Effects of so much rain

Lilium Formosanum var. Pricei

I have been wondering if the wet weather might be responsible for there being a few more hedgehogs around - with all the slug and snail food available!   I saw a dear little hedgehog crossing my road the other night and there was a hedgehog dropping in the garden today.   I do hope they will come and frequent the garden again - I shall look out for "used" gaps under the fence.

L. Regale decimated by hungry molluscs!

The lilies are not so keen on the massive amount of slugs and snails and a lot of them have been horribly eaten.   But I am thrilled that in the garden centre* the other day I found a lily I have been trying to find for ages - Lilium Formosanum.   Unfortunately it is the smaller, earlier flowering variety L. formosamun Pricei but it is still gorgerous and spurring me on to find the taller, later-flowering variety.

The rain continues to make it difficult to make the most of the lovely crop of soft fruit which has begun rotting on the plants.  I have been picking off the rotten fruit and dropping it on open ground.   Hopefully some of the seeds might take.   The loganberry seems to reproduce its self well from suckers but in my small space I have a problem with the way raspberries "travel" and since the demise of my apricot tree I think it is time to completely re-think the soft fruit patch behind the greenhouse: a winter project.

Our hosepipe ban was lifted this week.   Eureka!

*Squires Garden centre - it was a matter of luck as they were otherwise totally useless on their plant knowledge!