Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

I have touched upon the subject of wildlife friendly gardening in the past on this blog and in the column I write for the Romford Recorder. It is a subject I feel quite strongly about and would, and do, encourage everybody to garden with wildlife in mind as much as possible.   I am writing this piece having just spent half-an-hour watching the Blue Tits dart back and forth across the garden to and from the nest box in which there are clearly a number of hungry mouths to feed. It is very satisfying to watch them pop their heads out of the next box and fly straight to the Runner Bean bed, where they are clearly finding plenty of little beasties to feed to their young, and fly straight back to the nest. At this time of year you do need to remember to check your plants for Aphids such as Greenfly and Blackfly and rub off any you find before they become an infestation. There are hundreds of products on the market to deal with Aphids but the easiest, quickest and most environmentally friend

It says on the catch line of this blog that it is  chronicling my successes and failures as an amateur gardener on my plot in Essex on the veg patch and in the flower bed, well the first major failure has happened and the Limoncito and Black Cherry seedlings have all wilted and died. I think, despite being inside under cover, the lack of light and warmth over the last few days has done for them. With hindsight, a wonderful thing, I probably should have kept them on the windowsill of my back bedroom until stronger rather than moving them to the unheated Conservatory; I may also have made the classic error of overwatering.  It is annoying but most years something goes wrong, you can't get it right all the time and that is all part and parcel of gardening.  On the plus side, the Gigantomo and Beef Steak Tomato plants are growing by the day in the Greenhouse and strong and healthy - sometimes it is just bad timing, these seeds were of course sown earlier than the  Limoncito  and  Bl