Hooton's Walled Nursery, Rotherham - https://www.hootonswallednursery.co.uk/ (Closed for winter, appointments aside).

Moore & Moore, Essex - https://mooreandmooreplants.co.uk/

No Name Nursery, Kent - https://www.thenonamenursery.co.uk/the-land/the-nursery/ (Doesn't open or do mail order - seems to attend events).

Plant Wild, Somerset - https://www.plantwild.co.uk/ (Closed for winter. Near Hauser & Wirth, if that helps?).

Seagate Nursery, Lincolnshire - https://www.irises.co.uk/ (Online only, as far as I can tell).

Wild Goose, Shropshire - https://www.wildegoosenursery.co.uk/ (Mail order - looks more functional than some in this list).

Zophian Plants - https://www.instagram.com/zophianplants/

just seeds, and mostly veg, but I buy most of mine from https://realseeds.co.uk

Cool. Will give a look. Have to confess that I tend to go for Chilterns Seeds. I'm very influenced by their oft-beautiful catalogues!

I got some calico chilli seeds from Real Seeds a couple of years ago, A+ would use again.

Ah. Last "Gardeners' World" of the season (UK) yesterday. Any "gardening telly" recommendations that are likely to be found on the internet. Nowness did some decent short films on various gardens (inc Great Dixter and Prospect Cottage) but anything else?

Three YouTube channels I follow:

Gardener’s World has a good mix of new and recycled content (CW: lots of Titchmarsh but I think his advice is always solid if you can bear his style).
https://youtube.com/@bbcgardenersworldmagazine

Also on YouTube, Joe’s Country Garden is Joe Swift gradually creating his own garden from scratch.
https://youtube.com/@joescountrygarden

Woodlands TV has lots of horticulture-adjacent stuff that’s right up my strasse (hedges, rewilding, foraging, woodland management etc).
https://youtube.com/@woodlandstv

I forgot Charles Dowding! Hero.

https://youtube.com/@charlesdowding1nodig

Oh, thanks Madchen. Will explore those (though not sure I can cope with Titchmarsh).

Article on what became Joe Swift's garden here, btw, but I'd not seen his YouTube channel: https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/country/charlie-ryrie-garden-less

I know this is probably a super-basic question, but I find it quite hard to get good info from Google or YouTube or whatever about gardening. Mainly because I think there's a sort of forcefield of casually deployed technical language.

I've got into a little bit of balcony gardening over the last two years or so, and I've grown some herbs, some chard, a few flowers etc, and been steadily increasing the amount of pots I have. I started off buying plants and potting them, but last year I grew some stuff from seed, which was a lot more rewarding I suppose, just watching it grow.

Now that it's January, I wondered about planting seeds for spring or summer. Am I just in the realm of herbs really? Some websites show when to plant things but I can't really form a plan based on this.

My second question is about how to manage things over time. I know some things come again each year but I don't really know which ones, or what to do. And I don't know if for other things I should... dig them up? Are some things just gone when they're gone and I plant something else?

Again, I have tried reading beginners guides but I think a lot of them are a bit opaque about this stuff, and I am now at the stage where I have to go from one relatively good year of stuff to another.

Some of the trouble with learning is that info is all about big gardens rather than balconies, and though there's balcony-specific stuff it's a bit general.

For info, my balcony is west-facing and gets sunshine from early afternoon until sunset. It would be very hot in summer.

You could try a dwarf tomato plant, maybe? Very satisfying plants to grow from seed, smell lovely, produce the finest tomatoes you'll ever eat. A dwarf one would go in a pot and wouldn't need staking.
Is it too basic to say to you to look out for the word perennial if you want stuff that comes back year after year, and to look for the word annual if you want something that's one and done? Is that the kind of chat you're looking for?

no that is prob helpful, thanks! i defo have seen some stuff described as those so those terms aren't alien to me. so if it's annual do i just dig it up at this time of year and choose something else?

then there's sort of halfway house stuff where like... the chard is sort of still there with tiny leaves, i assume that's gonna come again, but do i cut it away or protect it or anything in the meantime? i was prob a bit experimental at the beginning in terms of what's annual/perennial but i guess that's a fairly key part of planning in a small space.

tomato seems possible, i reckon it gets so hot there you could grow a fair range of stuff even for the uk.

the classic flower to sow in January is sweet pea

nice scent for a balcony too

First up, R, the Cloud Gardener is great on balcony gardening and was a lovely, helpful guy when I met him at Chelsea (dahling).
cloudgardeneruk.co.uk

Before I got my RHS diploma, virtually everything I knew came from Gardener’s World and it sounds really obvious as a starting point, but if you can spare an hour a week, it covers all kinds of incredibly useful stuff whether for this week or to squirrel away in your mental filing cabinet for future ref. The magazine is worth a subscription too - I still get it now I’m gardening professionally because (a) free seeds for half the year and (b) they have a very handy spread with a nice, colour-coded chart of what to sow and harvest each month. And then I use the photos to spark ideas when talking to clients about new planting designs.

There is a *lot* of gardening bullshit on the internet (never, ever pour Coke on a wilting plant yeah?) so if you’re newish to gardening I’d say stick to the RHS website, which you can basically use as your How To encyclopedia, and Gardener’s World. Then branch out from there as you get more of a feel for what you can trust and whose style you like.

The only thing I’m sowing now is sweet peas, indoors next to a window. You can sow them later, but they will also flower later and I want flowers in May to cover a big grey fence which I’m going to hang netting on for them to scramble up. I don’t have a lot of room, somehow having ended up in a rented house with a 2x2 square of plastic grass out the back, shudders. If you want chillis, sow them now too - they’re perfect in full sun in London. If I had an allotment I’d sow broad beans because honestly there is nothing like young broad beans fresh out of the pod in May with a bit of ricotta and some herbs.

Final balcony tip: if you use plastic pots, weight will be less of an issue. Bear in mind that any pot you water will inmediately become much more heavy so think carefully about how much your balcony can safely hold before splashing out on lots of fancy terracotta.

Sorry, forgot to say, the official definition is:
Annual: goes through its full life cycle in one year or less
Biennial: goes through its full life cycle within two years
Perennial: hangs around for multiple years (may only be alive below ground in winter but will pop back up, or will be visible above ground all year round)

(Any terminology you want explained, feel free to shout here btw)

This is really useful, thanks. I think to an extent I just sort of got going with it cos I'd never have done it otherwise, but I don't really know a lot beyond the basic, obvious stuff. I've found RHS to be the best shop with the best attached guidance for stuff.

As regards pots, so far I mostly have balcony rail troughs, like four or five of those. I prob have space for another one or two. That may be enough in general tho there's a windowsill I could have a window box on, and I have considered if later on I'd get a trellis or something.

I will try Gardener's World also, sounds worth a go. I have really started to enjoy it, watching chard seeds grow last year was really cool. Even smaller stuff like never having to buy parsley has been fun too. I grew chrysanthemums over winter also and that was nice too, to have some colour as a lot of the other stuff died.

I think it's the transitioning from season to season I need to learn about now.

like how to plan efficiently so i'm not just replanting/discarding too often

Yeah, the seasonal thing will come with experience - once you’ve gone through a couple of years you see there’s a kind of routine to it.

Re. chucking stuff away, somebody gave me some really good advice, which is to think of annuals as much longer lasting bouquets of flowers. Even compared to a bunch of supermarket tulips, annuals give you so much value, especially when you grow from seed.

By the way, your chard should keep giving you a crop until it starts to flower. Then you can chuck it and start again.

The Cloud Gardener is a very good call and there are lots of short clips about him that might be enough to inspire eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYHD8UEZx1U

I have to confess Gardener's World magazine slightly does my head in but I always buy the issue that has a two-for-one gardens ticket with it.

I am just basically agreeing with Madchen, here ... but I can't imagine not growing broad beans. You'll certainly find varieties which claim to be suitable for growing in a pot.

I've had good and bad luck with broad beans; early spring plantings seem to collide with peak aphid season for me.

as Madchen says, there's a lot you'll figure out by trying over a couple of years and getting to know what works in your location - with a hot balcony you'll need to keep everything watered but not too watered; your chard will be happier out of the direct glare of the sun but tomatoes and peppers will love it; if it's very windy you'll need to protect tall plants; especially in pots you should keep on top of feeding (I use seaweed-based feeds, but there are a bunch of options).

As well as tomatoes I definitely would recommend peppers (hot or sweet as you prefer); edible flowers can be fun too, like having nasturtiums trailing across the balcony. Courgettes and (assuming sufficient heat) cucumbers possible too if you can train them to grow vertically. I wouldn't sow any of these before March though.

Enjoyed Monty Don's Rhineland Gardens on BBC2. Must admit, I was partly in the mood to watch something of that type (slightly soporific) but there was lots of decent stuff - community gardens (including moving cars elsewhere to create front gardens), praise of anti-fascist politicians, the gardens of a community housing project and so on. And some gardens I'd happily visit - Piet Oudulf's, obviously but also the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.

Fun to hear about your gardening, Ronan! I rescued some grow bags from my ex's house and I might try to stage my fire escape in the spring. I miss starting seeds indoors and poking at them, and having to BUY HERBS is honestly shameful after growing yr own.

As far as garden plants go, pretty much everything has a defined life-cycle and you harvest it before it goes to seed, which is what all plants want to do, and then it dies (or you pull it out). Even things like the woody herbs--sage, thyme, rosemary (rosemary is cold tender more than you would think for all that it looks like a cedar tree)--they need to be cut back pretty harshly and regrow new green shoots from the base. I had kale come back a second year and I could keep harvesting leaves from it but really mostly it dies and you replant a new plant. It's the opposite of houseplants in this way.

do you all do the germination indoors stuff? it sounds a bit of a pain and i sort of wonder if it matters, since for some seeds rhs website kinda says 'or just wait until frost isn't likely and sow outside'.

everything a bit of a mess in my pots now but will have to tidy and decide what needs to be dug up and what can be cut back. tho my flatleaf parsley is blooming again. i use parsley in cooking so often i have prob saved myself about £50 by growing this.

i had really nice chrysanthemums blooming through early winter, i guess they won't come again until next winter so prob weren't a great choice for balcony, like with a garden you could probably have a more year-round plan but i just don't have much space. i could i suppose move the chrysanthemum pot to the side for summer and swap it back in winter, maybe.

i am thinking for summer dwarf tomatoes, peppers, maybe chillis, and broad beans, space allowing. this would be a nice harvest!

I'd just plant the broad beans where you want them to grow. In fact, I think Rocket Gardens (who sell plug plants, in sets) just send seeds rather than bothering with growing plants.

My windowsills are full of stuff already but that's partly because I get lots of joy out of seeing things appear (and I also like sharing plants). Tomatoes, peppers and chillis will require warmth to get going and, depending on what part of gardening appeals to you, I'd possibly just pick up some of those plants from a nursery (I'm guessing you're not going to want more than a couple of each).

that might make sense alright, it is nice watching stuff grow but i hadn't really considered that as an option.

Starting indoors can get things started earlier and more predictably and with less snail risk, but as djh says it's only tomatoes/peppers/squash that truly need it. I just sowed lettuce seeds outside and inside, the latter will start sooner but both should be fine in the end.

I am obsessed with seed starting inside. I have grow lights and sturdy re-usable watering trays and wire shelving and all that stuff. (Currently in storage with a friend who gardens.) I love re-potting and moving things outside as they grow and as spring arrives.

I always sow too much because seeds don't keep forever and most seed packs have like 25 or 50 seeds (if not hundreds) and with good germination rates you'll get lots more than you can fit. My literal DREAM in life is to have a house and a driveway and neighbors to give plants to, just make a sign that says "FREE PLANTS Grow your food! Take now!" and make coffee and sit outside and talk to people about gardening.

Seriously though I think it gave my plants a big head start, flowers and veg both. Some things strongly prefer to be direct sown, like iirc cucumber, garlic, probably carrots, and some things don't need a lot of care bc they grow aggressively on their own, like borage. But for tomatoes, peppers, lettuces/cabbage/kale, flowers like zinnias and calendula and marigolds...I usually see much better germination rates from indoor seed starting than I do from sprinkling outside.

I’m not that great at propagation because I procrastinate and/or forget, but capillary matting has been a bit of a game changer for my seedlings because you just need to top up the reservoir every so often and they get exactly as much moisture as they need. And because the moisture is being drawn up from below, the roots go down searching for it, so you get a much healthier plant with a stronger root system. Capillary matting ftw!

Then my stumbling bloc becomes potting the seedlings up. I never, ever manage to do it in time and my seedlings end up ridiculously etiolated and tangled together. Every year I promise myself I won’t let it happen and yet, and yet.