Wetness, Weeds and Wildlife



A fan of wet weather earlier today

Now then, I don't mind a bit of rain. The gently persistent rain that falls overnight so that flowers and vegetables wake up refreshed and revitalised so that I don't need to spend valuable time using valuable water outside. I'd even be friendly towards a shower or two at tea time so that plants don't go to bed thirsty. But gallons of the stuff falling down semi persistently - and interspersed with the odd sunburn-hot day - has effects which, frankly, rub me up the wrong way. I'm talking about weeds growing at alarming rates while I'm not looking - yes, you thistles, and you grass. And although I do like my cauliflowers not drying out and my cabbages hearting up nicely I do not like those slimy fat creeping little creations commonly known as Bloody Slugs (that's the polite name obviously). However, as plenty has been written on the subject over the last month. I would just like to put out the message that my preferred method of dispatch is snipping in half and chortling over the guts spilling out. Keep off my radishes too - apparently people aren't keen on buying pre-nibbled produce. (Although personally I think the occasional surprise discovery within a lettuce adds a note of authenticity....)



Lovely strimming dear!

I must admit that I have been feeling overwhelmed the last few weeks. I seem to have lost control of things. At times I just haven't known what to do first - sowing, planting, weeding, slug and pigeon damage limitation, grass cutting, trying to make some money out of all of this..... There has seemed so much to do and only me with a limited amount of time to do it in. But as with most problems, they are manageable if broken down into small tasks and tackled one step at a time. That's the theory behind the advice of certain 'helpful' people of my acquaintance anyway! My problem is that I look at the entire plot, see all the problems that need tackling and all the jobs that need doing immediately and panic! But taking that helpful advice seems to have been beneficial. After two and a half weeks of strict prioritising, realistic list making and allocating jobs to days I think I can see a little chink of light getting closer and a little bit of order reappearing. And of course I must mention that my helpful friend is a dab hand with the strimmer too......thank goodness!



To end on a positive note then. It's been lovely this month wildlife spotting around my plot. I knew I had frogs in the big polytunnel but I've also seen one in the new small tunnel. While moving some weed prevention carpet last week I was delighted to see a fine fat toad camping out underneath - even more so to find a finer fatter bigger specimen just next door. Bees are regular visitors to the comfrey, borage and alliums - hopefully they'll find the bean and squash flowers when they appear too. My favourite discovery has been masses of ladybird larvae in the polytunnel - all over leaves of turnips, cucumbers and tomatoes - which bodes well for a high ladybird population shortly. And finally my new best friend Bob Robinson, a robin who must have the hungriest and/or largest family ever, as over the two days I spent weeding my roots bed 'he' was constantly coming down to gather big beakfuls of goodies. However Bob was kind enough to sing me a few catchy little numbers from time to time, so I thought that was a pretty good deal.