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

We had just about every type of weather known to man at my plot on Friday last week. A little snow shower to start the day, wind and rain, a lovely sunny lunchtime followed by a little more snow and then hailstones!  I have held off from sowing any seeds or planting out any seedlings as yet and that decision has proved to be the correct one with temperatures below freezing over the weekend. I have said it before, it is very easy to get caught out by Fools Spring and the last couple of weeks has just confirmed that, beautiful sunny and warm weather for a few days followed by wintery cold conditions almost changing over night. I have seen a few posts on Social Media of young plants decimated by frosts and snow, it so easily done, I have certainly done it in the past, but sometimes you have to fight that desire to plant and sow and wait for Mother Nature.  Space in the Conservatory and Greenhouse is at a premium with so many seedlings waiting to go out onto the plot. The forecast for this

There is an old saying regard Fools Spring and though still a bit early to consider it to be spring this weekend was a very good example. A nice day Saturday it was still bitterly cold at times, I was doing a little Pike fishing and can assure you it was woolly hat and thermal vest weather. Rain can overnight and Sunday was blustery and dull. The plan was for a bit of work in the garden but it was windy enough that with the wind chill I decided to retreat into the Potting Shed and Garage.  Two new lily bulbs were added to the white border, one in each corner, these being Tower Lily Pretty Woman , and all being well they will grow to six-feet plus with up to thirty blooms on each stem the blooms reaching up to 8 inches in size.  The first few seeds have been sown and are indoors on windowsills to keep them snug and warm until they germinate. Two varieties of Tomato were selected, the Gigantamo and the  Buffalo Steak being the ones chosen as I want to get them off and growing as early