Salt and vaseline.

I made a quick visit to the plot today to dig up some potatoes and pick some calabrese. The slugs have been busy sliming over and eating the calabrese heads, so I decided to pick them all in the hope that I can better protect the next regrowth. I also lifted some young beetroots and discovered that these too had been burrowed into by the slugs. Finally, I picked a head of savoy cabbage which, yes you guessed it, was home to a family of slugs.

Not surprisingly my mind was filled with thoughts of slug destruction and earlier this evening I googled for solutions. One thing I learned is that beetroot does well near the sea and is not adverse to a bit of salt. If you pour salt on a slug it shrivels up and dies… GUARANTEED!

I will be sprinkling salt around my beetroot tomorrow!

Another thing I learned is that slugs don’t like vaseline or other greasy substances. One tip I read was to smear a continuous barrier of vaseline (or other greasy substance) around the rim of a plant pot, over which slugs will not pass. Before long I had an epiphany… what if I mixed salt with vaseline… a double whammy of slug barrier and slug death! I proceeded to google it and in the top five results was..

‘I covered myself in vaseline and pretended to be a slug.’

I couldn’t resist clicking but sadly this turned out to be a very short youtube clip of a video game. When it ended, the usual ‘recommended’ window of clips came up on the screen and one of them was…

Talk about going off on a tangent! I laughed myself silly, especially at some of the comments. Slugs forgotten momentarily!

Garlic, glorious garlic!

The blonde guy from Depeche Mode?

I’m very pleased with myself. Yesterday I picked my first garlic bulb.

I’m surprised because it was from a batch I planted in mid January, while the garlic I planted at the end of October is not yet fully formed.

Also surprised because it was from an odd mix of bulbs that had been sitting in my car boot for weeks.

It’s no surprise that I don’t know what this garlic is called.

Good Garlic!

Grayscale Garlic.

Rhubarb Wars.

Blasted wind!

It has been very windy around these parts lately. Concerned only for my windbreak, I headed up to the plot to make sure all was intact. What did I see before me, only my precious rhubarb plundered by the invading winds. Young rhubarb torn and broken, older stalks bent into unnatural forms. Proud leaves bruised and wilting under the onslaught.

Without the proper resources and with only my phone to ducument it, I tried my best to erect a temporary defensive wall against the attacker. I must wait till the weekend for the fight-back to begin.

On the upside, now that I have some ‘forced’ rhubarb picked, I can make a Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble. A fitting end for my brave, crimson soldiers!

Battlements.

The spoils of war.