My nut tree is sleeping with the fishes.

When I first came here 14 years ago, the only thing growing is my field was grass, so I took it upon myself to plant some trees and shrubbery. Never having done this before, and not wanting to skimp, I rocked up at my local garden center armed with £100 in cash and a Transit lorry.

Holy cow! have you seen the prices they charge for plants at those garden centers? I could have taken five times more money and still not been able to buy enough to fill a wheelbarrow. What a goldmine of a business that must be. Buy 500 seeds for 1p each, and then just wait for them to turn into plants that doddery old gents and their blue rinse wives pay £50 a go for. Then they pop into the cafe for a £7.99 cup of tea and a scone, pick up a £20 bag of glorified horse manure on the way out and tip someone £5 to put it into the boot of the car.

I decided on a different approach. Every time I went to the refuse site to empty my bins, or drove past a lay-by where someone had fly-tipped garden waste, I stopped and had a look for discarded plants. I put the word out to the lads that if they did a gardening job and dug up anything with the roots still attached, I would have it.

Within a month or two, I was surrounded by greenery of various ages, everything from tiny shoots to great big triffids. We must have fantastic soil because all I did was plonk them into the ground and leave them to it. Everything flourished, in fact, within a couple of years I had to work hard to prevent them from taking over. We didn't have a single casualty, until now that is.

Fast forward 14 years and suddenly I lose three trees in one season, including a lovely hazelnut that I was particularly fond of. Come to think of it, my hawthorns are still bare, and they usually have a frosting of green by April...

I wonder what happened? It's not like it was a particularly hard winter or anything.

Has anyone else had unexplained horticultural casualties?