The wind has been fierce this week

Today there has been much needed gentle rain, after days of unseasonable and very gusty wind.  It has not been kind to the roses nor the runner beans.  I think there are now more plums on the ground than still on the tree, which is a real shame as the crop was very small to begin with.  Immature apples and pears too are on the ground.

Another of my mistakes has been to plant Japanese plums rather than European ones.  Only in one year have we had an abundant plum crop.  We get lots of blossom but there are a lack of pollinators at flowering and it's often frosty.  We will have to work harder to find some kind of insect pollinators who work in early spring - there are lots of bees (honey and bumble bee) later in the spring as we get good set of apples and pears.

Today I've rescued a few wind blown buds whose stems were broken