My 8 Gardening Resolutions for 2024

Each year I usually set myself some gardening resolutions. It’s a bit of a wish list if I’m honest. As while I do start out with good intentions, as the year progresses I inevitably go ‘off piste.’ I distract myself with other gardening jobs and forget to do things. Sometimes my priorities change. Or life simply gets in the way.

Well for 2023 life certainly got in the way. Mr F-W became rather unwell in March and I got very distracted by that. So I’m afraid a number of gardening resolutions were partially completed and are therefor still on my list for 2024. So apologies if this feels like a slight case of deja vu! But it’s not all the same…I’ve also got some new tasks to add to the mix.

Lavender Line

I have an arc of lavender which runs around a path alongside my sweet little potting shed. It started looking a bit tired in 2022 so I gave it a serious chop back and in 2023 held my breath to see if that had done the trick and refreshed it. The cut back did work hurrah! The lavender looked much bushier and better. So I repeated the chop back last year and I think this will work. But there are a couple of more sparse areas in the line. So I’m going to tactically replace the odd plant this year.

Shed Saga

Last year Mr F-W began building a wonderful new shed for himself. It’s an absolute thing of beauty – smarter than our house to be honest! I may move in!!

But while it got off to a tremendous start, illness meant he couldn’t crack on with it quite as he might have liked in 2023. As a result, the shed isn’t quite finished. It needs glass putting in the windows, guttering adding, some fitting out etc.

The reason the progress of this shed is so critical is that once it’s completed, the contents of our two ugly sheds at the bottom of the garden will be rationalised. The important stuff will be moved into the new shed, non-important stuff ditched and the old ugly sheds (pictured below) will come down.

They are huge, so this will free up an area at the bottom of our garden that’s about 60 foot wide and 12 foot deep. I’m absolutely hopeless at spatial awareness, so until the sheds are down I can’t picture the released area. This means I can’t plan what to do in the space. But I’m optimistic that the new shed will surely be finished, the old ones will come down and the garden planning will begin in earnest in 2024. I absolutely can’t wait!

Approach to New Shed

In the meantime, what I can do is plan the approach to our new shed. It’s in a semi shaded spot, nestled near some trees. I already have a lot of bluebells in the area, so am tempted to continue this glade in front of the shed. Or I could have a lot of other lovely woodland bulbs on the approach to the shed. Then again, that means we will need to leave the grass long while the bulbs die back. Which may look a bit scruffy. I’m not against having scruffy areas of the garden, but I’m not sure it would work on scale in this particular spot.

I’ll certainly put some pots in front of the shed to temporarily jazz things up, but longer term what should I do? Put an informal pathway to the shed or not bother? A bench in front of it – that would look nice. I think I’ve ruled out a climber on it, but then again…mmm…there’s lots to think about.

Catalpa Trees

Last year I had the disaster with my lovely Catalpa trees. I have an line of five of them – well an arc actually – under which I grow 10 Annabelle Hydrangeas.

However high winds caught the canopy of one of them and decimated it. I called in a tree expert and he suggested what I thought, which is to leave the tree for now and see how it recovers.

So I’ll do that, but if it dies back, I’ll have to think again.

Roses

In 2023 I vowed to give my roses more TLC. I’m already pretty good at mulching them, but promised to pay more attention to feeding them and treating their black spot. I was as good as my word, but I recognise that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and one year of effort won’t sort my roses. So I’m going to redouble my efforts this year. This will include feeding them with Uncle Tom.

Uncle Tom is a natural rose tonic. So it’s perfect if, like me, you don’t like to use chemicals on your garden. Uncle Tom comes in a funny looking bottle and a little goes a very long way! You just add 10ml to 1 litre of water and drench the soil around your rose to give it a boost at the start of the season. You then use it every 7-14 days from April to October as a drench or rose spray. Anyway, I’m going to continue with my systematic use of it in 2024.

Compost Heap

This was something I just didn’t get to in 2023, however it will definitely get completed in 2024. When I reimagine the bottom of my garden as part of the shed saga, I’ll also reimagine my compost heap. At the moment it’s just that – a heap. As a result, it’s a nightmare to turn and doesn’t work very effectively. I’m going to change all that and install two or three separate bays, so that it’s much much easier to rotate the heap and create some actually useful compost!

Sunny Bed

My sunny bed near the patio is pretty good but it has areas I’m not completely happy with. Last year I vowed to remove the Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna.’ The plants were looking really tired and a bit lost. I had them on the shadier side of the bed and they didn’t really work there. The dark purple flowers just didn’t show up. You can (or can’t see them), bottom left above. The Salvias also became unloved and straggly. So I followed my resolution and removed them. I replaced the salvias with sedums which I’d divided up in the same border as part of a plan to refresh them. The sedums normally look very handsome, so fingers crossed they will work in this new area too.

This year in the sunny bed I want to divide up a nepeta which is on the corner of the bed (below) and has got very out of control! It’s lovely and is an absolute bee magnet, but it needs reining in a little.

I’m also not completely happy with the Phlox Mount Fuji in the border. It’s a large clump and to be honest this year it didn’t really perform last year. I’m tempted to be brave, lift the entire clump and replace it with something else. But we’re opening our gardens this year.

Is it safer to leave it another year and see if it perks up. Or maybe lift and divide the plants to refresh them and see if that helps…I’m not sure, but will have to do something.

Patio

My patio is a constantly changing area – not least because I’m constantly moving the patio pots around and adjusting their planting. But this year I felt the patio ended up a bit rudderless. It was pretty but lacked cohesion. So I’m going to revisit some of the containers and try to apply a little more discipline to my colour and plant choices. Not a lot, I hasten to add, as I’m not that sensible, but I’ll just try to tame things down a little!

Also I have a huge wicker basket on the patio which needs replanting. It’s a handsome container which I was lucky enough to be given for free!

It looked lovely for one year with tulips in it (above) but since then it has never looked so good and it’s absolutely wasted at the moment. It has some itty bitty plants in it that are all wrong. I’ll dig the whole thing out and replant it in a way which does it justice.

I also need to do something about another basket on the patio – it’s the old dressing up basket which I planted up once our kids grew up. It’s now falling to pieces. I threatened to get rid of it a while ago but wouldn’t you just know it, the Salvia Royal Bumble which is planted in it decided to put on its best ever show! So I couldn’t disturb it. But I think I need to bite the bullet and act before the basket disintegrates!

Onwards into 2024

So that’s it. My priorities for 2024. A mix of big and little jobs, some of which I will no doubt forget – or not get to – as I’ll get distracted by something else! But at least it’s a start point.

Here’s wishing you all a fantastic year ahead – full of wonderful, happy gardening. x