Rain, rain and more rain!

After a good start to the gardening year we have had nothing but rain, rain and yet more rain here in Caversham. Despite that - or maybe because of it - parts of the vegetable garden are flourishing. Potatoes and peas are doing well as are the herbs and lettuces, but there is only so much salad and lettuce soup I can eat and I am running out of ideas for consuming the abundant greenery!

Tomatoes are slow this year as are the cucumbers. I made the mistake of planting out my cucumber seedlings too early and they were quickly battered to the ground by heavy rainfall. The second batch seem to be doing well now but it will be a late crop this year, if any at all. Surprisingly, the aubergines seem to be surviving and the chilli peppers are racing ahead.

Monsoon conditions of course bring out the slugs and snails but I haven't noticed any appreciable difference in the damage caused compared with previous, drier years. I did spray part of of my vegetable plot with Nemaslug as an experiment, but there doesn't seem to be any difference between the two areas in terms of plant destruction, which has been minimal. It could be that the slugs from the untreated area moved into the treated ground once the nematodes had done their stuff and died or the nematodes infiltrated the unsprayed ground. I also use a number of barrier methods which possibly helped (see 20 Ways to control slugs in the permaculture garden or on the allotment | Permaculture Magazine http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/20-ways-control-slugs-permaculture-garden-or-allotment) or maybe the slug and snail predators have been out in force banqueting on the blighters! Whatever the reason, I certainly have not seen the scale of devastation reported in the Transition Culture blog (The Four Slugs of the Apocalypse http://transitionculture.org/2012/07/13/the-four-slugs-of-the-apocalypse/). I'd be interested in hearing what other UK gardeners are experiencing re mollusc infestations.

As an aside, if you have a particular interest in slugs and snails (apart from wanting them off the face of the planet altogether) the Field Studies Council has a number of identification guides including Land snails in the British Isles (2nd edition) - FSC : http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubs/land-snails-in-the-british-isles-(2nd-edition).aspx and the much older (1983)  A field guide to the slugs of the British Isles http://www.field-studies-council.org/fieldstudies/documents/vol5.5_156_a.pdf.

Early potatoes and jerusalem artichokes

The garden is now really starting to take off with all the warm weather we have been having in the UK. The early potatoes and jerusalem artichokes in particular are surging ahead. I left some artichokes from last year's harvest in the bag and they obviously survived the harsh winter we had this year. The seed potatoes came from Marshalls and I started then off in egg trays indoors in late January.

I decided to take a risk with the weather just over three weeks ago and planted them out.  I half fill the bags with soil, place the chitted potatoes on the surface and then add just enough soil to cover the tubers. As the shoots grow I add more soil until the bag is nearly full. This method has worked really well ever since we started using the bags four years ago and although we only get enough for 4-5 meals for two of us it is just so nice to taste new potatoes straight from the earth. Once the potatoes are finished we plant courgettes and squash in the bags.

We started using bags at that end of the garden because of the tangle of roots that are close to the surface and come from the trees and bushes by the fence.  It is so much easer to use the containers instead of continually trying to convert that patch of ground into something usable.

Next job: potting up the tomatoes