Become NEARLY self sufficient

I think they must be the size of sausages. They ate ALL my newly planted lettuces in one night! I think I may have to grow lettuce in a pot in the house. What pet can I get that eats slugs?

Well bought some plants yesterday to replace the dead ones we grew from seed. Do feel like this is cheating somehow but it is still better from the environment to buy plants grown in a nursery 5 miles away than veg from the supermarket grown in holland.

Bought pumpkin, squash, courgette, bush marrow, lettuce, and tomato. They are all planted out and watered. Slugs beware – I am going to catch you. The raspberries are tied up, and the patches weeded a bit.

Last night I made beef pie. We had the first onion from the garden and the first peas to go in it. I have been reading up about vinegar crocks and how to make your own vinegar.

The tomatoes, courgettes and squashes died while we were away as our waterer did not water them. Oh well. We will have to buy some plants now I think it is getting late to redo them from seed.

Broad beans, celery, radishes spinach, onions, garlic and cucumber look ok. The peas have peas on them but the leaves have been half eaten by slugs. They have outwitted the eggshell minefield.

The fruit is exciting now – apples are swelling, the raspberries are positively falling over (I will have to tie them up I guess). I have a lime tree in the house and that has lots of little bobbles on it.

We had salad out of the garden this week – with edible weeds mixed in for good measure.

We planted the squash and courgettes out the other day. Apple tree has some promising bobbles on it.

I made nettle soup last week and it was a much bigger success with the BF than I thought it would be so am going to try and cook with one foraged ingredient once a fortnight to start off with.

In the garden so far – beans and peas, garlic and onion, cucumber, lettuce, radishes.

Needs to be planted out – tomatoes, courgettes, coriander, brocolli, butternut, chicory.