2020 vision for your garden planning acknowledges what has gone before, what lessons we can learn from that and how we might want to move forward in this new decade. You can make this as light hearted or as serious as you want, you’re not being judged or checked up on!
January is named for Janus the Roman two-headed god, so it is always a good time to take stock; to look back at what worked in your garden last year and what you plan to do differently this year. In fact why not have a review of your garden or gardens over the last decade?
The fact that we’ve entered a new decade is either a big thing or just another year, depending on your viewpoint. But if you were needing some motivation it could be the necessary spur to get you actually doing something.
2020 vision for your garden – Photographic evidence
It is fascinating finding photographs of how your current garden looked 10 years ago and the changes you’ve made since. Take this opportunity to have a rummage through the boxes of snaps and external hard drives and see what there is to find.
For example, you may not have been taking photos specifically of the garden, but one showing your children in the paddling pool may have herbaceous borders behind. Can you tell what’s growing in those borders in high summer? Hollyhocks? Bet there’s some Verbena bonariensis; that was about the time it really started to get popular although it’s been around a lot longer than 10 years.
I mean there’s one major change. Ten years ago, our mobile phones did not take photos of the quality they do now, so most of us had to get out a digital camera. It was even more of an effort twenty years ago, when digital cameras were still new and print photos were still pretty much the norm unless you took a lot of photos.
How did your garden grow 10 years ago?
Are you gardening in the same garden now as then?
I am, but the way I use it, and what I grow in it has changed. Not least as I gave up my long standing allotment a couple of years ago, due to various time pressures that made it difficult to get there. So, although I had always grown some edible plants in the garden, I now grow many more. In fact my garden feels like a young garden as I changed a lot of things at that point, including a new patio, new greenhouse and different layout. Layout I seem to have changed a couple of times over the last decade. As in major changes, rather than tweaks. There’s always tweaks, if only to fit in the new plants you couldn’t resist buying…
If not the same garden, how many different gardens have you had? How do they compare to each other and to what you have now?
Perhaps you’ve moved from a small city garden to a larger suburban garden. Maybe that coincided with the arrival of children into your life. You may feel that your 2020 vision for your garden can include some respite from sandpits and include an area for the children to have their own patch of garden to grow nasturtiums and lettuces.
Or perhaps you didn’t own a garden 10 years ago, you just had a window box. Now you have a garden, have you grown some of the plants you promised yourself then? Indeed, do you still like those plants and want to grow them?
2020 vision for your garden – some favourite and popular plants from 10 years ago
So, when we were all garden planning ten years ago, what were the plants and flowers we wanted in our gardens?
Verbena bonariensis was in its designer heyday of course, and we still love it. Other favourites from 2010 that have proved their garden worthiness and are still popular (not always the same thing!) include: –
- Aquilegia ‘Black Barlow’ – the rich dark flower of this Columbine, or Granny’s Bonnet adds an edge to pale cottage garden schemes
- Nandina domestica – also know as sacred bamboo, this shrub is remarkably tolerant of a range of soil and garden conditions and has good red autumn colour
- Salvia x sylvestris ‘Mainacht’ – a purple flowered herbaceous Salvia, dead heading the tall flower spikes before they go to seed ensures a long flowering period
- Tulip ‘Queen of the Night’ – a deep purple tulip that grows well in the border and in a container. Plant en masse in either with a viridifolia (pale green) tulip for a new 2020 edge to the monochrome effect
- Anemone ‘Wild Swan’ – white flowers with a lilac band on the reverse of the petal – delightful and less rampant than the Japanese anemones
Garden Planning and Climate Change
Recent years have seen a greater awareness of climate change and how this might affect us directly. Flooded homes and gardens; droughts; mild winters; hard winters…
We may be noticing that flowers are blooming early, almost out of season in some cases. But would you be surprised to learn – or be reminded – that this was remarked upon ten years ago?
The winter of 2009 -2010 was a cold one, delaying spring by some weeks. Nevertheless, British plants were still flowering earlier than two decades previously in a comparable spring. There was no doubt then that scientific research showed an overall rise in the mean temperature. And records going back as far as the eighteenth century for some species such as Snowdrops added further correlation.
This Auricula was flowering in my cool greenhouse just before Christmas 2019 quite a few weeks early (posted on Plews Instagram)
Concern for bees and pollinating insects was also on the agenda a decade ago . We have made progress in some ways, but in others, not yet. Hopefully the legacy of earlier years is being used as lessons to learn from, good and bad.
What do you think? Does this tally with what you’ve noticed in your own garden over the last decade? And what can we, as gardeners do about it? How can our 2020 Vision for your garden help with garden planning in a changing world?
2020 vision for your garden – moving on
As gardeners what can we learn from previous years may depend on what type and size and location of garden we had. But one thing is certain. Just like the seedling you planted that’s grown into a tree, you’ve developed your gardening skills and learnt so much.
And do you know what the best bit is? We still have much more to learn. For example: –
- How will we negate some of the effects of climate change by gardening in a sustainable way?
- Will we grow heritage varieties to maintain a good gene base?
- How are we going to find replacements for all the plastic we currently use in the garden? Do we all have to make compost?
- Does re-wilding a garden mean mess, or more beneficial insects?
These are some of the gardening topics I’ll be exploring with you this year. For example, within sustainable gardening we’ll look at how quickly the change in the law regarding peat free potting composts is affecting growers and public.
And possibly, although its not directly related to how we garden, is 2020 or 2021 the real start of the new decade?
For more reading to get you thinking and for inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.
And if you’d like to get started soon on a new garden and gardening techniques, why not ask about our bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden? We can help with both gardening basics and more ‘expert tasks’, carry out worm and other experiments and for example, also show you how to plan a wildlife friendly ornamental border.
Related Gardening articles you may enjoy from our Award Winning Blog
Peat free compost – are you still confused?
How Not to Garden Organically
Compostable Packaging – Can You Compost it in the Garden?
What is a Vegan Garden?
How to Make Compost
Wild about Gardens – Design Ideas for Humans and Wildlife
Getting Going with Growing – National Gardening Week 2017
5 Rockery Plants for Bees and Small Green Roofs
Why you shouldn’t use a Garden Designer
10 Purple flowers for Wild Bees
