My garden is very sad at the moment. Before I went on holiday I had nurtured and planted out 16 sturdy mange tout & pea plants and an entire bed of mixed salad plants, all sorts of lovely little green things thriving in my garden.
Then it rained for a solid week while I was on holiday and when I came back nearly everything had been eaten... my entire bed of salad has vanished, all my lovely little rows of baby plants have disappeared without a trace. My mange tout & peas are just little tiny stems with no leaves at all, withered and dying.
The only explanation I can find is that the slugs and snails had a feast at my expense. I'm feeling a bit disheartened at the moment because I've lost a couple of months worth of growing in the space of a week :(
I have ordered some Nemaslug from Amazon which promises to provide thousands of little slug eating insects which will clear my beds out for me and stop my next batch of seedlings being eaten. Once they've had a chance to do their work I will have to set to work replanting. It's late enough in the year now that I can just sow directly into the beds so hopefully in a few weeks I will have green things again.
Not all is lost though - I had some tomatoes, peppers and aubergines inside and Rob took wonderful care of those in my absence so they are doing just fine. I also have some leeks which I started later which are still tiny so in a little while they can go out and fill some of my gaps. My broad beans have been nibbled but I think they'll pull through and nearly all my fruit is fine - the only victim was the rhubarb but it was looking a bit pathetic anyway this year (I think it needs more space!). On a happy note my potatoes are finally showing their first leaves so I guess they escaped unscathed.
Not the best start to the year though.
