Was That It?!...

We're just a few hours away from September and I have to say I feel rather cheated out of a decent summer this year. Although there's been several butterflies, numbers are down on previous years, and bees have been almost completely invisible. Apparently snails are thriving - or so it seems by the destruction of the leaves on my cherry tree despite my best efforts at removing the little pests.

You can't go far wrong with geraniums, and mine are no exception. The begonias have done unexpectedly well too, but other plants have been well below par. The buddleia is a disappointment as is the red jasmine (both should've attracted the bees but both lacked significant blooms).

The mint was a good idea as it's now filled the wall planters after I replaced the lacklustre lobelias. It's also beginning to flower, which is good. The chives are putting on a great display as always.

There's rumours of an 'Indian Summer' but I won't be holding my breath...

Hot & Sweaty...

The humidity seems to have drained all the energy from the garden, as well as me. Sweat seems to pour from my skin simply by sitting still and the plants look quite sorry for themselves, despite copious amounts of expensive tap water applied daily.

I'd used a fair amount of Miracle Gro on the buddlias but even though there's more blooms than last summer they're still not attracting the quantity of butterflies and bees of previous years. While I've seen lots of peacocks, red admirals and tortoiseshells, as well as a few gatekeepers, I've only spotted one comma and one painted lady so far. Even whites are few and far between!

The chives are beginning to bud, and the mint I used to replace the dying lobelias in my wall planters seem to have taken ok, but my three bee hotels remain worryingly devoid of any guests this year. At least the new pink geraniums in the planters look reasonably healthy and the begonias are mostly starting to flower...