Looking back over 2025

I agree that it’s been a bumper year for fruit! My son discovered a damson tree they didn’t even know they had when it was laden with fruit. The peach tree was prolific too, the children were just grabbing a peach to eat as they walked past. So many apples, too, we’ve all been pressing them onto our friends, to please take them, we’re so awash.

It’s been a poor year for farmers here, though. Not enough rain and too much rain has led to terrible grain and potato crops.

My flower garden bits didn’t do as well as last year, despite the weather being much better in 2025. I’m not alone in finding that and we think it was the dryness that meant many plants didn’t develop fully. My dahlias didn’t even get off the ground after an amazing year last year. As for the roses, least said soonest mended!

Still, we shall be ever optimistic that next year will be blooming marvellous! 🌺

We had a slow start as everything was so dry but then a tiny bit of rain arrived and suddenly the garden took off.
The fuchsias took a hit in the frost last week but have been brilliant up until then.

In the fruit garden my mini apple trees did well as did the raspberries. I had lots of rhubarb too after I took out 12, yes 12! flowering stalks. Just the thornless blackberry that hasn’t really settled in yet, though I think that’s my fault due to faulty pruning last year.

Now we have a real mixture, winter jasmine in full flower behind the snapdragons, cyclamen and bizzylizzies together under the shrubs. I guess it’ll sort itself out in time!

Here’s hoping for a ‘green thumb’ year next year.

We've had a really good year on the vegetable plot with bigger yields and much better quality produce than in previous years due to the hot, dry conditions keeping most of the slugs and grubs away. In particular, the potatoes, carrots, onions, sweetcorn and leeks have been bigger and better than usual. The pumpkins did very well and we have an abundance of sweet, crisp eating apples.

We've also had the most tomatoes we've ever had, the red cherry being the best I've ever tasted.

Failures were parsnips, which just didn't germinate, and peas, which were very patchy and much down on previous years.

The biggest and worst fail was getting less than half the number of bales from our hay crop when the grass stopped growing in the drought conditions. For the first year ever we've had to buy hay in to feed the horses over winter.

So mixed feelings about what to hope for next year!

The last of our tomatoes are just turning red indoors. It’s been a great year for the vegetables, both at the allotment and in the garden. We’ve hardly bought any since the spring and the potatoes, onions and carrots are still on the go.
It’s been a busy year for jam and chutney making, I’ve run out of jars! The freezer’s also full to bursting.
My Dahlias were not too bad, but the Cosmos has been flowering until last weeks frost.
Roll on Spring!

My Rozanne geraniums only seemed to grow half as tall with smaller flowers, roses did well and my 'mini' pumpkins got very bolshy, pushing into all and sundry! I have serious allotment envy hearing about all of your delicious yields & gluts. Have we had what is said to be a Mast Year does anyone know (or is that just for 'hedge fruit' ?
Oh my goodness I'm thinking about all the chutney & jellies you will all be enjoying at Christmas!

Not a brilliant year in my flower garden, truth be told. Admittedly I had 2 nasty falls which set plantings etc back quite a bit, plus the usual 5 or 6 trips away, but one entire border didn’t get weeded at all, and the ground seemed rock-hard for several months. The good thing about gardens, however, is that there’s always next year. My to-do list is a mile long already but, looking on the bright side so many of our High Street banks have closed that I’ve retired from my chosen career as an armed robber and should have more time to devote to the garden.