Bloody Cats!!

I was a bit annoyed when I went out this morning to check on yesterday's plantings.

I was looking for any slug damage, and thankfully there wasn't any, but one of our cats had decided that the newly dug and planted raised bed was a good place for a toilet, and had gone between the rows of leeks :(

Nothing was dug up, but I had gone to the trouble of carefully planting the leeks in deep holes and not back filling with soil, but simply filling the hole with water, as recommended by all my gardening books.  Now about half of the plants have been buried  and knocked sideways by soil thrown about by the cat's scratching.

By carefully removing the excess soil (and poo) I have managed to get most of the plants stood up straight again, but a lot do not have their specially prepared growing tunnel any more - I wonder if that will stop them fattening up?  I will have to ask on The Grapevine.

There is really only one plant I an a bit woried about, but it was the runt of the planting and if it dies off I still have a couple of spares that I wasn't able to plant due to running out of space.

Tonight it is time to finish off planting the young plants I got from the garden centre yesterday.



Curly Kale to the left, Romanesco Broccoli to the right

I have got half a dozen of Curly Kale and Romanesco Broccoli in the front raised bed.  I always called the Romanesco a cauliflower before, but good old Google seems to be split 50:50 between broccoli and cauli.  Still, it said broccoli on the label from the garden centre, so that's what they are.

I also managed to get a couple of rows of peas in tight against the back trellis.  The plan is for them to be trained up the trellis and away from the slow developing brassicas.  Then again, that was the plan with the sweet peas I put in a couple of weeks ago, but they don't seem to want to do much so far. (they are starting to climb the canes to the left of the picture above)

There are also a couple of peppers and an aubergine for a growbag in the back garden, and a Horseradish - never grown one before, so that should be interesting.


Horseradish Plant

I will also have to rig something up over the raised bed to stop our boys using it as a litter tray again tonight - wish me luck!

Just got back in from planting - looks like I was celebrating no slug/snail damage too soon - they have taken great chunks out of my aubergine and one of the peppers.  I shall have to keep them on my tool store roof for a day or so to see if they recover before planting them out in the grow bag.

I also had a look at my tomato experiment - to be honest it isn't looking good right now.  It has only been a day since I planted it up, but it has already tried to double back on itslelf to try and head for the sun.

I will let it grow a bit larger - maybe the weight of any fruit will straighten it out a bit.  (assuming I actually get some fruit, that is)