All enthusiasm for this blog evaporated under the weight of the onslaught from various natural phenomena.
What started as a near perfect season faltered as, despite my best efforts; the endless checking of the weather forecast and the nightly round of pulling plastic, netting, fleece or straw over the growing list of susceptible plants and unfurling leaves proved pointless against two nights of at least -4 degrees. That, coupled with the lack of water (and sun and wind burn), has frazzled the leaves of Hydrangeasand potatoes, reduced the new Acers to a collection of leafless twigs and caused total defoliation and fruit drop for the figs. Plums and gages have tiny blackened fruitlets that fall when you touch them…My efforts against the Gooseberry sawfly caterpillars were pointless as the frost got the fruit anyway! The voles just keep on munching those bulbs – they’re underground so don’t notice the cold.
So, not a good start. There has finally been some useful quantity of rain, but with it has come four consecutive days of warnings from Blightwatch. The poorly potatoes are in no state to cope with that! I’d already planned a preventative spray with Bordeaux mixture for the first week of June after last year’s problems. But spraying in the middle of May? Still, I’ve done it and I can at least comfort myself with the knowledge that I did it after warning number one so could’ve done no more.
But it’s not all woe. There are some real successes to look at (or to remember) and the butterflies have had a fantastic start compared to last year when the cold weather meant that they were late to emerge and had little to sustain them when they did. I have seen healthy numbers of all the usual Spring species – especially the Orange Tips which had suffered here last year. There are lots of Painted Ladies already and the Swallowtails are more abundant in the garden than ever before – both visiting and egg-laying.
