Skeletal Leaves and Fat Caterpillars

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The veg plot has been a disaster.


There’s no veg to eat!

First the tiny rows of plants struggled towards the light and the slugs and snails from next door crept over the low wall at night and ate them up.

The lettuce went first, then the peas. The carrots were carefully weeded and then disappeared. The spring onions I had such high hopes for grew beautifully then vanished. The marigolds never managed more than a few leaves before they too disappeared. I was hopeful for the cabbage and the sprouts, but then the caterpillars came, destroyed the cabbage and munched through the sprouts’ leaves. I hadn’t the heart to harm the caterpillars, as butterfly numbers are in decline, and hoped that once they earned their wings the plants would recover. The sprout plants did, but their sprout offerings grown in the armpits of their leaves are either tiny or blown.

Still I had high hopes for blackberries from the wild savage briars next door, that I am continually hacking back. Then the bindweed came and suffocated the blackberry leaves. Any fruit left then went musty in the rain.

The only ‘success’ were the nasturtiums. I thought on finding only twelve seeds in the packet that I was being diddled. I did not realise that really twelve seeds was an act of kindness. Only five grew…thank goodness the others didn’t.

These nasturtiums are rampant! I obviously bought the wrong kind. They are spreading beasts. They have set off on a campaign of world domination, clambering over even next door’s bind weed. The tiny brick path into the heart of the veg patch is now inaccessible. Monet apparently grew this plant and also allowed it to trail down paths so he could paint the trailing flowers. I just have the leaves down my path the flowers have gone next door!

Still, I have ‘feasted’ upon the leaves and flowers. I now have orange nasturtiums in every vase inside the house. They are sunny and cheering.



But even more cheering is what’s lurking in my cupboard ready for next year’s attempt at a veg patch, my secret weapon: organic slug pellets!