What would you do differently in your gardens next year?

[catwithflowers]

If anything! 😊. I have already made a few gardening New Year's Resolutions!

1. Only plant things we love. I'm determined not to be guilted into planting things my lovely dad has grown from seed at his allotment even if I really don't like them and if they look out of place in our garden (I'm looking at you French Marigolds!!)

1. I'm in the North East and planted things from seed a bit late in the year. We have a greenhouse now so I'm planning on starting my seeds off either very early spring or in the autumn for some perennials.

1. To be honest about my gardening mistakes and get rid of things I thought would work but just don't, eg the penstemon we had in the cottage garden which just sat like a big lump amongst the other delicate cottage garden plants. The bed looks so much more restful without it 😊

Don’t plant too much in one bed (vegetables). It may look like there is loads of room but the bed is now an absolute jungle. Also 2-3 courgette/squash plants are plenty for a family imo.

Same here , start earlier. I ordered Plug plants and because we were blindsided by the virus year everything arrived very late...obviously no ones fault but these plants never seemed to have got going.
Also , I didn’t chop my lavender back enough and now it has Split in two. My lace cap hydrangea was cut too far back and hasn’t flowered at all :-(
On the plus side for the first year I have trained a very old clematis and put some decent trellis up, it looks stunning and has an abundance of flowers. My lovely dad used to tend to my garden but he is in his late 80’s now so for the last few years it’s been me. I’m learning as I go! Earlier this year I had a new lawn and shrubs put in the front, might get the same person back to get done help and inspiration in the back.

I've just been to our local Dobbie's garden centre and all the seeds are half price (after I've bought loads online at full price 😳) and there are quite a few things which can be sown soon and grown over winter if you have a greenhouse or other frost free space. The sweet peas can be sown indoors from September according to the instructions on the packets and lots of other things from January

Dobbies that is, just realised there is no apostrophe 😉

This year I have loads of sed grown annuals but only about 4 types. Going to plant single trays of more seeds and just give extra away. Also want to do some planting for spring flowers as, other than my camellia, most stuff is may at the earliest.

I am a beginner so planting things where itherthings will grow and how to transition between spring and summer planting will be my research project. Most likely will use pots.

Oh and also I need to figure out what to do on the completely bare fence at the pack which is shaded by neighbours giant trees. Even grass struggles so I think it's a hopeless case. Was wondering on screening it off and using it for bins and bikes then planting in front of the screen as that extra metre forward should give light.

Definitely plant my sweet peas earlier, mine finally flowered this week! Agree about the strawberries, I rescued my grandad's when he went into care but they've hardly fruited and when they have the birds have had them. I also want to take down a huge hedge that we have which would give me an extra 8-9 foot of garden space so that I could have some veg beds, but I am guilt stricken about the birds that live in it

I wont have one and while I dont do much to it or go in it that often I am going to miss it 🙁.

Plant bulbs! Every autumn I forget and every spring I chastise myself when others have beautiful displays of tulips etc.

More wallflowers. I bought some early lockdown, planted them on Easter Sunday and have had non stop flowers and colour ever since.

Don’t bother with courgettes or any other veg really

Don’t be scornful of annuals and bedding plants. I need more colour in my borders

Every year I want my main sunny flower bed to be full of flowers. And it never is. I can’t seem to get it to look that beautiful bursting with colour thing that you see. So every year, that is my project. Bought plug plants this year and that still didn’t work. Needs a complete overhaul I think.

Not to be afraid of removing or moving “non performing” plants. We planted a climbing rose 2 or 3 years ago and we get maybe one or two flowers a season. We’ve pruned it as recommended and fed it but I’m afraid it’s just not earning it’s keep!

Actually you’ve all inspired me to be much more ruthless. I’m gonna properly get rid of things I’m a bit indifferent about. Then next year, buy some bigger perennials and stick them in the ground. I also love wallflowers. And mulch mulch mulch. I’m quite new to gardening so bought things, put them in the ground and didn’t really think about location or size or how they’d look.

Plant lots of bulbs this autumn, especially tulips. Didn't do any as suffering terrible morning sickness last autumn.

Move things around that are in the wrong place when the season ends.

Buy the biggest plants I can afford, not cheap piddling things that aren't worth the effort.

Redo my raised bed.

For those who haven’t been particularly successful with strawberries: it might be the variety you’re choosing. There are early, mid, late and perpetual strawberries. My early strawberries have produced fruit since early June, the mid season plants are just starting to produce in mid July, and the late varieties won’t produce until perhaps August. Perpetual strawberries produce fruit through the whole season but smaller and fewer fruits. So far this year I’ve has great success with an early variety called Florence.

-Water my pots during the winter. We had a dry winter last year so all my pots of tulips failed to flower and so did most of my daffodils.

-Plant sweet peas in the autumn. It makes a massive difference to their performance the following summer.

-Ignore instructions saying “scatter seed in May”. It’s now July and they’re still only seedlings.

-Get mesh to cover lettuce - the slugs have destroyed it.

-More fruit, less veg. DC are much more likely to eat fruit and with limited space I can’t grow both.

Mine was to buy seeds earlier, I’ve already started and they’re good until 2023. During lockdown I only had a limited variety of flowers to sow. Some were not the usual annuals, such as Clary, Statice and SweetSultan, these are now dotted around the garden and given away to anyone who wanted them.
Also, buy in compost and soil improver earlier, in case there’s a run on them.

@ThickFast I have only one word for you. Salvias

Well maybe two. Snapdragons, cosmos (buy early or even seeds straight in will grow). I have several varieties of salvias and they flower like crazy from June on and get big

Give the whole garden a real good tidy and trim late August and then again before spring gets going, I’ve paid the price this year of not having enough time with veg/fruit because I’ve been busy tidying whilst trying to not disturb nature.

Not to crowd veg beds - again time taken up moving stuff to give it more room.

Get full supports in for cucumbers/peas/anything else at time of planting.

Not filling up the poly tunnel too much.

Keeping a closer eye on the weather forecast - I got caught out with the very late frost we had.

Thank you @Vodkacranberryplease ! That’s so helpful. I’ll look them up.

Don’t buy summer bedding plants. I have lots of pots and I had in mind for years that they should be filled at all times. So I’ve been spending a fortune on bedding in summer and autumn.

The pots that I will keep are my two hydrangeas, dwarf conifer, liriope, 10 pence Morrisons Acer, oleander, saxifraga and shaped euonymus.

Next summer, I will buy a geranium rozanne, another young Acer, some contrasting heucheras and some salvia caradonna.

Next autumn, I will have the heucheras and Acer and they will go with my existing pots.

Next winter, I will buy some hellebores and have planted snowdrop bulbs.

Next spring, I will have all my spring bulbs.

And I will not have spent £100 on summer bedding as I did this year!!

Geranium Rozanne is so much prettier in the flesh than it is in pics. It's a really beautiful colour, almost glowing. I held off getting them because I thought they might not be that nice. But I'm thrilled and will be propagating them.

This is a great thread.

I definitely want to start my sweet peas earlier, I planted far too late
I want to try carrots next year. Wouldn't bother with radishes again.
Nor the huge tomato plants- didn't keep up with plucking out the side shoots and they're a nightmare! My tiny 1 foot tall determinate bush variety is absolute marvellous though and there are over 50 tomatoes growing on it - will definitely plant more of those next year as they're low maintenance and look lovely
Violas have taken over but look lovely so don't mind too much.
Would love to try alliums.
More herbs: oregano especially.
Fruit wise: I'd like to try strawberries but as PP have said I'll be careful when choosing my variety.
Will happily do cucumbers and peppers again but would like to attempt onions and garlic too.

cover salad as it's not slugs - it's sparrows!

Yy to not overcrowding the veg patch. My winter squash are like triffids! And my peas are all fallen over and mixed with everything else because I didn’t stake them until it was too late.

But at least from this thread I know why my coriander always flowers straight away - I put it in full sun.

Get my sweet peas in In the autumn.
Get my dahlias into pots early - I still have some in the greenhouse 🤦🏼‍♀️