Bees, butterflies and buddleias

Our back garden is small, dark and cool. It has also rained a lot this year. Again. The strawberries did really well though, as did the rhubarb and herbs, as always. The tomatoes, not so well. I keep trying them in different positions around the garden, year after year, but they never do well.

The courgettes are happy though.

The cucumbers are coming along.The runner beans have tonnes of foliage and thousands of flowers. But each flower drops before setting a pod. Hrumph. I googled and the problem seems to be the two huge buddleias which are diverting all the pollinators from the runner bean flowers.I guess we'll have to wait until the buddleia has finished flowering to get the bees back. The butterflies LOVE the buddleia, which is why it's nicknamed the Butterfly Bush.

We have large whites, small whites, small coppers, small tortoiseshells, painted ladies, red admirals and peacock butterflies on those bushes in the last couple of weeks. The bushes seem alive with them. It's a delight to have them.

There are plenty of bees on the bushes too, but could they please do their job with my runner beans?