Seedling crops ravaged!

It seems the word eventually leaked out in snail land that there were some tasty treats newly arrived nearby…. Their initial scouting of the area surmised they needed more troops to overwhelm the stock completely.

So after lulling me into a false sense of security that my defences were strong enough to withstand attacks they returned in the dead of night. Silently they gathered their armies and slithered across the grassy plains… making sure to leave no traces except their shiny sticky trails… up the mountainous stone steps & green plastic walls… across the moat & up the final walls to set to work and finish the job they’d started 2 nights ago…. so determined that not even the copious amounts of pellets (scattered after their first attack) could dissuade them from their task.

I won’t surrender & these fragile crops are coming inside! No chance to munch them now & they won’t be coming out again until they’re big and strong. Are bigger plants the only way to win over snails? Did these go out too soon?

I’m off to resow some more beans as I think the others are unfortunately history

We’re growing veg!

It started with Finn’s toddler playgroup a month ago… a grow the tallest sunflower competition. The sunflower had to be re potted 2 weeks ago as it’s roots had shot out the bottom of the small pot I’d initially planted it in… and really quickly too. This reminded me about all the interesting heritage & old variety vegetable seeds I’d bought last year. So last week Finn and I headed out into the sunshine to sow some more seeds in my propagator.

We sowed in the propagator:-

2 types of tomatoes… Madame Jardel’s black from the Heritage seed library & Grushovka tall bush from The Real seed catalogue.

2 types of tomatillo… great for making proper salsa. Orange Bourgoin from the Organic gardening catalogue & mixed purple n green from Real seeds.

Rosa Bianca aubergine, Nardello red pepper, 2 types of cucumber… Long white paris & crystal lemon (apple), tondo di piacenza courgette and lastly orangeglo watermelon.

We ran out of compost at that point so after buying more we then sowed the 2 types of squash:- marina di choggia & chigago warted hubbard, colossal climbing peas , strawberry sweetcorn, climbing inca pea bean & runner beans in larger pots outside…

I didn’t know how many would germinate as it was last summers seed… but I kept my fingers crossed & nearly everything has germinated! In fact everything is now out of the propagator and today I’ll have to re-pot the watermelon in it’s outside tub as it’s gone crazy Finn now has his own watering can so he can help with all the watering later on in the summer so I get to keep mine! Off to garden centre later to buy some big bags of compost to fill the big planter tubs and hoping for a dry day so we can potter outside this afternoon…