Pigeon alert

When Mr. M. and I went to water last Friday we noticed that the broccoli leaves had been eaten by something. They didn't look very healthy at all. 

The stems look sturdy enough so we're hoping that they'll survive the present lack of leaves. There are no slugs or other little creatures to be seen but as we're not around very much, it's difficult to work out what's so hungry that it feels the need to munch on our precious plants. Luckily we have pros around us! It turns out that the most likely culprit is the pigeon. I didn't expect that. It turns out that the reason why a lot of people have empty water bottles on sticks all around the plots is to scare pigeons. We had wondered why... Another way to keep these birds away is to put netting over the plants so that's what we did today.

Invisible black netting

This whole area is covered with black netting that we found in the shed. Hopefully this will do the trick.

We've also put netting over the strawberries. They are looking so fabulous that we definitely don't want to lose them to any birds. Just look at them:

There are lots of green berries that will no doubt taste delicious!

We spent most of the afternoon weeding and after some hard work we felt we deserved some of this:

Mrs. G. provides the coffee and I seem to be providing home baked something every week. I've got into the habit of baking every weekend and today was no exception. I still have quite a few rhubarb stems in the fridge so I made some muffins after breakfast. I found the recipe in one of the cookbooks for children we have. They were not bad but not as yummie as some other muffins I often make. That one is also from a children's cookbook but I got the wrong one today. Looks like I have to do some more baking.

Anyway, we were sitting on the grass chatting, munching and drinking and after a rainy and dull morning the weather had turned hot and glorious. It was so relaxing and beautiful that we ended up staying at the plot for a good 3 hours instead of the hour we had decided on, due to other commitments. Well, those commitments were quickly forgotten about. 

We could have sat there for hours on end but that's not why we were there. One of our neighbours came by with three plum tomato plants so we quickly planted those. All our neighbours are so friendly and generous. Their crops are much bigger than ours but we've now learnt that the reason for that is greenhouses. They all seem to have them, either on the plot or in their own gardens. That's why they plant out really big plants. It made us feel a whole lot better finding that out!

Thank you neighbour!

I had been to the local garden centre earlier on today and bought some pepper and chilli plants that we planted out. 

Red and yellow peppers.

Red chilli pepper

We also planted spinach and radishes. Mrs. G. filled in the gaps in the lettuce row with seeds. 

It all looks really good now but we can't go on planting new things where the previous plants have died or been eaten. As Mrs. G. is away next week ( work related - not pleasure!) we won't be meeting up during the week. It'll probably rain anyway... I'll pop over to water if the weather is dry and then we'll meet up next weekend to admire our crops and do some more weeding. It really gives you a lot of pleasure to see how plants grow, knowing that your hard work is paying off.

The potatoes are looking so good!

Have a good week!

Mrs. M.