Susie's Garden

At the end of an eventful growing season, Susie White recaps what went well

- Susie White and Moira Chisholm

What a year it’s been for weather! We had the worst snow for 50 years, followed by three months with no rain, then a wet and windy late summer. So how did the garden cope with these extreme conditions?

During the drought we watered the vegetable garden, but the flower garden had to manage without. Vital to its success was its mulch. We laid down woodchip before plants grew and it held in the moisture; they survived all those weeks without watering. When I added plugs of annuals, I scraped away the mulch, planted and re-covered the soil.

It’s been a great year for annuals. In wet years I find cosmos can make too much leaf and flower late. This year it did well from early on, prolonged by regular deadheading.