We have been trying to get away for a few weekends now. One thing or another has lead to us cancelling our plans at the last minute a number of times.  The weather has been partly to blame it’s just been so wet and miserable. But finally this weekend we spent one night away on the back of our van. I had got the hammock properly fixed in, we had decorated the van with fairy lights and fabrics, threw in a small mattress and we were all set for our first small adventure of the season. Needless to say had a lovely trip away, swimming in and around Teignmouth and Maiden Combe.

On our return we delivered a partially deflated dingy to the back garden when I noticed, too my horror I have at least 6 dead tree’s.  Well I think they are dead and I think it’s about 6 I didn’t want to look too closely.  Browned up crispy leaves has never been a sign of a healthy plant.  These were extreme, not just slightly damaged – completely DEAD. It was still really hot out so I resisted the temptation to drench them in water and have been waiting for the day to cool. I’m writing this then off to assess the damage.

It seems obvious what went wrong but how could I have been so stupid. The weather has changed and my partner usually waters the garden. I have been reading about the oak trees and apparently we should not over water them to make them strong. I may have mentioned this to her, as I was planning to pick up some larger pots from a friend and some gravel to ensure the roots are not getting saturated in stagnate water, as we have been having so much rain. Guess what? I didn’t do any of that and the poor thing are still stuck in small pots – and the weather changed. Today in Exeter it was 28 °C, yesterday was 28 °C in fact the week had been building to these temperatures. They were only watered Friday 🙁 We hadn’t been watering them properly since the rain stopped. Off to assess the damage and give them a good watering.