Did you perhaps make New Year’s Resolutions and now we’re at the end of January you’re struggling with keeping them up?
Do not feel a failure! Why not look at this from a different perspective and instead read about 12 gardening tips for your new year garden? Once read you could put one or all into practice and have flowers for the house or salad for your lunch plate as a result!
Btw, I am calling them tips because that feels less threatening and therefore more achievable for many people. But if you prefer the phrase resolutions as being more structured and therefore you’re more likely to be have a go, that’s also fine. 😊 Oh and if you need someone to keep you on your gardening path and motivated, do get in touch (contact links at the end)
There are twelve gardening ideas and tips (or resolutions!) one for each month of the year, although they’re not all month / season specific, some are more general.
Why garden and why start in winter?
Firstly, it has been shown that gardening can help to reduce stress – although I sometimes wonder whether those who glibly make this pronouncement are proper gardeners. Of course gardening and being a gardener can be stressful! For example: there’s a snap frost forecast, you’re late home from work, it’s getting dark and you’re racing around trying to bring frost tender plants under cover or wrap them in horticultural fleece.
But then, there are many ways in which being a gardener makes you more able to deal with these stressful episodes. Having tips for dealing with them is one. Trying something different is another. And being a part of the natural cycle, out in the open air can help clear your mind, refreshing you.
12 gardening tips for your new year garden – Plan to enjoy your garden
This is not as daft as it sounds; some people find gardening tasks turn into gardening chores as they keep putting them off. For example, leaving a lawn to grow and grow makes it more difficult, if not impossible, to mow.
How to resolve it –
Sit down with a cuppa and list those necessary tasks that you hate doing. No more than ten allowed and preferably only five!
Allocate small amounts of time weekly / monthly for each one. Remember: pulling out a few weeds whilst waiting for the potatoes to cook means you won’t need to spend a whole Sunday afternoon weeding and resenting your garden.
And if time is really tight, could you find someone else to help with the garden tasks on your hate list?
Try something new!
When you’ve sorted that list you get to make another – five plants you’d like to grow this year. Whether that’s a packet of seeds or a plug plant, the investment can be small and experimenting with new varieties can be fun – and tasty if you choose some veggies!
For example, I first tried cucumber ‘Perfection Ridge’ in 2014, it cropped really well, tastes like a proper cucumber and has become a regular ever since. Sold now as being indoor or outdoor, it crops better in a greenhouse or cloche but still does well grown in a sunny sheltered spot outside.
And when your experiment with a new plant doesn’t work out as you‘d hoped, at least you’ve learnt what doesn’t work in your garden, or that you don’t like the taste of red oak leaved lettuce!
Re-using potting compost and open bags
It is tempting to use those left over bags from last summer, but it is a false economy. Your seeds and young plants deserve the best start you can give them. Old, opened potting compost may contain insect eggs or pathogens.
But the potting compost doesn’t need to be wasted. You can use it to mix in with new potting compost when repotting mature plants into bigger containers. Or you can add it to your borders along with other organic matter to improve the overall structure and fertility of the soil.
Garden Teacher Tip
Do check for pests such as vine weevil before using. I tip the compost into a wide shallow trug to make this task easier. NB potting compost that has been used to grow tomatoes should not be used around tomatoes, as there is a greater risk of transferring virus.
Hedges
Trim hedges either early in the year before nesting begins or after nesting birds have flown. This one of our 12 gardening tips for your new year garden will keep on the right side of the law and benefit wildlife too.
It is actually an offence under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act to knowingly damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird. This includes trimming a hedge in your garden when you know there’s a nest in use, which is usually March – August inclusive. And yes, if you ask or employ someone else to cut the hedge for you, both of you are guilty.
Fragrant Flowers
Have a scented plant or flower by the front door. With a bit of ingenuity, and by changing the plants in the pot this can be achieved year round. It will give you daily pleasure, so whats not to like?
Garden Designer Tip
Choose a decorative pot. Into this you’ll place another pot with the current fragrant flowers. Re-use your plastic pots for these temporary displays. Then, when the flowers ‘go over’, replace with a different pot filled with a new selection.
The plants may be annuals, bulbs or shrubs – whichever scent tickles your nose! The perennials can be used next year too.
Learn some Botanical Latin
Now don’t groan! Knowing your Calendula from your Tagetes can be a life saver – literally where your pet tortoise is concerned! Why? Because they’re both known and sold as marigolds. Calendula are pot or English marigolds, Tagetes are called French or African marigolds. Both are decorative plus have uses, but its Calendula that you can feed to your tortoise.
Get out your camera
We’re halfway through our 12 gardening tips for your new year garden, but this is one I suggest you start asap. It involves taking photos of your garden to help you remember what you liked and didn’t like at any particular season.
Garden Teacher Tip
The photos should be taken regularly, say once a month, so that you can see how the garden changes.
To sit or not to sit?
How often have you wandered out into the garden with a friend and a drink only to end up heading back to the patio as that’s the only place with a seat?
Even small gardens often have room for two seating areas. One may be an intimate space for two and the other doubles up as a sunny lounging area and entertainment space with folding chairs for dining / guests.
A folding stool in the greenhouse or potting shed can be useful too. I tend to stand whilst working at the bench and then sit on the step to drink my coffee. The stool is there for my husband’s comfort as he makes the coffee and brings it down!
Do you adore Snowdrops and Daffodils?
Why not be inspired to create a own mini collection of your favourites? Check out National Garden Scheme and Plant Heritage for open gardens with collections near you. You’re sure to come away with a couple of choice plants as well as tons of inspiration.
Grab a Bargain
There are still some bare root plants for sale and as it’s heading towards the end of the season many are reduced in price. Choose from roses, fruit trees and bushes, shrubs, herbaceous perennials…
Organic gardening – is it for you and your garden?
It means working with nature, not against it. But by creating a biodiverse habitat in your garden, you improve the health of the soil, the plants, your family and provide a lifeline for essential creatures. Biodiverse includes insects, reptiles, mammals as well as plants – we are all part of a larger ecosystem.
Gardening organically can reduce your workload. For example, I don’t battle against aphids – there’s an army of ladybirds who do that for me (by the second year of being in this garden).
12 gardening tips for your new year garden – and where to find more
The way you manage your garden should make gardening pleasurable, and your garden pretty and productive. Even if we only achieve that in some areas, some of the time, that’s a positive. Hopefully these tips will help, if you need more advice and ideas check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below. You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.
And for personalised help, do get in touch
Our Garden Consultancy & Advice Visits may help with some of your issues. Or does your planting need a rethink? Do you have a birthday coming up? Plews bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden make a wonderful and practical gift. Have a read through this pdf download for info.
Feeling nosey? You can have a peek at the progress of my garden renovation, Spitfires and Slow Worms, on Instagram and Facebook
You’ll get to see it in person if you come to the Plews Gardening Workshops Current ones on Eventbrite for you to book into. Follow for updates on topics and dates on Plews website, Instagram, Eventbrite, Facebook
Plus get your local garden club, allotment, WI, U3A or other group to ask me along to give a talk (and bring plants 😉)
Related Gardening articles you may enjoy from our Award Winning Blog
General gardening advice
What is Organic Gardening?
Plastic Free Gardening Tips
Greenhouse Maintenance Tips for Novice Gardeners
Soil types
Tips for Gardening on Chalk Soil
Tips for Gardening on Clay Soil
Flowers and Shrubs
Creating a Mini Cutting Garden
6 Bird Friendly Shrubs for Your Winter Garden
Should I Plant a Garden Hedge?
Grow your own fruit and veg
What is an Ornamental Edible Garden?
Easy Maintenance Edible Gardens
Beautiful Apple Blossom Trees for Your Garden
