Pros and cons of drought

After the rain mentioned in the last post, we had a further 12 dry days - mostly warm, with some cool nights, but nothing like as hot as it had been.  This weekend we've had more serious rain, today especially.  It's amazing how quickly the lawn has turned back to green, at least where the grass is growing; the moss is remaining a barren greyish-brown.  While the grass wasn't growing, it was relatively easy to see the runners of the creeping buttercup and the nasty little creeping potentilla that has world-domination ambitions, and to pull those up; even if the plants are still there, at least they won't be increasing as much as they usually do.  I also rather randomly pulled up some of the self-heal that grows in the lawn - but really I have more productive things to do than try to hand-weed a lawn.

Recent jobs have included pruning the cordons and the wisteria, and picking plums (more of them, and of better quality, than we had expected).  But mostly it has been weeding, as usual.  The recent rain loosened the soil a little, making it much easier to fork the weeds out and pick over the soil to remove root fragments (a necessity where couch grass and vetch have been growing).  The clearing of the area along the terrace edge is progressing inch by inch; the remaining seedling dahlia plants have gone in there, a case of better late than never - if nothing else, it saves me trying to keep their pots watered. 

Dahlia 'Ambition' with Panicum

A couple of the ailing plants that seemed to have responded well to being repotted have in fact died; not only my Euonymus microphylla but also the Alchemilla alpina and one of my veronicas.  The other veronica is surviving with its roots down through its pot into the gravel, so I will have to be careful when I get round to digging it up.  On the other hand my little sage cuttings have started to romp away.  I'm also pleased with Cosmos 'Xanthos' and Panicum 'Frosted Explosion', both of which I grew from seed, the former as a pot filler (lovely soft yellow) and the latter for cutting; the Panicum has been filling out vases of dahlia blooms among other things.

It would be nice if some of the weeds would succumb to the drought, although I'm not holding my breath.  One weed that does look as though it's going to succumb, though not to drought, is a largish ash sapling that seeded into the big berberis by the drive.  I've been wondering how to get it out for some time, but this year I've noticed that the branch tips are bare - a sign of ash dieback.  It's on the way out.  Sadly so is the big ash in the field at the bottom of the garden; it is definitely showing similar signs.

It's not only the plums that have done well this year; there's a good crop of blackberries in the hedge across the road, which I'm raiding daily.  They're very early this year.  The shallots have done well, and the garlic fairly well (but small); the leek seedlings are also much fatter than usual.  These were all in the same bed, and although I watered them very occasionally I can't say that they have been pampered, so I'm very pleased with them.  The courgettes continue to fruit nicely.  But the other veg have been disappointing; few beans, unless the runners get going soon, and potatoes are small.  I really need to beef up the soil in the veg garden this autumn; it's very thin and hungry.

It isn't a good year for butterflies, however.  I've been counting for the Big Butterfly Count, and the results have been disappointing.  There are good numbers of whites - and I've seen at least two green-veined whites - and a few gatekeepers and meadow browns, and the occasional common blue; but only one each of red admiral, peacock, comma, small tortoiseshell and painted lady, which is sad.  I did see a small copper a few weeks ago, and a hummingbird hawkmoth has also been on the buddleja, but the total numbers have been poor.