This year, 2024, has been a rather interesting year for me in more ways than one. On my home gardening front, it hasn’t worked out quite the way I wanted it too, although that isn’t all of my own doing.

What was I planning at the start of the year?

One thing I wanted to do was start growing some Australian wildflowers out the back on a little random patch of lawn. It isn’t a big space and grass doesn’t grow well, due to the thin layer of topsoil on top of builders rubble and clay and the fact that it doesn’t get much sun. I wanted to give these flowers a go to see if they would work.

I also wanted to grow plenty of veg for lunches and in general for when I was a bit hungry between meals (there’s nothing like cherry tomatoes for snacking on). Things like tomatoes, capsicums and spring onions for salads and things like pumpkins for soups. The reasoning behind growing my own where I can is the fact that I want to know exactly how the veg I eat has been grown-I don’t use pesticides, the veg hasn’t travelled from the other side of the world and I’m not exploiting myself when I do it! The quality of the veg I grow is far better and tastier than the supermarket too. I also get to choose from a wider range of varieties to grow.

I also wanted to make a plan of what I wanted to grow and plan it so that I was continually able to have food coming into the kitchen from my garden. In Sydney, I am able to grow things all the way through the year-the stuff varies by the time of year but that variety is a good thing.

How did my year turn out?

At the start of 2024, I had lots of veg growing well, including pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, beetroot, peppers and chillies. There may have been other stuff too. After having a weeks holiday, I came back to find that so many of the plants were suffering from powdery mildew. The conditions in that week were perfect for this fungal disease when I couldn’t do anything about it. By the time I got back, the infestation was bad enough that I had to get rid of most plants affected. That was a shame, but that is the way gardening goes sometimes. I did manage to get a few tomatoes and mandarins though which is a positive.

For the whole year, we have had builders at our apartment complex. They have been on scaffolding in the patio and the on the ‘lawn’ out the back. This means no wild flowers or veg grown over autumn, winter and spring. The space has been taken up by their mess and the dust has been a nightmare too. Thankfully, they have now finished and I’m hoping they will be completely out of here by the end of the year!

I have now sown some fresh seeds for growing tomatoes, beetroot, spring onions and Brussels sprouts. This was done last week and several have now germinated, which is really good news as I really enjoy sowing seeds and then watching them grow.

What have I learnt this year?

First of all, I need to be organised! I need a plan of what I want to grow, when I need to sow my seeds and over what time period too. I need to plan my growing around holidays too-next year I’m away at the start of March and for two weeks in June. This should be doable, as there will be people at home to water my plants while I’m away at least! I don’t expect my husband or son to do any more than that, but if they can do, it will be great!

Sowing seeds is an exciting thing to do, for those that are of the right sort of odd excitable persuasion that finds such stuff fun-I’m one of them (and proud of it)! While sowing seeds is something that is therapeutic and also full of hope for me (just because I like to see what grows from the tiny seeds I sow), I don’t need to attempt to grow enough food for the whole of Sydney’s population! I just need to sow enough seeds to provide enough food for what we use it for at home-especially as I can sow more of the same seeds a few weeks later to provide a longer harvest season later in the year.

While I do this anyway, I always find it worth saying-only grow what you enjoy eating and will use. Yes, you can preserve food through all sorts of pickling, fermenting, freezing and other processing methods if you have an excess, but we all have limited time to do such stuff. Doing anything else but growing what you will eat and can preserve is a waste of your resources in time, energy, money, space, water and nutrients within your soil or growing media (if you grow in pots). We all have varying amounts of time to grow our own food, so why waste it on things you don’t enjoy eating or using?

What gardening related tasks do I have to do this year?

While there is less than two weeks left to 2024 as I wrote today, there is still some gardening tasks to be done. There are a few people out there that think you whip out your seeds, chuck them into the soil and the job is done! While it isn’t hard to do, you need to have some order about your seeds and sowing them!

My first job is to bring order to my seed stash. At them moment, I have a seed stash that is in total disarray! This needs sorting out and organising. I need to know what seeds I’ve got, which need using first according to the dates on the packets and organise them into order in my seed tub. Normally, I prefer pen and paper to spreadsheets, but this epic job really does need a spreadsheet. So, while I am working over Christmas, I do have Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day off, along with any weekends in the middle, so I will have time somewhere to get this done.

Once this epic seed sorting job has been done, I can work on my plans for 2025. I don’t want to make plans until I’ve sorted my seeds, so I shall see what I have and then plan based on this.

I also have my current seedlings to care for. This is also where I will enjoy my gardening the most. This is something that i want to continue next year-to enjoy my home gardening. I really don’t love my paid work at the moment, so I will be enforcing a gardening rule for myself where I will be out in my garden for three hours a week. I want to have a fabulous looking garden, as well as it being fabulously productive!

Another thing I will do is ensure that I encourage some wildlife into my garden. I get more and more pleasure from looking at, and watching wildlife anywhere I go. The more I can have at home, the better it will be.