“We’ll probably have an Indian summer,” seemed to be the catchphrase of summer 2024. Yet, when September rolled around, we were met with more torrential rain. There seems to be a consensus: this has been an incredibly difficult year for growers, possibly, the worst year ever.
“Both Lucy and I have been avid gardeners and growers for 20 years and this has been the toughest season we can remember,” says Kate Cotterill of She Grows Veg, an heirloom seed company that she runs with Lucy Hutchings.
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“We’ve never had tomatoes running so late and so many false starts on certain crops, meaning we’ve had to start again and resow a number of times,” she adds. “A combination of a very late summer and less sun in general, with a much later last frost and sustained low temperatures into as late as May have meant that many plants have struggled. It was also a particularly wet early season which made growing harder and made the perfect habitat for slugs – which meant we've lost more than we usually would. We're organic gardeners, so would never put pellets or pesticides down.”
"This has been the toughest season we can remember."
We took to social media to see if our readers had a similarly difficult year with their gardens. On Instagram, 80 per cent of people who responded said it had been a tough year in the garden, with rain and slugs being cited as two of the big challenges.
Looking at the plants that people had most trouble growing, dahlias came up as a common answer as did vegetables and annuals. Echinaceas also got several mentions and many respondents told us that they had fewer blooms on all of their flowering plants over the summer months.
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One person said that the year had been a "total washout!" and another said it was "difficult across the board."
We also spoke to Millie Souter, head gardener at The Plant Library at Serge Hill, who told us they'd had difficulty with lots of plants that usually grow well.
"Nepeta subsessilis 'Weinheim Blue' has struggled to get going and only reached about 6 inches tall," she said.
"Salvia guaranitica 'Super Trooper' and Salvia staminea were all knocked back by slugs, even some nemerosa types struggled to get going because of slugs this year," she added. "Both Salvia lavandulifolia subsp. lavandulifolia and Salvia 'Alan Chickering' were lost over the winter, though the latter we replanted from cuttings."
Was the weather really as terrible as it felt?
According to the Met Office, this summer has been the coolest that the UK has seen since 2015, coming in at 0.22C below average, with Scotland and Northern Ireland experiencing the coolest temperatures.
In terms of rainfall, however wet it may have seemed, summer rates were around average for the UK as a whole, though regionally there was substantial variation. Scotland experienced 18 per cent more than average rainfall, while England had 23 per cent less.
Sunshine too was average over the course of the summer in the UK, so why have so many of us been left feeling cheated this year?
The answers perhaps lie earlier in the year, where the weather was much more unsettled across the UK.
This spring was the sixth wettest on record, seeing 32 per cent more rainfall than average. This was coupled with below average sunshine (17 per cent fewer hours than average), leading to a generally dull and soggy start to the growing season.
This was reflected in the experience of Kate at She Grows Veg: "In terms of growing, pretty much every crop is running late because of the wet weather earlier in the season," she says. "There has also been less quantity of flowering and fruiting across all our varieties."
Mille echoed these thoughts, saying: "Continued wet and lack of any serious warmth and heat have been challenges. It feels like both spring and summer were dragging their feet a bit so some plants were late to put on growth and have not had enough warm days in the summer to really come into their own."
In April, Great Dixter had to cancel their Spring Plant Fair due to flooding, putting on a fair in July instead.
Head gardener Tamsin Westhorpe had to delay opening Stockton Bury gardens due to water-logging this spring and Abbottsbury Subtropical Garden was also forced to cancel an event due to floods.
In spite of average rainfall this summer, the year got off to a difficult start from which it was quite hard to recover.
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Can we expect more years like this in the future?
Seasonal variations are likely to become the norm with human-induced climate change.
"We’re already seeing the impact of climate change in the UK from our observational record," says Oliver Claydon from the Met Office. "We’re seeing more extremes, in particular heat extremes, as well more intense downpours which can cause flooding."
"In the future, we project the intensity of rain will increase. When we talk about intensity, we mean how heavy rainfall is when it occurs. In the summer, this could increase by up to 20 per cent. In winter, it could increase by up to 25 per cent."
"We’re seeing more extremes, in particular heat extremes, as well more intense downpours which can cause flooding."
From plants flowering earlier to crops being knocked back by intense rain, these changes to our weather patterns are undeniably going to have an impact on gardeners.
What can gardeners do to adapt?
“See gardening and growing veg as a giant experiment every year,” says Kate. “No two years will be the same, so you have to be adaptable and take the successes as huge positives but don't beat yourself up for the failures."
We also asked our readers what they were going to change in their gardens following the challenging season. Choosing more slug-proof plants was mentioned by a lot of people, with one person also saying that next year "slug food is being grown in metal tubs I can raise away from the munching."
Another respondent said that they would be going on "nightly slug patrols," and one said they would be starting their slug prone plants in Autumn to try and give them a head start.
"See gardening and growing veg as a giant experiment every year."
Many people commented on the variable weather and how it was impacting their garden choices. One person said they were now looking out for "plants that can handle wet winters and dry summers." Switching to plants that are more resilient and thrived in difficult conditions was a common swap people were looking to make.
Some mentioned installing drainage into their gardens; while others talked of increased mulching. No matter where you were growing this year, it seems that the tricky weather is causing people to take stock and decide what will work best for their garden in the future.
"We tend to propagate and sow too much of everything, so we have replacements at hand if we need them," adds Kate. "When selecting your choice of veg seeds, create a resilient and diverse garden by choosing many different varieties, which will ensure you'll have a harvest you're happy with. We sow some for nature and some for us!”
