Damned Snails - Again

With the nice weather we had for a few days last week all the plants in the garden are doing great, and there was a distinct lack of slugs and snails too, which helped tremendously.

This nice weather didn't last too long, however, and we were soon back to the torential downpours we have had all summer long so far, which has led to the resurgence of huge snails in the garden.

One of the mange tout has been mange touted by the snails, and they have also had a good go at the borlotti as well.

The Romanesque Caulis have started to get small holes in their leaves so I had a look on the underside to find a few pale green caterpillars busily munching away - not sure if these are cabbage white larvae as last year when I found them on my Purple Sprouting Broccoli they were deep green and much larger.

Whatever they were they are now squashed - I will have to look at getting some kind of netting up to protect the brassicas.

While I was closely inspecting the plants I noticed that one or two have actually started to form a curd (I think that's the right name for it) already.  Hopefully good signs for a good harvest in winter?

Down at the allotment not much has happened since my last post at weekend due to the horrible weather.



Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern



Will and I managed to move the timber pile from the roadway to a couple of holding piles just off my plot, and I also managed to get both pumpkin plants from home planted up directly into the manure pile.  I am hoping that the heat and texture of the manure will keep the slugs and snails off the plants until they have had time to grow large enough to withstand a few nibbles.



Pumpkin - Mammoth



I checked on them after a couple of days and they looked OK, but that was a couple of days back now so I hope they are still as healthy when I check tonight or tomorrow, weather permitting.

In the blow away everything is really more than ready to be planted out so it is really important to get both beds manured and dug over so these plants can be transplanted before they get too root bound in their modules.

One good thing - the peas in the blow away have started to flower - the ones in the front have been mainly either been eaten by snails or dug up by cats scratching, so these are now my only hope of a harvest this season.