GARDENING ASPIRATIONS FOR 2020

1) Create butterfly garden (including a small area of caterpillar foodplants) at my allotment.

2) Make a wildlife pond at my allotment.

3) Create a semicircular pollinator-friendly border in my front garden, remove HT roses from rose bed and replace with Eupatorium dubium 'Baby Joe' (don't flog me, Wiseowl! ), extend another border (sick of seeing plants in rows in that area ) and also add one to my back garden so I can sit at the bench and be surrounded by flowers and pollinators.

4) Sort out my fruit area at the allotment, want another 2 blueberry bushes and 2 more rows of raspberries. Might also try a small fig tree and perhaps a couple of tea bushes, adding another 2 later if they do well.

5) Learn more about British native plants and which are best for wildlife.

Wow, I'm feeling tired just thinking about all that!

Nick

 

Last year I didn't achieve anywhere near what I would have liked in the garden with visitors on and off from March to September. Hopefully a quieter year this year and more time to deal with nature's foibles.

I must finish creating a stencil for painting my house name and number on an allotted rock on the front wall. I started it six months ago but keep putting it off.

A definite is to finish digging rocks out of my lawns, a job I've been trying to achieve for eighteen months. They're not compatible with a lawnmower blade!

Create a couple of steps down to the area that houses my septic tanks.

If I've managed to kill off the bracken, later in the year I will partly rebuild the boundary drystone wall as a marker between mine and crofters land.

My intentions are good at the moment, how much I will achieve remains to be seen.

 

To try to establish a routine instead of constantly feeling as though I am too early or late for keeping my garden healthy.

Seems to be because I am constantly caught by the unexpected but now I realize that perhaps I'm not mixing enough preventive steps to my stewardship within my day outside..

And to find more ways to share my bounty.

 

Aren't you going to be busy @Nikolaos

My main aspiration is to find more time for the garden whilst still having time for everything else. I have a ' grand plan ' but whether I am able to achieve it is a different matter. I was hoping that I could make dozens of coasters and other stuff during the winter so I would have enough stock to see me through most of the year, thus freeing up more gardening time. However, most of the coasters I've made are not heat resistant, due mainly to environmental conditions I think, so I'm going to have to try again when ambient temperature is higher and more stable. Which means I may not be as far ahead of myself as I had hoped.

The four jobs that take priority are to put in a second pond, increase the size of one of the bun runs by moving the dividing wire panels and turn a disused bun run into a hedgehog friendly space for Abernathy and increase the size of the planting area under a cherry tree in order to reduce number of pots.

The pond I had planned to put into the disused bun run but due to taking on Abernathy I am having to relocate it. It will likely have to go into front garden close to existing pond. I did consider hiring a digger, removing existing pond and creating one much larger pond. I like this idea but it would be expensive and time consuming as some landscaping would be required (although not a lot ). Realistically I doubt I can achieve all that by myself unless I allowed more time over a longer period. Plus the front garden would be a bomb site again. I need a lottery win then I can pay someone to do it for me

 

Garden aspiration this year is to sit out in it more and just enjoy it more.

The last three years Ive had the big jobs - build the polytunnel, build a metal pergola, change the planting in a border and a flower bed. Theres still bits to do and plants to add and remove but that's just normal gardening.

An early season mini aspiration is to finish the floor in the fruit cage and use this more for hardening off and for soft fruit. This should free up some space in the tunnel.

 

My main aspiration is to be a bit tidier, I've allowed things to get out of control.

But by mid summer I will still probably have pots and plants jammed into every possible spot.

 

Not sow seeds too early

 

Same here John but I've got to say I'm chomping at the bit to get going.

 

My main Christmas present from the family was an allotment so the majority of my gardening aspirations involve getting to grips with the plot and starting to put my stamp on it. The site currently isn't great but, having seen YouTube videos of others, it could be a heck of a lot worse.

Attainable goals, as a complete novice and not having the benefit of being able to do the structural stuff months ago, in year one:

- (At least) Triple the number of potatoes we grow compared to last year
- Get the stones out of at least one of the other three beds
- Separate that bed into 3-4 raised beds, with accessible pathways in between.
- Grow all the trimmings for Christmas dinner - only managed spuds last time around

 

This is my favourite thread every year

A bit tricky to nail down my own aspirations this time though, we've *hopefully* just bought a house, subject to all the usual wrangling, so will probably be moving sometime in the spring. New garden is currently basically a big flattish grassy rectangle with a few (fruit?) trees at the bottom and some very dodgy decking at the top. Assuming all goes to plan I guess the most pressing points will be sorting the decking, deciding where the hens are going to go, and start looking into a shed/greenhouse. Exciting but a bit hypothetical at present!

@CanadianLori This is similar to my aspiration last year - in the end I found what worked best for me was comitting to 20-30 minutes pottering outside after work as soon as the evenings were light enough to allow it. It was rarely anything more intensive than watering/light weeding/deadheading etc, but getting out there and doing even those little bits daily definitely made a huge difference.

 

I've three main aspirations this year. First, moving a few plants. Second, improve the lawn. Third, two projects. One ornamental, one structural. In other words, not all that much.

 

Well the first one shouldn't be too difficult @Sandy Ground.

 

@andrews I'm looking to get a pergola made this year. You say you've made a metal one before? How does one go about making a metal one? I want something that will last and metal would seem a good fit. And also strong enough to take a wisteria tree. Any advice please?