What Happened to the Crocuses?

That was my horrified thought when I had a look at those presented in my last post. Not one single blossom was to be seen anymore. Vanished. Completely. So much for never having enough crocuses in my garden …

Suspecting them before but without proof, now I’m sure: it was the slugs. As a result of the mild winter, the garden is full of baby slugs that are having a good time on my crocuses, particularly the yellow ones for some reason. Usually I’m rather careful with predictions, but it seems quite likely that this won’t be the last time that I lament about my slug problem this year.

Last Year’s Butterflies

This Year’s been sad in terms of butterflies. Spring was fine when they all appeared back from the winter, however, all summer it was too wet and cold, so now in mid-September when they should be hovering about the asters or grounded fruits in neighbouring gardens (my plum and apple trees still have to recover from last year’s deer attack), hardly any of these light-winged insects can be found. So I went through the photos my daughter made last year when we were walking through clouds of butterflies at this time of the year. Here’s a selection:

Admiral on autumn asters

 

Paint Lady on Buddleia

Peacock

Mice

This year has been a good one for mice. I can see them running through the flower beds in the middle of the day. My son said he even heard one scratching right under his window sill.
As his room is upstairs, they must have managed to creep up the walls
within the insulation. One family is occupying my compost, which has split at one side, so when we dispose garden waste there, we can see the youngsters buzzing around. And another family has dug their hole in the middle of my green beans. First I thought it was the slugs being responsible for those sad almost leaf- and fruitless plants. But then I saw leaves and beans being dragged down the hole! Even though I don’t mind the odd guest in my garden nibbling away at one or the other plant — this was too much. I’ve taken down the mousetraps from the attic and placed them in between the beans hoping if not to catch, then at least to scare away those grey little monsters.
By the way, the falcons who live in the church tower of our village have managed to raise four chicks this summer — at least it said so in the news. I’d love to invite them into my garden, if I only knew how.