Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

With the weather really rather nice, and a cheeky day off from work having been booked, I was able to get on and do some jobs on the Vegetable Patch last Friday. First job was to harvest some Leeks, Parsnips and Carrots that have been sitting happily in the ground despite the inclement weather of the last few weeks. I have mentioned before how impressed I have been with the Eskimo Carrots this year and they certainly lived up to their name, none the worst as they are for having been under about 4 inches of snow at one point.  The main job undertaken on the plot was hammering in a number of six-foot tree stakes that I have purchased  to be used as fence posts around the Vegetable Plot holding up the chicken wire fencing. This should, all being well, make the ' fencing ' considerably more stable than it was and insure visiting squirrels , cats, foxes and pet dogs of friends and family are unable to get on the patch and have a good dig around! Having had quite  the workout securin

It is that time of year when space in the Conservatory and on any sunny windowsill in the house is slowly but surely being taken up by things. I have the Potatoes currently chitting in the Conservatory sitting happily in old egg boxes for now until ready to plant, probably the second or third week of March. I often used the Cheltenham Festival as a guide for planting my spuds, horse racing being another love of mine, and the Monday of that week usually sees me planting spuds before the horse racing begins on the Tuesday.  This year I have chosen to try one of those 'kits' a number of the online sites offer. In the box delivered recently I have Charlotte , a tasty salad potato, Pentland Javelin, an early variety that will hopefully produce loads of small, tasty spuds, best simply boiled and Desiree which I am told is decent for chips and roasties. The kit comes complete with three thirty litre pots, which certainly look pretty solid,  and a bag of  Organic Potato Fertiliser. I