This year has not been the easiest in the garden. A long, cold spring was followed by a wet summer.
While it wasn’t great news for us Brits, this was heaven for the slugs who multiplied happily, munching on our tender vegetables.
We tried nematodes, beer traps and crushed eggshells, but the only thing that made a real difference was picking them by hand at night.
Next year I will grow seedlings under cover until they are large enough to resist mollusk attack, as well as planting more slug and snail resistant cultivars.
This taught us that in Britain climate change doesn’t necessarily mean we all need to start growing Mediterranean plants.
While these may thrive in hot, dry summers, in wet years they will be unhappy.
Instead, we should think about growing as diverse a range of plants as possible, in the hope that at least some of them will perform well in the full range of climatic conditions we face.
We also need to think about how we manage water in our gardens, whether creating a bog garden with bog-friendly plantings that will act as a storm drain, or placing rainwater tanks to help us get through a drought.
New crops: Growing food for the whole family at home is a trend that is here to stay
BRIGHT REFLECTIONS
On a more positive note, 2024 was the year we finally embraced peat-free gardening as a mainstream activity rather than a niche interest.
This is vital to preserving our peatlands, which take millennia to form and are a major carbon sink. Garden centers now sell many alternatives, including compost made from bark, coir, wood fiber and even sheep’s wool.
Growing your own food continued to be a big trend that looks like it’s here to stay.
Social media influencers showed us how to split supermarket basil; make celery and chives resprout; and grow strawberries, tomatoes, and squash from store-bought produce seeds. They also inspired us with daily videos of their careful plots. We have learned to love weeds, or rather, also the native plants that we plant ourselves.
They are often an excellent food source for pollinators such as comfrey, lesser celandine and white nettle.
SPECTACULAR
At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, in his show garden to mark almost 100 years of the National Garden Scheme, Tom Stuart-Smith took the humble shed to a new level, making us all want a mini Aga and a comfortable place to sit down along with handmade tools hanging from sustainable wood walls.
Meanwhile, Holly Johnston’s Bridgerton Garden reminded us that our outdoor spaces are also for dreamy, romantic escapism, with a planting scheme of ferns and ivies, and a color palette of lilacs, blues and pinks looming through a ‘moongate’ dry stone wall.
Prunus ‘Starlight’, a winter and spring flowering cherry with white starry flowers, was named Plant of the Year by the RHS. Not far away was Agave ‘Praying Hands’, a teardrop-shaped succulent, proving that the houseplant trend has continued to grow rapidly and that so-called ‘plant parents’ are always on the lookout for the next new thing to add. . to your collection.
Urban gardening was kept at the forefront with the first RHS Urban Show at Depot Mayfield in Manchester, with student co-designed display gardens demonstrating how much we can grow on even the smallest of balconies.
They showed us how to reuse everyday household items to make planters, as well as how to choose the best plants for the conditions you have, whether deep shade or scorching sun.