Glad to hear things are going well, Mrsmig! Yeay for cherries and harvests!
I've thought about this thread a lot this spring. When things were usually going better garden-wise than now.
I've started on my seed trays in March with a lot of enthusiasm but a lot of that has evaporated, much like my seedings. Spring started warm and water came in heavy bursts with long dry periods. Excellent for pruning and I did get a few things pruned I normally don't get to that early. My dad, who beliefs in a lighter pruning (as in, none at all) grumbled but was secretely glad he didn't had to do it.
The early irisses and the crocusses were absolutely stunning this year, mind, and appreciated by plenty a bee and bumblebee.
Then it turned cold and we had long and late snow which we haven't had for years. It killed off quite a few things and some of my seedlings never sprouted. No experimental iris, no borago, no lettuce, no potatoes. All last years buddleia cuttings, dead; last year's oaklings, dead. This year's crop oaklings was hard hit by that darned balcony-hopping mouse. So far 25 survive. But we can't put everything in Plantcatraz. So I've moved them to the back of the garden. The mice don't even eat the remaining acorns there, so here's hoping they'll leave my oaklings well enough alone.
And I suspect its rodent brethren ATE my Everest aliums. Not one of them came up and I found one half-eaten bulb. They were an experiment to see if they grew better flowers if I planted them deeper. Well... so much for that.
The cold (I expect) did kill of the bee hive in the south wall, which was a bit of a blessing because they've been in that wall for years and one of these years we are going to need to renovate the roof they're under. Not something one wants to do with a living nest. I got a hive for my birthday so we've put it on the roof and closed off the wall nest. (but we missed one entrance and now a hornet is trying to move in. sigh.) I
really hope the hive gets accepted. But the long cold also delayed the bees, so... any day really.
I have been gardening a lot, mostly out of frustration that the vaccines were delayed and they stopped giving you reasonable projections of when you could get vaccinated. (Belgium's vaccination process runs on invitations and reserve lists.) A lot got pruned and potted on, but the weather is turning against me again. I know summer's on the way but I didn't expect this sudden explosion of heat and sun and so many plants are going 'nope'. I can't come out myself either until the late afternoon. The long cold and fast heat means it was never a good season for cuttings either. The seedlings and the few cuttings I have remaining are struggling badly and the rain barrels are nigh empty.
But that also means the planting season was too short to get that dozen of trees into the forest this spring, so they're still taking up space in the nursery. Which, with the new oaklings is once again full to bursting. I hope autumn planting season will be longer. I can't spend much time there now because there's robin nesting! The only nest this year but I have been telling my dad he needs to renovate at least half of the nestboxes so I'm not surprised.
One upside is the many visits we get from the steam dragonflies. We have several species of pond dragonfly but if the weather is hot the stream dragonflies also visit and they're so magnifent! Truly flying jewels. I wish they ate white fly, though. The white fly were a nuisance thoughout last year but now they have absolutely exploded as we brought out the plants onto the balcony, it is now swarming with white fly. We never had it that bad. It's rediculous. I can't understand why the other wildlife in the garden is ignoring this particular buffet.