As is customary, I’ve been looking back at the 2022 garden, the triumphs and disasters. It was certainly a year of extremes and the overwhelming memory is one of blue skies and praying for rain for what seemed like months.
I had plants that revelled in the long, dry summer and others that have quit the game. I’m still discovering things that have not made it through, including some like a gaura that appeared fine until they didn’t.
Then the snow just before Christmas finished off still more, including in the greenhouse where the heater failed. Temperatures here in the Cotswolds hit a low of -12 and it took nearly a week for the snow to go.
The year started off so promisingly well. The snowdrops and hellebores were fantastic and I was glad that I’d invested in more of both.
Spring and early summer were also good without the prolonged late frosts of last year, although the wisteria was hit again. Maybe 2023 will be its year. I’m hoping that the baking heat of last summer will help these iris to even better things this year.
Then the drought began and things began to get tricky. I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers the summer as one of endless watering and watching the ever diminishing levels in water butts.
In complete contrast, we had many days of torrential rain in autumn. The pond was close to overflowing and the plants were in danger of drowning. Despite that, the soil was still very dry once you got below the surface.
It does make deciding what to grow difficult. Plant for drought and things are likely to suffer in winter wet. Choose things that like water and they will be frazzled by high summer temperatures.
The only thing I can think to do is to plant for all eventualities and get the soil in the best possible condition with lots of mulching now over winter.
The strangely mild start to winter meant many plants were confused. I had berberis flowering well ahead of its usual spring appearance, honeysuckle that thought it was still summer alongside primroses and winter jasmine. Even the aphids, which had been a major problem all year, kept going into late October. They all got a shock come December.
Let’s get the disasters of the 2022 garden out of the way first. I seem to have been hit by a series of unwanted things and I’m not sure which is worse, the box moth caterpillar devasting the handful of topiary box I grow, the reappearance of honey fungus – this time in the main garden – or losing one of my favourite dahlias to crown gall.
I initially decided to remove the box but have held back with the spade for the moment. I’m going to clip it hard next spring and see what happens. Box moth caterpillar has been in the garden for only two seasons and, with the unpredictable weather, next year might be better.
The honey fungus is a bigger problem. Some affected trees are being felled later this month and we’re going to remove soil from the area where it’s appeared in the garden. The dahlia has been ordered.
There was plenty to celebrate though. The nigella wasn’t a bit fazed by the heat and gave me lots of flowers for cutting.
It was also a good season for some of the veg garden crops – and the first time in many years that I’d managed to grow a melon successfully. The blueberries were particularly good. It’s just their second season and we had a bumper crop. (You can read about my vegetable Gardening Trials here.)
There were a few projects in the 2022 garden including finally taming a couple of rather overgrown plants. This, unfortunately, created a new area for planting and meant I had to go shopping!
Another project ticked off the long list of ‘must do’ things was sorting out the frankly embarrassing compost bins.
They’d been made out of old pallets and never quite worked, despite it being a method I know a lot of gardeners use. My OH has replaced them with these more robust bays – the wood at the front lifts out to allow access.
The most exciting development was the arrival of my new greenhouse, which is considerably bigger than the original. I’m looking forward to putting it to full use this year.
We can only hope for more settled weather this year without the extremes of 2022. I fear we may not be lucky.
Enjoyed this? Why not join me on my gardening journey this year by signing up for an email alert to new posts.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022 Mandy Bradshaw
Love your summary. It demonstrates even experienced gardeners are struggling but learning and adapting and having some success. Thanks.
I’m hoping this year won’t be as challenging! 🙂
A nice round up of your year. It is difficult to decide what to plant with all these extremes and I also have to contend with far too many S&S in this garden, though I’m hoping the cold snap in December will have had an effect on their numbers. As is often said a plant that doesn’t survive gives an opportunity to purchase something new. Here’s hoping for a good gardening year – not too hot, not too wet and not too cold!
We can only hope for a year without extremes but I fear it may be a vain hope. Happy gardening!
Living in Gloucestershire I could really relate to this !
I reduced the size of my biggest flower bed after the drought, and the snow and ice have left some of my hebes looking distinctly sick.
I am trying to exercise restraint and wait and see what springs to life again, but I suspect my dahlias have probably had it.
All part of the joys of gardening.
My hebe is also looking very unhappy. I keep reminding myself that every plant death is a plant-buying opportunity.