Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

It is that lovely time of the year, the first Garden Peas of the summer are being picked!  I know, it's not huge news in the grand scheme of things and with all that is going on in this crazy world right now but it is a reason to be cheerful and should be celebrated. This year I am growing  Pea Bingo  which is  a  dwarf  e arly  m aincrop  variety  growing no higher than about two-and-a-half feet; I have them in some large ornamental stone pots. I sowed the first batch in fibre pots back in March and they were brought on indoors until planted out in late April. A second batch was direct sown at that time, they are coming along nicely finding their way up the pea sticks , and the third batch, that was planned to be sown in May, will be sown this week; a little later than planned but it will prolong the harvest nicely. I have hopefully timed the sowings right and probably will have only a few excess Peas to store. Freezing your Garden  Peas couldn't be simpler .  Pop your Peas in

The Garden and Vegetable Patch will really be coming to life by now and over the next few weeks and months there will be plenty of jobs to do but also plenty of enjoyment to be had.  The display from your spring bulbs such a Daffodils will almost certainly be over by now. I grow a lot of  my bulbs  in pots to allow me to place them where I want in the garden, though I also have a few throughout the beds and naturalised under the Cherry Tree. I always give mine one last feed when watering  to encourage a good display next year before moving those in pots into a corner of the garden, out of sight, to allow the foliage to die back naturally which also helps feed the bulb for next year.  High on my list of priorities at this time of year is checking the Lilies for Lily Beetle and their larvae as they can strip your plants of foliage almost overnight! I had a problem earlier in the spring with a Squirrel nibbling the top off of three of the emerging bulbs so they now won’t grow and flower t