Tina Worboys | Dec 18, 2024
1: Wilder Planting
Poppies, scabious, knapweed and many other wildflowers are well behaved garden additions and add a relaxed magic to a planting scheme. Teasels, Dipsacus fullonum, are stunning drenched in frost or snow and hold their statuesque structure all through the winter months. They provide a favourite food for the striking Goldfinches whose long beaks can access their abundant seeds. In the summer months the bees will fascinate as they spiral round and round the purple flowers. If your mind is focussed on those warmer months, perhaps plan to sow some cornflower seeds, Centaurea cyanus. Once a weed of arable fields these beautiful flowers are now all but lost in the wild. A drift of powder blue through ornamental grasses, in my experience, provokes a response like no other.
2: Homes for Garden Friends
Pollinators, birds, insects or small mammals all need places to rest, feed or set up home in the garden. A stack of logs, broken roof slates, brushed up leaves or simply a corner left ‘untidied’ can become a bustling mini metropolis of garden life. Just walk away and leave them to it.
3: Reduce Garden Waste
And embrace composting. Create your own heap of garden waste and food scraps or invest in a bin that does the work for you. Not only will it make life easier in disposing of organic waste but you’ll be repaid with the finest food for your precious soil.
4: Nurture the Soil
In fact, if you make just one green resolution, nurturing the soil would be an excellent one. Healthy soil should be teaming with life. If yours is compacted, waterlogged or just seems dead you can help revive it by three easy actions. 1: Mulch - Add layers of organic matter on top and let the wild things do the hard work. 2: Reduce digging- your spade is the bulldozer to the ecosystem of the soil. 3: Grow green manure- these fast growing plants can work magic in just a few weeks.
5: Be Water Wise
If you don't already have one, ask Santa for a water butt! An open container with a simple rain chain slows and stores water as well as looking great. If you’re feeling adventurous why not go for a rain garden and remove your guttering all together allowing the water to filter through gullies and channels of your own design. Water is the single most effective way to increase wildlife to your garden so no matter how small the ‘pond’ the benefits will be huge. Remember to stack up some stones inside and out for the safe escape for any small garden visitors.
6: Make Do and Mend
Now is the time to clean up and fix all of your garden tools. Sharpening and oiling secateurs will give them many more years of service. It’s also a great time to fix pots, fences, arbours and trellis that have seen better days.
7. Ditch the Chemicals
Please! If you only do one thing to benefit the planet and the health of your garden (and potentially you) please avoid the killing aisle of the garden centre. The statistics on the long-term impacts of those few quick sprays are devastating to wildlife and ultimately the health, and look, of your garden.
Small, mindful changes really can make a huge difference to the health and productivity of your garden. So why not join me in making your own Green Vision for 2025.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderfully Wild New Year. Tina x
