This year has not been the easiest in the garden. A long, cold spring was followed by a damp summer. While not great news for Britons, this was heaven for slugs who multiplied merrily, munching away on our baby greens. We tried nematodes, beer traps and crushed eggshells, but the only thing that made any real difference was handpicking them off at night.
Next year I am going to grow seedlings under cover until they are large enough to withstand the onslaught of molluscs, as well as plant more slug and snail-resistant cultivars. This taught us that in Britain, climate change does not necessarily mean we all need to start growing Mediterranean plants.
While these may thrive in hot, dry summers, in wet years they will be unhappy. Instead, we need to think about growing as diverse a range of plants as possible, in the hope that at least some of them will do well in all the variety of weather conditions that might come our way.
We also need to think about how we manage water in our gardens, whether that is by creating a swale garden with bog-friendly planting that will act as a storm drain, or by putting in rainwater butts to see us through a drought. New crops: Cultivating food at home for all the family is a trend that is here to stay.
BRIGHT REFLECTIONS. On a more positive note, 2024 was the year when we finally embraced peat-free gardening as a mainstream pursuit rather than a niche interest. This is vital to preserve our peat bogs, which take millennia to form and are an important carbon sink. Garden centres now sell plenty of alternatives including compost made from bark, coir, wood fibre and even sheep's wool.
