Where to go and what can I expect

2025 has been a challenging year for me. A bad news at the beginning of the year sidelined everything else and with that awful drought starting in March, I had even more reasons to stop gardening and just to wait how things will turn out.
The little things that I did like planting lavender and wildflowers in the raised beds were destroyed by the fox, and one needs to be very strong not to get desperate.
There is not much space and if these little things are destroyed, the overall picture looks awful.
Being in 2026, seeing that some plants have suffered in these cold days, and everything looks so bare, I wonder what I have in the garden that will come up.
I just had a look into my pictures and saw this picture from the end of April 2024. Wow, this was my garden? I hardly recognise it.



I change so often the planting, because I can't make my mind up what I want. One year, it's wildflowers, next year perennials and shrubs, nothing grows fast enough to give a picture what I like, here we are again, next year, and my taste changed again.

That is my current planting. What looks crowded is mostly still little like the Echinacea which I had grown from seeds, and they hardly developed last year because of that awful drought.



I have several plants in the greenhouse, partly bought to support the National Trust, others are grown from seeds. What doesn't kill them this winter, they have a good chance to survive outside. I changed more and more to drought resistant plants, but the shrubs that I bought in 2024 haven't grown in 2025 due to the drought. I saw yesterday that the fox or some other not invited visitor has broken the biggest branch from the Spirea on the right top side.
The raised beds are covered with a net for weeks now because of these anti-gardeners that are only out to dig out plants.
What I don't see at all since last year are Blackbirds, neither in my garden, or parks, or NT objects, not one single one. I'm really worried if they have died around us. There was something in the news in February last year that there was a virus that kills Blackbirds.

It's that waiting time and sitting around that is demanding. The last two days with warmer temperatures and sunshine woke up that Spring feeling, but it's still some weeks to go.
What I learned from watching all the Attenboroughs' is that animals smell far better than we do, and maybe I have to be more in the garden and leave my "smell" there so that they learn it's not an unattended plot.

I just wanted to share my thoughts.

 

Blackbirds are still in my garden here @simone_in_wiltshire . They have a good season every year with numerous young.
Hope you see some soon and also that you will be happier with the garden in 2026

 

Now that you mention it @simone_in_wiltshire, I haven't seem my regular blackbirds patrolling my lawn and borders for a while. All the Rowan berries are now gone and the lawn's been frozen so I expect them to be back soon. I don't put any food out on the ground for them as I saw a furry creature with a long tail sneaking under the fence from next door when I did .

Your garden plan looks like you're in for a lot of colour and interest again this year. Have you thought about introducing a few more shrubs? Their woody stems and possibly thorns should be more resistant to damage. If you choose something that is evergreen or is deciduous and flowers, followed by berries, you may attract more birds to feed and shelter in winter. I'm thinking of planting a hawthorn in one of my borders and have decided not to add any more thirsty perennials or dahlias which didn't like last year's heat.

Good luck with your plans for this year, your garden photos are always stunning .

 

@Plantminded , I have 4 trees and 6 shrubs in the garden. I just need patience and luck that they grow well. I also want some space left for flowering plants I also looked at Hawthorn but not sure about it. I will think about it in the coming weeks.
I just saw that the Weigela is still in the map. It died last year in the last weeks of the drought.
It’s not only the drought, but also the wind that we have, neighbour’s bindweed and the foxes. This a challenge.

Let’s hope the blackbirds return to our area @Philippa
We are often in East Somerset

 

@simone_in_wiltshire, that looks a lovely garden and I'm sure it will be the same this year, as you say, patience is needed especially at this time of year. We had a lovely gardening day Monday, it rained all day yesterday and today we have a hard frost! It is very frustrating when you're itching to get out there and do something.

It occurs to me to ask whether you are using an organic fertiliser like blood, fish and bone when you are planting the small new plants? If so, it does attract foxes, as does bonemeal of course.
Just a thought.

Also, it may be worth your while to buy slightly larger perennials rather than tiny ones as bigger ones might be harder to dig up.

A third suggestion would be to use some iron baskets, even upturned hanging baskets would do, pegged down of course , over your smaller plants to protect them from the foxes. The plants should grow to cover the baskets. Squirrels will also dig up bulbs, especially crocus, squills and tulips so it may be worth putting some small plastic round cloches over these until they grow through when the squirrels lose interest.

Don't be despondent, Spring will arrive eventually!

 

We have lost our blackbirds as well. In the winter they used to feast on our rowan, pyracantha and apples but this year they remain untouched. I thought it was due to the massive cat population (there are at least 14 I know of in a 4 house radius around us), including 4 young ones that are very predatory, but talking to others in the areas away from us it does seem quite common for blackbirds to be gone.
Birds in general are few and far between here. Our allotment site had a good population but for the last few years I've not even bothered to cover the fruit because there isn't anything to eat it.

I know the drought is very disheartening. We have had very bad years here recently and I've seen plants literally burn away. The ones that have hung on might not have done much but established stuff does seem to cope far better. I always start the year with optimism before being more disheartened when reality kicks in. Perhaps some non plant related garden additions would lift your mood. I've been building as many different things for wildlife that I can think of. Simple things like a drinking area for bees, or mud plate so they can use it in their burrows, might give you some joy. I seem to get more out of finding the things I didn't know about or expect and trying to attract more things might bring others you'd never even considered.

 

Thanks for your inspiring comment @lizzie27.
I don’t use any fertiliser or bone fish thingy. I had done it with the Exochorda two years ago and it almost died, the leaves lost all green. It had recovered last year and I expected it to keep the green this year.
I will look for more protection for the new plants in Spring time. The wildflowers will have to live with that plastic grid.

@Thevictorian I’m sure it’s that virus that they mentioned in February last year. I can’t remember the name but they said it kills Blackbirds and some areas have lost all population.
We have many starlings, and a Robin is singing his heart out every morning for some weeks now. But we used to have more sparrows, which in between almost disappeared, but have partially come back.

The last years have been challenging for natur. Spring 2021 had that awful winter with frost in April and May, Summer 2022 the drought, 2023 very wet and 2025 even worse.

Thanks for the tip with the bee mud etc

 

I sympathise @simone_in_wiltshire.
Normally at this time of year things can be a bit depressing and ironically I don't have the same enthusiasm appearing as a dim light in the distance like I usually do, even though I've ordered plug plants for pots as always.

A lot of this is down to foxes. Beautiful creatures and it's fascinating to see them on the trailcam, but their habit of digging random holes in the flower beds is making me despair.
I have had plants dug up and damaged and large pots excavated. I don't use blood fish and bone or bone meal and I have an enormous tub of chicken manure pellets that I doubt will be opened this year !

All my pots of bulbs have had to have mesh laid over the tops and weighted down with bricks. I thought at first it was squirrels, but the camera captured a fox having a right good digging.

I like your idea of upturned hanging baskets in the beds @lizzie27 . Trouble is I can't see any rhyme or reason as to why they dig where they do, and my only theory is that they might be digging for worms.
I like "tickling" the soil lightly to show off the plants but advice I've been given is to flatten it as much as possible. It might end up looking like a pavement with plants in between.

The shortage of blackbirds is very noticeable here as well. We used to have some real characters year after year, including the great Scruff (see my avatar). The last time I saw one of my friendly ones was when he came to the back door, eyes wide with terror and his tail missing. Never saw him again and the others vanished, this must be around a year ago. There were 2 new cats that moved into the neighbourhood at that time, which might or might not have something to do with it.

Spookily enough I saw a male blackbird in the garden this very morning, so I am hoping he is the first of many this year.
I know as soon as the weather improves and the snowdrops poke through I will get my mojo back, as long as the foxes don't dig them up of course .

 

Don’t forget the bird flu, team. It’s ravaging for three years now.
More later @AnniD when I’m on my laptop.

 

Avian flu is present in some of the wild bird population; here on the Solent coast considerable loss of seabirds and swans on the nearby pond (Confirmed by DEFRA testing of corpses). Consider hygiene when feeding birds; by attracting them to a fixed location you may be doing great harm.
Dead birds should be treated with great care; do not handle !
Report dead wild birds to Defra on 03459 33 55 77
Edited at 16.42
Report dead wild birds

 

I have always been against feeding birds @infradig. If we leave the flowers as they are, there should be enough seeds on the ground. I can see in later Autum/Winter how the birds ate through my Eccinacea plants etc.

@AnniD That's exactly what I feel. It's not me that has lost interest, but it is devastating to have a fox that turns everything into chaos, brakes what is cared for with the love of a gardener, useless destroys without any purpose of eating, just out of fun digging out the lavender, lying in the wildflowers that everything is flatten. Or like two days ago, lying in the fern and it looks like a tornado has gone through. I mean, once he has done it, it's gone for that year (lucky it happened now and not in summer, but if he does it in summer again?).
I had to dig out the ferns on the left side because of neighbour's bindweed and it goes on and on. If it's not the fox or the bindweed, then a storm comes and because the neighbour has got a fence no air flows through, the wind bounces back and all higher plants are in 45 degrees angle. And to top it all, 6 months now rain.
I mean, I'm from Berlin, and Berliners never lose our sense of humour and can still laugh, but we get cynical, very cynical.
I have to protect the tree fern with bricks because that bloody fox attacks the fleece and I find it all over the garden. Or without bricks, half the soil is out from the pot. What on earth is he thinking?

Here he comes yesterday at 7:30. I turned today the camera into the garden to see what he is doing. It will go back to the fence because I want to see the little tits when they start building a nest in the house.



Somebody in the neighbourhood has got a dog barking noise device. I will look into such devices that make flashing lights and noises. I have been very patient with that chap, but enough is enough.
I'm so fed up with him or them, it's a family.

 

Options available to you for fox 'control' are limited.Traditionally gardeners used renardine, a bone oil preparation but it was banned in 2005. There is a contemporary called Scoot but I have no experience of its effectiveness.
Foxes are consistant in their routine; if it was yesterday at say 8pm, then likely to be again at a similar time, especially where they are fed by sympathetic folk (yes, they do do such things !) This may enable you to give it a 'proper fright '. If this is repeated you may get it to alter its route.
A Jack Russel could do the trick, could you borrow/board one for a week ? Border Collie more efficient but would likely do more damage than the fox........
They really dont need to be urbanised, folks.

 

To be honest, I can't see borrowing a dog for a week will deter the foxes for very long. A "fright" may work for a while but won't be a permanent resolution. Many foxes are "urbanised" simply because food is readily available for them from our waste - mostly unintentional but like the Grey Squirrel, many people deliberately feed and encourage them into their gardens.
I can well understand the frustration experienced by @simone_in_wiltshire but where foxes are rife in a particular area and they can easily access your garden, it's not a simple task to deter them for ever.
They are here to stay but best of luck to Simone and others to try and mitigate the problems they cause.

 

I checked the possibilities in the meantime, and forget it. This kind of devices scare everything including birds!

Let’s hope he moves on one day.

One reason why I was no longer in the garden last year was that I found twice lots of pigeon feathers. They have twice killed a pigeon while it was drinking from the bird baths in broad daylight.

 

One solution might be to erect a trellis top all along your fences all round if that might be possible, although you would have to ask permission from the neighbours if the fences belong to them. They won't want to jump onto anything that is flimsy.