One thing I didn't expect to be a major problem in a london garden when we started to create our veggie patch was the wildlife. Your back only has to be turned for one second and you can guarantee an unwanted visitor will stroll into the garden and have a go any undoing all your hard work.
Any tiny scrap of bare earth has to be kept covered in some way to stop the local cats from using it as a litter tray, beds of seedlings and bulbs have to be protected with wire mesh to stop the squirrels from digging things up and today I have carefully put down a barrier of organic slug repellent granules in one bed as they have been merrily feasting on the broad beans. We also had to remove the bird feeder from the tree as it kept being repeatedly vandalised by squirrels so the poor birds didn't get a look in. We are seriously considering investing in a sensor-activated cat deterrent thing.
I do feel better after that little rant. On a more positive note, I spent a happy couple of hours with the sun on my back this afternoon as I transplanted my beetroot seedlings. They had been sown in a pot but I decided today to fill an empty space in one of the raised beds.
I earthed up the roseval potatoes for the first time today. They are really strong little things and looking very healthy. I can't wait to harvest our first salad potatoes! I have a dozen more chitted seed potatoes ready to go out in the garden, these will also be grown in bags. Finally the salad onion 'purplette' seeds sown in amongst the shallots are beginning to emerge too.
Tomorrow we will be concentrating on making climbing screens for the beans, sweet peas and nasturtiums. I really need to get some carrots sown too. If I have enough time, I might transplant the leeks in the nursery out into their alloted bed space and then sow some more. I love that there is always a job to do.
Any tiny scrap of bare earth has to be kept covered in some way to stop the local cats from using it as a litter tray, beds of seedlings and bulbs have to be protected with wire mesh to stop the squirrels from digging things up and today I have carefully put down a barrier of organic slug repellent granules in one bed as they have been merrily feasting on the broad beans. We also had to remove the bird feeder from the tree as it kept being repeatedly vandalised by squirrels so the poor birds didn't get a look in. We are seriously considering investing in a sensor-activated cat deterrent thing.
I do feel better after that little rant. On a more positive note, I spent a happy couple of hours with the sun on my back this afternoon as I transplanted my beetroot seedlings. They had been sown in a pot but I decided today to fill an empty space in one of the raised beds.
I earthed up the roseval potatoes for the first time today. They are really strong little things and looking very healthy. I can't wait to harvest our first salad potatoes! I have a dozen more chitted seed potatoes ready to go out in the garden, these will also be grown in bags. Finally the salad onion 'purplette' seeds sown in amongst the shallots are beginning to emerge too.
Tomorrow we will be concentrating on making climbing screens for the beans, sweet peas and nasturtiums. I really need to get some carrots sown too. If I have enough time, I might transplant the leeks in the nursery out into their alloted bed space and then sow some more. I love that there is always a job to do.
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