What Is Your Garden Trying To Tell You? by Nicki Jackson

Gardens are never static. Plants grow, conditions change and the way we use our outside spaces changes too. Sometimes those changes happen gradually and almost unnoticed; and at other times, an unusual season can make some of those changes feel a little more obvious.

After the exceptionally hot, dry summer we’ve just experienced, for instance, you may already have learnt quite a lot about your own garden. Perhaps a plant you expected to struggle sailed through the heat, while an old favourite needed a lot more attention than usual. Maybe a sunny seating area suddenly felt too sunny, or you became very aware of just how much water your garden actually needs.

If you’re an experienced gardener, chances are you’re already used to noticing these things. But you don’t need to know the names of every plant, or understand exactly what is happening, to start reading the clues your garden gives you. And those clues aren’t only about hot, dry weather.

As we move into autumn and winter, different things could become apparent. Heavy rain might reveal an area where water sits rather than drains away, for instance, or a route through the garden that suddenly becomes awkward or slippery. You might discover that somewhere you love sitting in summer suddenly feels exposed at another time of year – while a completely different corner catches some welcome winter sunshine.

Consider the clues from inside too because once leaves fall the view can change; something previously hidden might suddenly become prominent, or you might become aware that there’s not that much to look at from a window you use every day.

None of these things are necessarily indicative of a problem that needs fixing, but they are snippets of information that can help inform your decisions when it comes to changing or tweaking your garden.

From a design perspective, noticing them helps us understand what a garden is asking of us. Perhaps more shade would make one area more usable in summer. Maybe planting could be adapted to suit a particularly dry or damp part of the garden. Rainwater might be something to capture rather than deal with. And sometimes the answer may be to accept that different parts of the garden naturally come into their own at different times of year.

A garden that works throughout the seasons isn’t likely to be one that works in exactly the same way throughout the seasons.

So, as the weather changes over the coming months, try taking a little time to really notice your garden and how you instinctively react to it. Where do you naturally want to be? What catches your eye? What struggles – and what thrives without any fuss at all?

Once you begin to pick up the clues you might come to realise that your garden is already telling you quite a lot.

© Nicki Jackson, Blue Daisy Gardens 2026