Summer losses

[Spreckly]

We have lost so much in the garden this wet and dreary "summer".

The vegetables have done extremely badly, to be expected, I suppose, but we have lost shrubs, and our plum tree is dying off. A willow screen which we planted from cuttings several years since to hide the caravan is showing signs of approaching death, and we thought willow liked water!

OH planted strawberries and rasp canes in our front garden, thinking the open aspect and lack of overhanging trees would benefit them. Strawberries were not good, but they are first year. The rasps have all died, after sitting in water for several weeks on end.

We put a buddleia in in the spring, a birthday present from one of my sons. That has had to be moved, it too was standing in water, and the roots had not grown. Current home is a plantpot until the roots dry out. But I fear we will lose it.

[perchy]

It is such a shame isn't it, my Willow too is not looking very happy, but the buddlea in the girls run is glorious, I took a photo today, but I havn't seen a butterfly on it yet I have decided to leave the veg to do it's own thing, got so disappointed in it recently, have just decided now it is one of those things, the greenhouse is still struggling a bit, but I noticed today there seems to have been a bit of growth in there, will upload pic of buddlea in a min

[perchy]

Here it is

[lancashire lass]

but I havn't seen a butterfly on it yet

don't give up hope yet - butterflies will come out when the weather is warmer and sunnier, and we have been promised a little heatwave this week

[Spreckly]

Perchy, your buddleia is glorious. I bought one for a friend at the same time as I got mine, and hers is massive, think we put it in the wrong place, which got flooded frequently.

[perchy]

Spreckly, because of the @"%£& conifers it is very dry there, and the girls bathe under it, so maybe look for somewhere very parched, in the wild so to speak they grow in the most in hospitable places and still full of flowers, I love seeing them along the railway lines etc, I can't wait for the butterflies, it use to be laden with them, in recent years not so many, but still like the thought of us helping a little

[Spreckly]

Thanks for the tip Perchy. Last weekend when we were away, I noticed some very tiny buddleia growing through cracks in a concrete area! Our soil is clay, and tends to hang on to the water. At present nowhere is particularly dry, but we need to re-plant it fairly soon.

[Annie]

I have a 3 buddleias no sorry thats 2 - I lost a deep purple one too Spreckly, neither has any flowers on , one is a very similar colour to Perchys and the other white but they do at least have leaves.
I have 1 tomato in the greenhouse, none outside, the flower fell off my one and only cucumber and the broad beans never got pollinated by the bees .
The roses have black spot, the pear tree keeps dying back . Rubbish isnt it ?

[julieann]

It is horrible. The chooks demolished my garden when I got them last year, i was planning to do all kinds this year now that they have their own area, but haven't been able to because of this awful weather. I did plant a Buddleia last year which has survived, its green but I haven't seen any sign of flowers until today, there are tiny flowers just beginning to develop . Its in the chicken run to; I put bricks around the root area so they couldn't dig it up!