We're back!!!

The day after we left for London it got warmer, and guess what!?! Three billion small slimey things came out to play and frolic on our crops!!! By sea-weed slug-dyke didn't quite cut the mustard...

Starting to think that the ecology of the greenhouse and surrounding plot could do with some predatory balance. Besides me that is... We need Ducks and Frogs! The Frog Squad need a pond HQ at one end of the Marquee and a Duck Base pond at the other.

Earth like rock

This week has been absolutely freezing, so much that the ground outside is completely solid. However, we have Arctic Slugs. They don't give up, stop, desist or relax. Every day I pick more, maybe not as many as earlier in the week but still they keep on keepin on.
Tomorrow we leave for London for a Christmas week with my folks... ... ... Merry Xmas little molluscs... ... ...

cold weather

It has been sunny but super cold.(temperature didn't go higher than 1-2℃ even daytime) Looks like even slugs stop activities under this coldness. Crops are all right although they grow very slowly.

Guests

It was nice, sunny day. Chloe and Sniff(her dog) came to the garden to help us. We dug out couch grass to make another bed. Good work! We went to the Ynyslas beach in the afternoon. Sniff loved running on the beach and I collected more seaweed for compost.

fight against slug

Junka
21 slugs were caught dead in cups of beer this morning and we placed more traps. We cleared the plastic sheets and carpets in the Marquee to get rid of rooms for slugs. Obviously, there is no perfect solution but hopefully the mixture of different methods will work to reduce the damage.
I put seaweeds on the bed which we collected to put in compost from beach, just to see as an experiment.

frost

Junka
Today was sunny but freezing. The field was all frosted and puddles were frozen.I mulched outside garlic with straw after giving fertiliser.(I should have done weeks ago!)

Janet gave me comfrey plants from Linne's garden. These are good stuff as fertiliser, green manure and compost activator.I planted them on the border of the Marquee for now, probably transplant them outside in spring.

Slug slayer

Chris
Tonight I went slugging in the dark, head lamp on, freezing fingers clutching old pate pot. 2 hours later i had collected 500. Yes, i counted them. It was a slug sensus. I am not totally mad, honest.

Wind and Slug

A strong wind blew the black ground sheet off again, ripping it in places and messing up the garlic. So we've taken it off and folded it up for now...
A hundred slugs found hiding in the flowers along the marquee borders. The poor flowers look pretty wrecked. I gave fertilizer(OSMO chase organic, all purpose fertilizer) to them to cheer them up!

Plants need sunlight

I finished thinning today and gave them liquid comfrey fertilizer.
Some slugs were found under ground. They were eating roots. What little monsters!
I took off the plastic cover because they were so tall and thin and it was getting moldy.

Thinning

It has been very windy in the past couple days (about 20 mph).
All the outside black sheets were blown off and another window of the marquee was blown out, but not broken.

While Chris was mending them, I thinned the mizuna & fuyuna and transplanted them into empty rows. It took a long time as they have grown so much and should have been thinned earlier. I stroked them gently because I read that it makes them grow shorter and sturdier.

Chris found dozens of slugs around the pots and containaers when it was getting dark. He collected and put them in the compost with some fresh old-leaf spinach to chomp on. Maybe we'll have to do a night-time slug search sometime...

unsettled weather

Today's weather was strange.
We drove to the garden as wind was too strong to ride a bicycle, then found a window of the Marquee came off.
When Chris was reparing the window, it started raining.
After a while, hailstones were really coming down and clattering heavily on the roof of the Marquee.
After having fixed the window, the sky was clear and sunny!

Crops looked all right. Spinatch and shirona have been nibbled, though, others were glowing well.
Bubble plastic cover seemed to work well to warm them (and slugs as well)