More munching

Two days of sun and heat, and now we’re back to more rain.  And the molluscs are still eating; a row of seedling lettuces in the veg plot, to replace the first planting that is now starting to bolt, disappeared virtually overnight.  I had also cleared out a long plastic trough that contained nothing but weeds, and replanted it with some of the same batch of lettuces; they were munched a bit (I found and evicted two snails and a large slug found hiding under the lip of the trough), but a line of Vaseline laced with salt around the top put paid to that, and they’re now recovering.  The brassica seedlings - broccoli and cabbages - have been planted out under netting, and are mostly surviving so far, although the netting is obviously not slug-proof!

Scrump-able raspberries

The blackbirds have taken the gooseberries (I made no attempt to stop them), but interestingly don’t seem to have made much attempt to steal raspberries.  The raspberry bed is a mess, frankly, and needs overhauling this winter, but usually I have to net the plants to get anything off them.  This year I’ve done nothing, and the rasps are fruiting freely with very little bird damage – although there are slug/snail trails over some of the fruits!  The plants have suckered into the near end of the veg plot and into the blackcurrants (which have no fruit worth mentioning, and also no bird protection), as raspberries tend to do.  Sometimes I think those plants have the best-tasting fruit.  When I was a child, there was a piece of waste ground running along behind some nearby gardens, and raspberry plants had suckered out of the gardens into the edges; I used to enjoy scrumping for raspberries there, which were often small but wonderfully sweet (and, although nobody objected, there was the allure of forbidden fruit).  I still like searching in the long grass and weeds for the unintended fruit, although I really ought to dig the plants out.

Alpine strawberries

On a warm afternoon a couple of days back, I noticed a flock of sparrows quartering the corner of the veg plot.  My first thought was that they were after the alpine strawberries – there had been minor signs of bird damage – and then that they were picking flowers off the row of peas.  But then I noticed a blackbird pecking at the edges of the septic tank in the lawn, and realised that the garden’s ants nests had broken open and the ants were flying out – there’s often one or more nests in the veg patch paths.  The greenhouse was also crawling with them, and the sparrows were sitting on the roof picking them off as they flew out.  Better that than going for my strawberries and peas!

Peas, in flower

The munchers

 

Lobelia - gone

Late June managed a week or so of warm weather, and now it’s back to damp and cool conditions as the jet stream has shifted again.  One consequence of the wet is the number of slugs and snails in the gardens, and my seed-sowing has suffered as a result.  I had a lovely set of lobelia seedlings ready for planting out – the best trayful I’ve ever managed – and overnight, there they were, gone.  They had been in bud and just about to bloom, so something had had a good bellyful.  I’ve nursed the remnants back to the regrowing stage, but it remains to be seen whether there’s time for them to flower this summer.  They’ve been replaced by three plants from the supermarket; needs must, sometimes.

Beans - before the slugs got them!

Likewise my climbing beans.  My first sowing, of ‘Moonlight’, ‘Blauhilde’ and borlottis, succumbed to a snail; I resowed the latter two, and got a small number of plants from them, but after they were planted out they were gradually demolished by molluscs (I assume molluscs, although the prodding and poking of the blackbirds is still under some suspicion).  My remaining Blauhilde seeds were sown in situ, and so far are doing ok, although like the lobelia they may not do much before autumn sets in.  Interestingly - but puzzlingly - a nice row of lettuces ('Merveille de Quatre Saisons') nearby are completely untouched.

Lettuces, untouched

The little blighters have also been at my courgettes and radicchio.  There’s still time to sow more of the latter, to supplement the three or four survivors of my originals that were planted out, but the courgettes are going to be a mixed lot.  One of the ‘British Summertime’ plants is doing well and already fruiting, the other has been grazed and may have lost its growing point, and ‘Defender’ is only just hanging on in there.  Another ‘Defender’ seedling was found growing in a discarded pot – I had given up on it germinating – and I’ve popped it into one of the tulip pots, where it’s doing ok for the moment.

I’ve harvested the shallots and garlic.  The shallots’ foliage started dying off, so I lifted them; they’re on the small side, but they’ll do.  The garlic isn’t great but, again, it will keep me going.  ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’ recommended a garlic spray to deter slugs and snails, which got me brewing up some of last year’s cloves as a plant treatment, but I can’t say I noticed any improvement; maybe it wasn’t strong enough?  And Strulch, although touted as a slug and snail deterrent, has no effect.

Peas ('Early Onward') under netting

A trellis for 'Alderman'

Not everything is going badly.  I have two lots of peas, ‘Early Onward’ which were sown in situ and grown on under netting until they were well established, and ‘Alderman’ which, like the beans, had to be resown after mollusc intervention, but which are now growing away nicely.  Neither set is flowering yet, but should do so soon.  And broad beans, after a slow start, are cropping well (the early ‘Aquadulce Claudia’) and coming along promisingly (‘Imperial Green Longpod’), with no blackfly this year; the ladybirds have obviously done their work well.

Ladybirds - making little ladybirds on a beet leaf

Nice clean broad bean plants - no blackfly

There are various brassicas in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out when I can create a suitable space for them where they can be netted against pigeons and butterflies – not that many of the latter have appeared so far this year.

On the other hand, there are plenty of pigeons.  Lefty disappeared a few weeks ago; younger birds took over his territory, and he didn’t seem to want to fight them.  We’re sure he’s still around in the area, and he may come back in the autumn as he has done in past years, but he’s old and no longer the scrapper he once was.  We got fed up with woodpeckers (great spots) eating their way through the fatballs, so I put a squirrel guard on the feeder which made it more difficult for them to get in there; unfortunately it prevents the very few blackbirds and robins who were agile enough to cling to the feeder from eating them too, but the tits (blue, great and coal) seemed positively to enjoy the extra protection and brought their youngsters along to feed.  (Something had made a nest in the birdbox, but there was no sign of it having been used; the moss wasn’t cupped, and there were no indications of shell or dead nestlings.  Had one of the parents been killed?)

Tits on the fatballs (and robin picking up the droppings!)

I've been ripping up grasses and other weeds that are about to set seed, and made fair inroads into the very overgrown area at the end of the fruit cage area.  It was the first time in some weeks that I'd managed a good look at the fig tree, and I was pleased to find a few decent fruits on it; I hope we get some warm weather to ripen them!

Figs

While working in that area, I was startled by a partridge suddenly appearing under my feet and running off.  It turned out that it was a female that had been sitting on a clutch of eggs in the long grass, completely hidden from view.  She didn’t return, and after a couple of days the eggs vanished – a fox, most probably, had made a good meal of them.

Partridge's nest