The thing that strikes me most as I think back over the garden in 2024 is how quickly the year has gone. It seems but weeks since I was welcoming the first snowdrops and here I am again impatiently watching for the first flowers to open.
It was a very mixed year in terms of success and failure. Rather too many disasters for my liking but enough triumphs to warrant the effort put in.
The year started well with masses of hellebores – as I type they are again in bud – and lots of snowdrops. However, the display was not destined to last.
It was a very wet spring – in fact, a pretty wet year all round. Miserable for us gardeners but absolute joy for our slimy foes and did they enjoy it.
Most of the early spring flowers were left in tatters, I barely had a single intact daffodil. It was a theme that was to continue throughout the garden in 2024.
Let’s get the disasters over with first in this look back over the year. The biggest was definitely discovering that honey fungus had marched further down the drive and right up to the garden proper – it has actually crept under the fence in one corner.
We’ve had to fell another couple of trees along the drive and I’m at a loss as to what to plant to fill the gap. So far, we’ve lost nothing in the main garden. I can only hope the gravel drive and garage will prove a barrier.
The second disaster was totally avoidable. The beautiful osmanthus that has lived in a large terracotta pot for many years suddenly started to fail. On closer inspection, we discovered it was literally drowning. We’d had heavy rain over several weeks and the drainage holes, which had until then been fine, proved inadequate for the downpour.
Additional holes have been drilled and the shrub is slowly recovering. If you have large pots, do check the drainage as our rainfall is now far heavier than in the past.
I grew lots of zinnia and cosmos this year as I love them for cut flowers and I wanted to put them through the main borders. Unfortunately, the slugs and snails decided I had too many. In many cases, I was left with just stems. Thankfully, a few survived.
Among the changes in the garden in 2024 was the installation of the final pieces of metal edging around the vegetable garden beds. For a while, this area looked tidy – it didn’t last once the veg started growing. I used Straightcurve and you can read about it here.
Elsewhere, I finally filled the gap left by the box ball removal. There are now yew domes at the top of the steps. They’re still too small to be seen from inside the house (see main picture) but they should fill out over time.
A second raised bed was put into the new greenhouse over winter and this was its first year of use. I planted this greenhouse up with cucumbers, chillies, peppers, and aubergines, filling the original greenhouse with tomatoes.
It was a particularly good year for aubergine and we had dozens. The chillies and peppers did well too.
The tomato harvest was slow, thanks partly to the cool weather and partly to late seed-sowing due to other commitments. The plants eventually caught up and we had a good harvest, although there were more green tomatoes at the end than usual. These have been ripening indoors and we roasted the last just before Christmas.
As usual, I grew lots of sweet peas and was picking them for months. I think the damp summer helped as they are thirsty plants.
There was relief at the flowering of a couple of things in the garden in 2024. This montana clematis had taken a battering in the cold weather early last year and didn’t really flower. So, I was delighted to see it bounce back this year and cover itself in pink blooms.
The kniphofia had sulked since being lifted a couple of years ago – the plants had begun to rot despite being on my sandy soil. I guess we just had too much rain. This year, we finally had flowers again. This variety is really good for some late season flower.
It was also a year when we actually had some wisteria flowers – long time followers will know how often it gets hit by late frost. It wasn’t the best display but definitely an improvement on previous years.
The endless rain was good for the roses and even on my rubbish soil, they did well. I’ve made a note to feed them well this spring – anything to convince them they do like sand.
The dahlias had a very mixed year. Several failed to flower at all, those that did produced very few blooms, and I lost a couple due to rot. However, I did discover a new favourite. Isn’t she beautiful!
There’s been a lot of talk of rewilding and several gardens at the big shows with wilder areas. We’ve always left the grass uncut under the old apple tree from late autumn to late summer due to the number of bulbs and other things in it. This year, we had an unexpected arrival – a pyramidal orchid. Goodness knows how long it’s been lurking there. I think the very wet summer encouraged it to flower. I just hope it reappears this year.
So the usual mix of triumph and failure in the garden in 2024. Nothing’s ever perfect in a garden, is it? I also find that every year different things fail or succeed.
The seed packets for the Gardening Trials have started arriving and it won’t be long until I start sowing chillies, aubergine, and sweet peas, and getting the seed potatoes. And 2025’s going to be better, isn’t it?
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How lovely to have a look around your garden. The dahlia is a beauty, but you won’t convince me to grow them. Practically all my narcissi suffered the same fate (except ones in pots on a bench) and I am fairly used to S&S, but not the amount we had last spring. A good tip about waterlogged pots. And let’s hope for a sunnier, drier year ahead (it can rain overnight). I look forward to more beautiful photos from you, happy new year!
Happy New Year to you too! I’ll keep trying to convince you about dahlias 😍