Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

  I have talked before about how you simply  can’t  rush Mother Nature and quite a lot on my plot is  somewhat behind  where I would expect it  to be by late April. In years gone by  I  have had Runner Beans and Peas quite well  established  on the Vegetable Patch by late March but this year  I  only got the  seedlings  planted out  over the Easter weekend ,  the cold nights dragging on into April . Law of the sod of course meant no sooner were the young seedlings out than we had a hail storm the next day and now, less than a week later, we have a yellow weather earning for high winds! The poor seedings are looking a bit bedraggled already but all being well will survive but the wind is whipping across the garden as I write; the bamboo screening down one side of the garden may well take off at some point!  The Cherry Tree in my garden is often in bloom in early  April  but the buds  have  remained fir mly shut  a nd  even now  the y  are only just beginning to  show signs of  open ing

Wildlife Friendly Gardening is a very popular search term on the internet these days and actually quite trendy; plenty of column inches have been printed in magazines and newspapers on the subject as well.  I have always tried to garden with wildlife in mind, I suppose it goes back to tricks my old Grandad and Dad both taught me down the years. People talk about Companion Planting and Plants for Pollinators as if it is a recent discovery but I can remember my Grandad using these tricks back in the seventies when I was no more than knee high to him and I am sure he had been doing the same things for years before that.  Wildlife friendly Pest Control is an issue that can cause confusion - how do you get rid of the pests you don't want whilst attracting the insects, birds and mammals you do? Down the years there have been a few weird and wonderful practices undertaken by gardeners. As a child, perhaps no more than five or six-years-old, I remember watching my Grandad sprinkling salt a