Garden rescue...

The weather for the past six weeks has been horrendous hasn't it? Seems like we had March winds, April showers and a heavy dose of November rain thrown in for good measure too. My poor garden has been suffering and the cold and wet have not encouraged me out to put things right...

We came back off holiday on Saturday to warm sunshine so I got out there to assess the damage. It wasn't pretty!

The wind had scattered my baby plants, potted on from plugs purchased by mail order, all across the garden. Some of the larger more established ones, like the hollyhocks and thyme, have survived. But the slugs have had a field day as weeks of wet weather have brought them out and many of the baby plants have been munched down to nothing.

The patch of grass I sometimes jokingly refer to as 'the lawn' is also looking a little worse for wear. Luckily I had got out and given it a cut when we had that lovely sunny dry weather in March but it's overgrown and full of dandelions again. *sigh*

The three tier strawberry planter I invested in this year has also been decimated by the slugs. Only the top tier of plants are flourishing, the rest have been chowed down (although I still see green, so there is hope...)  The bargain hanging basket of strawberry plants I got at the end of the season from our local garden centre last summer seem to be doing OK though and the raspberry canes have also sprung to life while we were away.

It's not all bad. Some of the daffodils are still going in the front garden and my little patch of bluebells is in full bloom now too. The honeysuckle is rampant - I hope we get a good display of scented flowers from that later in the summer - and the jasmine I planted last year is sending out tendrils already. I really hope that flowers this year as well. I love the smell of jasmine in the evening.

I really am not a natural born gardener. Every year I plan to do something more with my little patch and every year I get disheartened when the weather/slugs/lack of funds thwart my attempts.  I hope that this summer might be different. We'll see...

I'll leave you with a few snaps of the nice bits in amongst the weeds, long grass and wind damage. These are the bits that make it worthwhile.