I've been mostly...weeding

and weeding and weeding...but beginning to see the results of our hard work.

The brassicas so far have survived any cabbage white butterfly/catepillar attacks because they were netted right after they were planted out. However in the meantime weeds have grown up around them and with that extra cover the slugs have advanced to attack them on the lengthening soggy nights....So on Wednesday night we took the netting off the PSB, Romanescu cauliflowers and the red cabbages in order to have a good weed around them and put down a warning dose of slug pellets.

Last night I gave the French beans and Borlotti the same treatment as they've been a bit slug battered too and I started on weeding around the courgettes as they're looking a bit powdery mildewy and could do with a bit more airflow around them.

But it's not just the weeds that are putting in late summer growth spurts. The winter squash are bulking up nicely (you can see how they've dwarfed the bricks I'd placed them on) and with lots more fruit setting I'm looking forward to a bountiful harvest.

Casualties

So far this year I've had a few undocumented casualties and thought I'd best come clean about my not 100% successful record.

Some have been mysterious failures - a few squash, bean, sweetcorn, pea and cucumber seeds failing to germinate. Then there's been the unlucky, such as the other cucumber, a few tomatoes and all the kohl rabi seedlings caught out by damping off (even though I was very careful about not overwatering). Others have been due to my laziness/late timing, the poor beetroot seedlings grew as much as they could in their tiny pots....

And then there's the massacre of the slug army....grr! Checked on the plots at the weekend and realised that out of the 36 celeriac seedlings we planted out only 7 remain intact. Plus they've had a right go at the promising carrot seedlings. So out came the slug pellets and liberally dowsed all small defenceless seedlings.

More planting out

Finished digging a bed next to the courgettes on Plot 86 and put the sweetcorn in it. Figured that since they're only a couple of inches high then they shouldn't get too battered by the really windy conditions we had yesterday and not too big that their growth gets checked by transplanting (as I think that's what happened last year). Just in case they get attacked by the slugs I put some pellets (organic ones) down around them.
We also attacked the weeds that have taken over the paved area around the shed and now have quite a nice 'patio' where we can put the deckchairs and maybe the barbeque if the weather picks up (I'm writing this whilst the rain's throwing itself against the window).