Joy of planning a garden

Make the most of cosy winter evenings indoors to dream of the year ahead

I’m enjoying the silhouettes or bare trees against the winter sky at the moment - as snowdrops and hellebores show signs of emerging flowers

The new year started for me on the Winter Solstice, but that doesn’t mean I’m out the door guns blazing doing loads of stuff. This time of year is one of reflection and joy as I take time to plan things, making the odd list, ordering a few seed packets here and there.

I’m in no rush, I like to drag this out because I find as much joy in dreaming as I do the real thing later in the year. It doesn’t matter to me if all those dreams don’t happen. Taking out a real notepad and jotting down some new plants I want to try growing or existing plants I’m looking forward to seeing again. Popping the definite ideas onto a spreadsheet I use to keep track of plants in our garden.

I know many people dislike new year resolutions, rejecting the idea, and I totally get that, who needs more pressure in this day and age, but I believe they can be low pressured and helpful things. If you get stressed out by the thought of resolutions that you’ve missed in the past, please hear me out.

For starters, everyone has their own take on what a resolution might be, so you can choose yours to be whatever you want. Including having a year off from them. I see them simply as personal aims, a bit like a goal that doesn’t matter if it doesn’t happen, it can wait til next year, or perhaps I’ll change my mind about it.

As an observation, I’ve noticed the people who most dislike resolutions are people who set overly challenging, specific or un-fun things. Going on a diet or making sure life admin is done better isn’t something I would ever feel inspired to do - that’s just life. Other people plan too many things to be possible in a single year.

One way of taking pressure off resolutions is to step back and ask yourself, am I jumping ahead? For instance, if your resolution is something like, buy a car or buy a house, are you ready? Should your resolution actually be a step before, to research how to buy a car or house?

Resolutions I’ve set in the past are always something I want to do anyway, like a holiday to a place I’ve always wanted to go or to try a hobby I’ve been thinking of trying for a while. I only ever set 3 resolutions at the most, sometimes it might just be one.

Two years ago I decided to focus on getting better at photography, give painting another shot and to give more creative writing a go. The goals weren’t more specific than that, and I did less than I thought I’d do - especially with photography - but the important thing is I did something with each. That something, no matter how small, made me happy. Last year my single resolution was to do justice to my watercolour painting. Which I’m continuing this year with my 1,000 Landscapes Project. So that’s a resolution I’ve stretched out across three years, it felt right.

Ultimately these are just life goals and we don’t have to confine them to new year. We can do this process at anytime we want. For me, I like planning at this time of year, partly because days are shorter and I spend more time indoors, which allows me lots of thinking time. I really do love nothing better than sitting down to research plants and think about what we’ve achieved so far on the farm.

I also see it as a natural part of our inbuilt wild way, tied to the seasonal clock. There’s no escaping a feeling of renewal at this point in the year, as life slows down, days gradually growing longer. My mind leans toward the future, of things that might be.

For our gardens, it makes sense to give ourselves some time to sit down and look through seed catalogues or old photos of the garden last year. There is no need to do anything at all this year if you don’t want, you could let your garden continue on its own journey and have a year off. Or if like me, you feel a draw to tweaking and nurturing whatever space you have for plants, it’s a good time to make a note of adjustments.

Partly why I started the new Wild Way Garden Design Guide is to help you with planning your garden for 2025. Over the coming year I’ll continue to add articles to help you, that break down natural gardening into simple steps. Such as scribbling instead of fancy drawings. If there’s something you’d like me to cover, please let me know.

This year my garden plans are to finally, properly, design some of the key areas. For the first four growing seasons here, I’ve been pottering and playing, which I’ll continue, but have neglected certain spots. Mainly areas used for dumping grounds of old things found on the farm, like discarded tyres and old fences that I’ve piled up. I share lots of nice photos, but in reality when Gardeners’ World or Escape to the Country, or even the local garden club, were here, I felt embarrassment at those areas behind the camera.

In the coming months I’d like to clear these and plant them up, for our benefit as much as anyone else’s. An area of plants is far more peaceful to our minds than a pile of old rubbish. It’s not a massive fancy design, but it’s a step we can take to help make the areas around the house feel joined up, full of plants and wildlife. Areas that no longer play on my mind.

I’ve also been doing a lot of permaculture food growing on the farm over the years, which I plan to discuss more with you and push further in the planting in certain areas. Planting up food areas to be more productive is another resolution, alongside the little bit of rubbish clearing and my paintings. If I don’t achieve these three things fully, if I only reach 300 paintings, it won’t bother me because it’ll be more than I’ve done so far.

Whenever and however you do your planning, I hope your garden is as much of a rock to your year ahead as ours is mine. If you need any ideas, or just want to share yours for feedback or thoughts, I am here to help you at every step of the way. Just let me know.

Happy dreaming.

p.s. I am planning the postponed Garden Planning zoom catch up for 7 - 8pm on Monday 13th January, free for paid subscribers. I’ll set up a proper form to register interest in the next week and look forward to seeing some of you then!