plants that have done well

a sea of love-in-a-mist in the front garden


mangetout peas - Delikett- I've tried these in previous years and just had stunted plants and warped, stringy pods. this time's are really sweet and crisp.
beautiful dark flowers on the lilies this year. seem to have had a phase of less slug activity than normal which has helped them. also haven't seen any lily beetles at all this year - they normally take chunks out of the flowers.
















lettuce - not sure what type. I think it may be Clarion. it's doing very well at the moment,again due to lack of slugs at a crucial time and I think we may be hunting for the lettuce soup recipes for the surplus.


red salad bowl lettuce. this was set in the greenhouse sometime in October last year, managed to survive all the cold weather (it's an unheated glass greenhouse, but about February time we lined the roof with bubble wrap) and we pulled outer leaves as needed over winter. as it continued to grow I decided to plant it out in the garden, expecting it to run to seed straight away. it looks quite likely to bolt soon but for now its still going strong.




things not going so well

- autumn/winter cabbage - hardly any seed coming up. it is old seed, 5 years in some cases and I have now set loads and used the packets up. hopefully something will now grow.
-cucumbers - these came through really well but, when we went on holiday at Easter, we thought the best thing to do was plant them in the ground in the greenhouse. there wasn't any problem with the weather but slugs got in and ate them
-peppers - were doing well till we planted them out in the greenhouse.have now taken the bizarre step of lifting them and replanting in pots
-leeks - planted them out and half got dug up and rolled on by the cat. fortunately, some generous people offered us some replacements. we now have sticks around and amongst them but the cat still seems attracted - is it the smell perhaps?