I've now been growing some fruit and herbs in the garden for a few years, and this year was to be the extension of that into a lot more vegetables and salad ingredients. Some of these growing adventures have been very successful - others less so. For example, green beans have been a disaster (see photo - yes those stalks were originally nice plants), as the snails obviously considered the growing shoots to be a feast for them - and because I'm not into putting chemicals into the soil to kill anything, I've no defence mechanisms that work for the poor plants. Beer in a container is meant to attract the snails and slugs and then they drown - well I did try that some years ago, to no avail, but maybe I'll have to give it another go. If anyone knows of anything sensible and non-chemical to try, please let me know! Otherwise, my success levels have been mixed.Most of the herbs are quite happy, and I'm extending the types of herbs way beyond previous years, so they will give me great experimentation opportunities for new recipes. The tomato plants are growing very nicely, with lots of flowers on them which bodes well for a good crop. I've planted a kiwi plant to match up with the pre-existing apple and blackberry specimen - not sure if we'll get any kiwi fruit, but its worth giving it a go anyway.
The garden is now totally full, with no space for anything that needs its own room, so it'll be a struggle in the Autumn to cull some of the existing plants - although a particularly invasive rose bush is a likely candidate and that should free up lots of space for winter greens and the like - although the snails are likely to be attracted to those as well... must ask Jenny at the Farmers Market what she does to stave off those hungry creatures!
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