A happy ending after being up to your oxters in mud

I'd hate this blog to be confined to tales from south-coast softie land! So my huge thanks to Jenny Tweedie from the RSPB's Glasgow Office for getting in touch and sharing some of her experiences in her garden north of the border this summer:

It’s been a dreadful summer for gardeners in Scotland. We had one really nice week back in April (I remember it well; I had the flu…) but apart from that and a few sporadic sunny days here and there, it was pretty much all rain, rain, overcast and rain.

The cold and lack of sun really impacted on what grew, and most people I know had poor harvests. Flowers bloomed late - when they bloomed at all - and the slugs and weeds, which never seem to mind the rain, made a bid for world domination.

The weather also meant that the desire to go outside and actually garden was a bit muted. Weeding when the sun shines isn’t much of a hardship. Weeding when you’re up to your oxters in mud (I had to look up 'oxters' - for any other sassenachs like me, it means 'armpits'! - Adrian), is a somewhat harder sell.

But it wasn’t just people that had a rough summer. The poor weather also had an impact on pollinating insects. The Big Butterfly Count recorded that butterfly abundance in Scotland was 37% down on last year and that very much backs up what I saw.

Normally, my buddleia is alive with butterflies in late August and September, but although my total garden species count actually went up this year (ticks for painted lady and ringlet) the overall number of butterflies around was tiny.

Until a surprisingly late rush in October. For the first two weeks, we had some gorgeous weather. It was still, it was sunny, and it was surprisingly dry. The bees and hoverflies were all quick to take advantage, and my still blooming flowers became alive with insects, really reinforcing for me why it’s so important to try to have flowers around for as much of the year as possible, such as this honeybee on a late-flowering gentian).

Fortunately, my stripy visitors still have quite a lot to choose from: Cosmos, Calendula, Rudbeckia and sunflowers all drawing the crowds. But it was the tall and gracious Verbena bonariensis that was a top hit for one surprisingly late butterfly.

It was a red admiral, and for two days it just mooched about at the tops of the Verbena, flitting from one flower to another. It was there so much, that I managed to get a few close up pictures that really showed off its beauty.

Sadly, the night after its last visit, there was a frost that did for my courgettes and nasturtiums. Red admirals are mostly migrant butterflies to the UK, and aren’t built to survive the cold, so I doubt I’ll be seeing it again. But for next year, I’m going to make sure I have even more flowers around for the autumn. You really never know what might show up to take advantage of them.