Take a chance on exotic plants when planning your 2025 garden
Gardening on the Edge by Diana Wayland
Although it’s still the middle of winter, now is the best time to start planning for the new growing season.
Already there are bulbs pushing their way up. The snowdrops are in bud.
It is worth taking stock of what you want to grow this year: vegetables, flowers, fruit, or a mixture of all.
If planning for a new garden it helps to look at what grows in the locality, including in your own garden. In January very little herbaceous plants are visible, but bulbs such as narcissus, snowdrops and crocus should be visible, even if it is a bit early for tulips.
Shrubs and trees, even if bare of leaves, are the structure of the garden. They are more susceptible to extreme weather, being taller and not dying back for winter.
Trees and shrubs that struggle to grow where we are actually do quite well further inland, so if you are away from the searing blasts of salt-laden gales, you will be able to grow a much greater variety of broadleaved trees and shrubs than I can.
I have to admit to being quite jealous about this, although our choice of home location was made well before I had any inkling I would be trying to grow stuff on a brae 55 metres above the Pentland Firth, and sloping down to the west where the gales blow in unchallenged!
This year I have decided to trim the varieties of vegetables that I try to grow. I am eliminating what can be tricky most years, perhaps only doing well every few years or so. Caulitflower can do well, as with many other brassicas, so I will continue that, but the Romanesque one struggles, so I won’t bother any more, despite loving that variety.
Onions grow well, helped by early cloching, and last year’s crop is still being used, despite the high rate of thick necks caused by the lower average temperatures. But shallots, despite being cloched, are pathetic. Much as we love these, I may try them for the last time in the greenhouse before giving up.
Tatties are the best, so we grow a lot of those, and keep them in the ground until needed because of our mild temperatures.
I am also not bothering with crops that may be easy to grow but I only like them occasionally. That includes broad beans, radishes, and turnips which I love but won’t store unless frozen. Runner beans failed last year but did well in the previous two so I will continue with them, and peas.
I push ornamental plants to their limits here, but am surprised by what should not do well and does, and the reverse. Tansy grows brilliantly in the herb garden, but is not for maritime exposure. I have not told it so far, just in case.
Woodruff is spreading in the Sitka spruce “woodland garden”, but it took it four years to settle in. One of my rarer treasures, Opopanax chironium, a herbaceous plant from Greece and Turkey, has come up year after year for nine years, whereas Acanthus mollis from the same region is still sulking after three.
While I hope for a better summer than 2024’s, I encourage anyone planning a new garden or their next season to go for reliable plants but also try some less accustomed to our local climate. They may surprise you.
