As the holiday season winds down towards the start of a brand-new year, the excitement builds in anticipation of the upcoming gardening season.
For me at least, I now have time to pour over the 2025 online seed catalogs and dream of the future floral display and veggies.
But before I let the excitement level for the 2025 gardening season get too high and the seed wish list too out of control, I turn to my 2024 gardening notes and start flipping the pages. Admittedly, my notes tend to be a little sporadic but I generally pinpoint the most glaring successes as well as the failures. Thankfully, my weather records, which I am far more meticulous in keeping up to date, will often jog my memory.
I noticed we showed due diligence last February in spraying our camellia shrub for the cottony scale we have been battling for a few years. We should have given it a dose in the fall of 2023, or at the very least a second spray before the flower buds started to show their pink petals. (We learned that lesson - do not spray when buds are opening as it precipitates a massive blossom drop.)
We also sprayed our espalier apple tree that month for its codling moth problem. As it turned out, we should have given it a second spray too. But looking at the weather through late winter and early spring, it was a mess. We were lucky to squeeze in the one spraying what with freezing days and a fair amount of rain and snow as well.
When the weather finally started to warm up a bit, I was astonished to see honey bees flitting amongst the few flowers. Sounds silly I know, but not really since it has historically been the bumble bees who show up first in our garden. With their hairy bodies, they are better able to handle cold weather. So, where were the bumbles? Unfortunately, I did not make a note of when they finally did show up but I know it was two or three weeks later. At least.
The first sighting of a returning rufous hummingbird was on March 27 this year but a mourning cloak butterfly beat it to the Pieris japonica flowers by more than a week. What a thrill as we have not seen a mourning cloak in our garden for a few years. But we had to wait two more months for our first swallowtail butterfly sighting. And that was another anomaly for 2024: far fewer swallowtails in our garden than in years past.
Not so John鈥檚 latest nemesis, the Brewer鈥檚 blackbirds who have been spending the spring months in our garden for the last three years, or so. Boy, do they drive him nuts! One nested in the Clematis montana 鈥極dorata鈥� on the pergola this year and dive-bombed him every time he walked past. They also constantly natter at him which he hates. Makes wifey look good. I only nag him occasionally.
Our vegetable garden was a little disappointing due to being delayed because of necessary tree removal work. But it was a stellar year for service berries. We managed to pick almost five pounds just from the lower branches alone while the cedar waxwings feasted on the ones above my head. We also had a bountiful harvest from my aronia berry (chokeberry)鈥�20 lbs off of a mere four ft wide by six ft tall shrub.
Looking back through 2024, there were disappointments and frustrations but also successes and enjoyments. And on that note, there is much to look forward to for the 2025 gardening season!
Leslie Cox co-owns Growing Concern Cottage Garden in Black Creek. Her website is
