Anyone else’s garden looking a bit crap this year?

[Coppertips]

I’m thoroughly fed up with mine this year. Nothing seems to be thriving and it usually looks glorious in the summer.

My rose has got rust, no apples on my Apple tree, slug damage everywhere, even my best fern is looking shabby.

I’ve lost quite a few plants in the last 12 months with last summer’s drought and the cold spell in the winter.

I feel like I need to have a rethink about my plants/planting.

Re slugs, I've given up. I tried lots of things - pellets, copper rings, pots of beer, and didn't have great success. Now I just don't plant things they like (marigolds, dahlias, hostas, many other things...). I also don't feel great about killing things, even if they are slugs.

I save holly branches after pruning and lay them round anything I've planted that needs protection. Also egg shells.

I feel a bit bad (only a bit) that everyone is saying they've been plagued with slugs and snails and I have hardly seen any, only a few small snails which I chuck onto the farmer's field.

Id actually plant hostas as sacrificial, as I can't stand them!

I tried egg shells too! (Not holly branches) Maybe my garden is home to superslugs.

I have had success with coffee grounds keeping slugs off things in previous years, but you need to reapply often. After this year I’m not going to plant anything that slugs bother with. It has been exceptional.

I took the cover off my garden sofa yesterday and there were seven snails on the wicker sides of it.

One of our (small) apple trees is hugely overburdened this year and I should thin it out. The other has produced one apple.

One batch of sweet peas flowered through June then died, the other has not flowered at all.

Snails and slugs have demolished all the dahlias, Japanese anemone, campanula lactiflora, leucanthemum that I put in earlier this year.

I did see an elephant hawk moth caterpillar crossing the path this week so I was quite excited about that. Apparently they like to eat willow herb - a good thing as we have plenty.

My chickweed is doing amazing, where does the bloody stuff come from and how do I stop it?!

I'm usually so proud of my pots & baskets crammed full with annuals, not this year though. I'm convinced it's the poor quality peat free compost.

I've not been particularly aware of slugs and snails being any different this year, but I'm in the northwest of England so maybe the dry spell earlier year knocked them back and the summer hasn't been that much wetter than usual.

Sweet peas have been disappointing but the few that did grow, late, are still flowering whereas other years they might be going over by now. The cold May and a holiday meant I was late getting bedding plants for my pots - with the result that the local nursery had none of what I usually get left. The random selection I got instead from there and B&M have done pretty well.

Cosmos have been a complete failure this year for some reason and I couldn't find any to buy. And my lovely big agapanthus died. I've got some small plants grown from its seed in 2019 which gave one small flower this year, but apart from those I've not decided yet whether to replace it - they seem expensive for something that may die.

I've got a Sorbus Joseph's Rock which doesn't look too healthy but that's probably because it had too much shade on the south and west side so it's grown forward over the lawn too much. But now some of the big trees behind have been taken out or trimmed so it's putting up more vertical shoots at the back. I think I might try taking out some of the front branches - apart from aesthetics I periodically walk into them even though I'm short so they must be a nuisance for DH when he's mowing.

Glad it's not just our apple tree. Last year we had enough to share with the neighbours, this year we have about 5 apples on the tree! Wonder what's caused this?

My cosmos are just big fluffy plants too. I wonder if I pinched them back too hard. I hope they do still flower.

Zinnias are very straggly and my sweet peas, which were lovely, are over now.

Mine looks rubbish too. Big gaps of bare soil - lots of things either haven't grown well or haven't flowered, and slugs have eaten their way through so much - cosmos, dahlias, calibrachoa, lobelias, nicotiana, even salvias. My dahlias in pots (less damp than the borders) are doing ok, although much slower to flower than usual. The dull, rainy July was good for foliage growth but not so good for flowers. I had one flower on an agapanthus that usually has 8/10 flowers. My sweet peas were rubbish too, although a few have perked up a bit now and are blooming well... but not enough!

I read you should keep cosmos in their pots until they start to bud to avoid them growing huge without flowering, so I always do that and they seem to flower well.

Oh, if you've got big fluffy cosmos now there's still plenty of time for them to flower. Here's a thread from a couple of years ago with proof.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/4382809-the-mystery-of-the-cosmos

This year my mystery is why they've been a dead loss for me this year - I sowed two packets of seeds, ended up with about 4 straggly seedlings which I planted but not sure if they've survived and certainly haven't thrived.

My garden isn't a disaster but it's definitely looked better in previous summers.
On balance it could have benefitted from more sun and less rain.
I now have more weeds than flowers 🙄

I have one tiny pumpkin, and five planning-for-Hallowe’en grandchildren. Beyond disastrous…

On the upside, I’m not swamped by courgettes for a change - even one plant normally produces too many for just the two of us.

The only saving grace about all the extra slugs is that they appear to have caught the interest of the local hedgehog population. I'm yet to see any, despite popping out just before I go to bed, but my garden is littered with hedgehog poo.

@SarahAndQuack do you just plant pumpkin seeds to grow new plants? I love pumpkins 🎃 ❤️

I periodically walk into them even though I'm short so they must be a nuisance for DH when he's mowing. I’m vaguely aware that trimming so that branches are 3 inches above my head probably means they get DH in the eye.

Failing Cosmos seems to be a theme. Mine aren’t flowering yet, but I have buds, and we have another two months without frost, so I’m hopeful.

I don’t think my perennial climbing Tropaeolum has flowered this year. That’s the main failure. Everything else is flourishing - advantages of being in the north.

My garden has had a good summer. We’ve had a good mix of blazing sun and heavy rain.

My only complaint is that the roses weren’t really doing much for July and august. They bloomed in June for 4-5 weeks and are about to bloom once more for September, but I notice other gardens in my area whose roses are in bloom all summer.

I have lots of sunflowers all over the garden. The birds are currently devouring the seed heads. It’s lovely to watch.

So glad someone else feels like this too!

I bought lots of new plants this year, some of my favourites (globe thistles, lobelia, penstemon, lupins) plus strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc. They’ve grown but I don’t feel like anything has really ‘thrived’ – my strawberries seemed to wither due to over-watering, penstemon developed some kind of greyish powdery cast, I had a very poor raspberry yield. Just very disappointing compared to previous years.

It's one of my local horticultural society flower shows this weekend.
I'm going to see what my beetroot is like and maybe enter a vase of hydrangeas but that'll probably be it

Mines just full of weeds!