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surprises/disappointments of 2020
A bit post year end, but home schooling for grandchild...
disappointments first and out of the way!
Globe thistle. Used to do so well until about 3 years ago. One year seemed to be eaten by slugs! another year the leaves became twisted and deformed and about a foot tall. 2020 they looked normal but just didn't grow tall. They are maybe 15 years+, perhaps they are just exhausted. I didn't used to give them any attention but did feed them well 2020.
Ever reliable calendula except last year they had what I think is mildew, which they often get a bit but this year some became stunted and poor.
Nasturtium didn't do so well here in pot, in contrast to the surpise of the other two.
Canary creeper: came up but just died off or slug eaten.
morning glory: why do I bother, had one modest success ten years ago
Beans. I give up on these, I just can't keep the snails off. tried in a pot this year;t
things going well with a battery snail fence, but the pot kept blowing over so I wired it to the fence which made a bridge of the wire or maybe too close such that they stretched across.
Surprises. the red nasturtium self seeded and the yellow to. We came back from a week's holiday first week of August and the yellow with few flowers had started to look great.
the bearded irises came after 3 years.
The geums in first year did the whole summer long.
the californian poppy self seeded and just kept going and going.
But the positives hugely outweigh the disapponintments








disappointments first and out of the way!
Globe thistle. Used to do so well until about 3 years ago. One year seemed to be eaten by slugs! another year the leaves became twisted and deformed and about a foot tall. 2020 they looked normal but just didn't grow tall. They are maybe 15 years+, perhaps they are just exhausted. I didn't used to give them any attention but did feed them well 2020.
Ever reliable calendula except last year they had what I think is mildew, which they often get a bit but this year some became stunted and poor.
Nasturtium didn't do so well here in pot, in contrast to the surpise of the other two.
Canary creeper: came up but just died off or slug eaten.
morning glory: why do I bother, had one modest success ten years ago
Beans. I give up on these, I just can't keep the snails off. tried in a pot this year;t


Surprises. the red nasturtium self seeded and the yellow to. We came back from a week's holiday first week of August and the yellow with few flowers had started to look great.
the bearded irises came after 3 years.
The geums in first year did the whole summer long.
the californian poppy self seeded and just kept going and going.
But the positives hugely outweigh the disapponintments








5
Posts
My aubergines were no-bergines, not a single one
My two, yes only two, peppers were eaten by slugs
I also struggled, unusually, to get any decent coriander or parsley
The squirrels ate every one of our walnuts and hazelnuts (am not sure I can claim this as a disappointment as it happens every year)
Successes - our mini meadow of poppies and sunflowers was lovely and the display lasted much longer than hoped for or expected
We had our best year yet (year 4 here) for roses
I created our new herb garden, which I’m delighted with despite the annual herb failures
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
My biggest surprise was to witness the petunia Red Velour climb to 6’. It did this by hoisting itself up an adjacent callicarpa shrub and the trade off was a very poor display of berries. I can live with that.
Biggest delights were having so much time to spend in this new garden, and finding a lot of shrubs and trees resistant to honey fungus, some of which I've never tried growing before...