Dissatisfaction

I seem so unhappy with the garden this year.  Spring was late, and cold, and although there have been nice days, most of my pictures this year seem so inferior to last year's, and the plants almost seem stunted.

Is it the camera?  I'm getting a new one, the old Sony cybershot is 8 years old and acting up.  Or is it the light?  White sky, flat light, everything looks so yellow and I do a lot of editing to correct the color --- this spring has been late, cloudy, dry and cold, with very few truly sunny nice days and not enough consistent rain when it was warm enough to plump things up.

Is it the voles?  I lost so much.  In addition to the whole front walk, a lot in the Birch Garden is missing.  The allium moly, which is supposed to spread, shows only a clump on the left.  The perennial snapdragon is gone.  The Schubert onions bloomed so late they disappeared into other foliage.  The evening primrose, that I had to try to control, is mostly gone, just weeds in its place, and the same for the wild coreopsis on that side of the Birch Garden.

Was it last year's heat and drought?  Some plants don't look happy.  The 'Northblue' blueberries look ok and leafed out and bloomed, but there is no fruit.  It all shriveled and dried and nothing formed.

The knockout roses are really bothering me.  Lush and prolific, the color is annoying.

The amsonias were such a pale whitish blue, very blah.  Same for the camassias, so light blue they diappeared.

The lack of shade on the patio is bothering me.  I actually want to move the sourwood (!)  It's too skimpy to offer any real shade.  Will I kill it if I move it?  I want to put in big fast growing river birches, a little mini grove, along the walk and patio wall, offering a real screen.  Several of them, to draw you in as you round the bend in the walk, and to really shade the area.

What to do with my beloved sourwood?  Can I plant the river birches around it?  I really really want to get a grove of shady trees around the patio on the west side.

I despair this year.  Nothing looks lush, nothing is shady enough, stuff is missing, and blooms are washed out.