Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

I mentioned in my June article that summer felt as though it was just around the corner and the sun has been shining pretty constantly since. I am not going to complain about that after the winter and spring that we had, but it does bring with it a new set of challenges to be dealt with. We have had a couple of thunderstorms but in general it has been dry and pretty warm. The Barbara Butternut Squash plants are loving the weather and spreading across the vegetable patch at quite a rate, and in fact have outgrown the space allotted them. Luckily the growth spurt on the Squashes coincided with the Pea's coming to and end so I have taken out the Pea plants to give the Squashes some extra room to roam. This year I was once again growing  Pea Bingo  which is  a  dwarf  e arly  m aincrop  variety  growing no higher than about two-and-a-half feet. They cropped well again, though in truth I probably didn't sow enough, and next year I will almost certainly dedicate more room on the p

All sorts of trials and tribulations await around every corner for us gardeners as I noted the other morning taking a stroll down the garden to the Greenhouse. The Leeks I sowed several weeks ago have been living quite happily in a large log store that I use at the end of the garden for sheltering plants and storing pots. Now I don't know if it was the very windy weather we have been experiencing or, most likely, and inquisitive Fox or local Cat, but the trough was found on the floor in front of the table on which it was sat with most of the contents deposited on the ground. Disaster! I have been able to save a few of the seedlings which I have potted on and hopefully I will have at least a few Leeks, if not as many as planned, to plant out in a few weeks time.................. It really has been a crazy winter with some quite extreme conditions changing from one week to the next. I have taken a lookback though some old notes from my time owning an allotment and I had a number of s

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