My garden (how much rain has there been?)

[Big K]

Being out of the country at the moment, could anybody tell me how much rainfall SE22/my garden has recieved this week?

[bagpuss78]

A spitter spatter yesterday, apart from that nuffin!

[Huguenot]

Hmmm yeah, went on wedding weekend last weds, came back on monday to plant carnage.

Nothing left alive but the snails.

No nice way to say it. Now had to employ specific neighbour watering machine. So much for 'ignore thy neighbours'. Now we have to talk to them.

;-)

[Nero]

Garden-ish topic,.

I was doing some today and spotted some rather large bee-like things. In fact, they looked like pumped up bluebottles with rather fake yellow stripes. Their wings were really triangular and large (like the wings of plastic joke flies). Any idea what they might have been. They were skulking around my ivy, looking hard. Nero

[Brendan]

They weren't just bumble bees Nero?

[Nero]

No, not furry enough, not, er, bumbling enough. Kind of like a wasp but in a bees' shape, but not a thin-hornet like thing. I will have a search on the web. Nero

[Brendan]

If they're these I'm moving to Penge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_giant_hornet

[Bleep]

They're most likely to be hoverflies. There are some unusual bumblebees around at the moment in Dulwich. We have an incursion of these fellas at the moment.

http://www.bumblebee.org/key.htm

Bombus Pascorum

[Nero]

You said 'incursion', which I take to mean that they really shouldn't be here. Is that right? I had lots of bees last year on my lavender, but few yet this year. Bee-shortage? Nero

Update - The things I have seen in the garden are Volucella bombylans, I believe. They are a type of hoverfly. (Hoverflies only have one set of wings, unlike bees, or so it says on various sites.) Nero

[Brendan]

Apparently wild honey bees are going extinct in Britain. Or so the Mrs told me.

[MadWorld74]

After the heavy rain we have a while back, several of my plants have given up the ghost and died? I asked the guy in the garden centre what to do and he looked at me as if I was mad to suggest that they had had TOO MUCH rain!!?? can you revieve a washed out garden?

[Asset]

Einstein said that if the bees go mankind has four hours left.

anyway those big bee like buzzy things are fabulous hover flies and are to be encouraged and loved

[Big K]

it could be a case of drainage, plants have a habit of drowning unless excess water can dissipate. The soil needs to be aerated to restore the balance. Its all feast and famine at the moment.

[Ko]

MW74 - I agree with Big K that your plants are probably suffering from drainage problems.

I think the clay soil doesn't help - it is more likely to get waterlogged I think and the roots won't like this. Not good for us in ED/South London as there's lots of clay soil around here (sorry::o - is this still on-topic-ish as we are talking about ED and types of soil???! - exciting topic that it is?!)

Anyway, move your plants elsewhere in your garden and see if they do better - if the roots are still good, you may be able to revive them. Re poor drainage - hard to get a quick fix - you really need to dig up all the beds (go very deep) and add lots of of sharp sand and I'm sure there's other things you should do as well. Try replanting where there is plenty of sun (if the plants are sun-loving) so that rainwater gets more of a chance to dry out before the next lot of rain soaks the soil. Alternatively, put them in pots for now. Good luck!

PS Hold off giving the plants a feed to pep them up - they are already under a lot of stress and the feed will be too much for them to cope with at the moment! We are probably going to get sent to the lounge so send me a PM with what plants you have if you want some further advice and I'll try my best! Its rubbish if your plants die. :'(