It's nice to be back

We had a little holiday last week so I was away from the garden for a while. Before I left I was really worried that we'd have good weather and my plants would die, I needn't have worried, it rained almost every day.  There have been some really high winds but there hasn't been much damage thankfully.

It has been nice coming home and seeing how the garden has changed in just a few days.  In a brief sunny spell I took some photos.

Artichoke growing under a jamjar cloche

Brambles are nearly ready!

More lettuce than I am going to be able to eat

I think that is a turnip!

I ate this straight after taking the picture

Flowers on my squash

Dead slugs!

Yay!  Lots of slugs in my beer traps this morning and a few dead ones near the slug pellets.

Declaration of war

Slugs and snails are devouring my poor seedlings so I have declared war.  This morning I found a snail clinging to the jam jar which is protecting my delicate artichoke seedling.

On the fenced off areas of the garden I've put down slug pellets and in areas that the rabbit or my son could get to I have set traps using tesco's finest value lager (81p for 4 cans! Amazing - I kind of wonder what it tastes like).

I didn't do much else today, I cut the grass and pulled up loads of creeping buttercup (which looks pretty as a posy).  I didn't do anything about the roots. We are having a few days away and the rabbit will be on holiday too so I'm going to take advantage and begin chemical warfare when I know there will be a week without the bunny.  I've bought some weed-feed-mosskiller for the grass and I have some gysopholate for the patio.  I would like to be one of those gardeners that doesn't need chemicals but I don't have enough time to manage this without them.

Other than that I was pleased that my strawberries have recovered and my squash is starting to flower.  Also, a foxglove has flowered unexpectedly which was nice.
 I hope you are having a good long weekend too :)