Review of 2020

This year has been the strangest of my lifetime. The global pandemic has devastated lives, businesses and everybody's sense of security and well being. Consequently, it is a somewhat of an irony that our gardens have been one of the few beneficiaries. Many gardens have been afforded extra love and attention, perhaps because going out to work has been curtailed or perhaps because going on holiday has been impossible or perhaps just because the garden has offered a safe haven away from the media's endless stream of depressing news.

This time of the year is a good moment to take stock and reflect on the successes and failures of the past 12 months. In a horticultural sense our Pennine garden has had its usual highs and lows. I always think it is important to be realistic about your assessment of what has worked and what has not turned out as planned. It can be tempting to keep repeating the same mistakes, blaming extraneous circumstances for any failures, usually the weather. But a top tip for gardeners of all ages and experience is carry out an honest review. Even if you change very little in your plot remember the climate is gradually shifting, new pests and diseases are arriving and your garden will age and evolve, like the rest of us, even with what we might perceive to be minimal change on our parts.

The 2020 successes for us were

~ best new plant: the petunia Tidal Wave Red Velour, that have been shown in early 2019, kept indoors, but taken outside onto the patio in spring 2020. They flowered prolifically and for a at least 4 months. Needless to say more were sown and are hopefully growing away in the conservatory as we speak.

~ best revamped patch: the part of the north beds, above the new Himalayan cherry tree, which have been planted for a blue and orange colour scheme. Although other colours have intruded, it has looked really spectacular but is still a work in progress.

~ best wildlife: just has to be the newt in the upper pond. What a joy to see this seemingly primeval amphibian finding a home in our garden.

~ best project: probably the planting pockets by the final section of the steps. I had intended to put some statement grasses here to define the entry into the top section. But a last minute decision to put the dahlias in has turned out to be a very happy accident. The steps can, sadly, draw the eye, so to have some colourful and long lasting dahlias here has been a real bonus.

The 2020 failures

~ the wall baskets on the patio; with garden centres being closed in the spring the plan was to grow from seed and small mail order plugs, the flowers that we would need. The plants did grow but not all at the required rate. I thought when planted up they would still flourish into the usual splashes of colour which disguise the wall of the house. But they were disappointing. In particular, the basket with trailing nasturtiums was rather feeble (fortunately the tub of nasturtiums higher up the garden did much better). 

So the lesson to be learnt for 2021, providing the garden centres are open, take an enjoyable trip out and choose the plants for the basket that in "blooming" good health. Sometimes a bit of spontaneity in the choosing can be so much fun, perhaps that is because spontaneity is the antithesis of most of what we do in the garden.

Here's keeping fingers crossed and all the very best to everyone, wherever you may be in the world.

Aside: the blogger data repeatedly shows a large number of visitors from Sweden. It would be so nice to hear from you if you would like to add a comment. Perhaps I can add a little more of the content which is most of interest to Scandinavian readers, either way, gott nytt år.

 

The Pastel Bed

It struck me recently how much a garden will evolve without any help from the people who might tend it. I was weeding in and around the pastel bed and realized how it was losing some of its intended lighter shades of colour. This year the gaura "Sparkle White" has yet to show, the lavatera "Barnsley Baby"is well behind and the gypsophila did not survive the winter, meaning the predominant colours are shades of purple and blue.

The achillea cassis, the eryngium, alliums and the astilbe do a good job but it is not quite how it looked last year. I suspect the achillea (yarrow) is out competing some of the other plants so I will be careful to gently redress the balance in the future.

However, I will still enjoy the display and be thankful that the astilbe is the white variety (quite appropriate as its English name is the evocative "false goat's beard" 

Elsewhere in the garden the evolution is more orderly and the beds around the new cherry tree are filling out nicely. Hopefully they will do well into the autumn when they can die back gracefully to leave the bronze bark to illuminate the quiet late autumn and winter .

Top tip: at the design stage, think how a border will look throughout the year and consider what will give a succession of seasonal interest. Small shrubs are often the most straight forward way of achieving this, they can have form to provide structure, many are evergreen to provide some hint of life and others have the most beautiful stems, such as the dogwood which has a multitude of colours depending on your chosen variety.

Philosophy behind the blog

I have been asked by the few fellow gardeners who know that I write a blog "why do you do it?"

The rationale behind these musings are really quite simple, writing about the cats and the garden serves to keep me out of too much mischief. The fact the blog needs new entries  serves to prompt me into outside activity. It also helps to drive me on to try and make a half decent job of it all. However, the direct reasons I write the blog are twofold
1. For Mum, who rarely gets the chance to visit in person but via the blog she can keep up to date with progress
2. For my records, so the changes can be documented and importantly to help me to organize a proper gardening calendar.
(when I review old pictures of how the garden used to look, it reminds me how nice it is to keep a record to refer back to; see the blog entries on evolution)

While it is tempting to say there are also more altruistic motives, that my blog entries might help other gardeners who face similar challenges, I am realistic enough to realize that barely anyone will find their way here. However, when they do it does give me a little fillip. I have been amazed that people from other countries have even read the blog on occasions, to date they include USA, Ireland, The Netherlands, Mexico, Poland and South Korea. As an ex geography teacher this global reach is rather exciting and I will not pretend that I don't really enjoy it when a new country appears on the audience statistics. Sadly, the number of comments is really very small. It would be nice to get a little feedback and perhaps suggestions as what other people are most interested in.

In 2015 the garden was clearly more enclosed