Garden Update and a Giant Litter Tray

I'm sorry to report that the courgettes didn't survive, they developed a mould, withered and died before I even ate one single courgette.  I will try again next year in the veg patch, I will not be beaten!

Ever the optimist I have planted some peas and beans with an elaborate cat and bird scarer cane system.  I'm hoping the bits of cloth flapping in the wind might do the trick, it looks a bit like the clouties hanging from trees at sacred celtic sites.


 I have also put in some carrots, lettuce, chard and an aubergine.

The corn is still surviving as is the spinach.

I am fighting a constant battle with cats (including ours) using it as a giant cat litter tray.  I think the word has spread though out the neighbourhood and they all come to poo in my veg patch.  I have put down some smelly gel which is meant to keep cats off and organic slug pellets.

A lonely little aubergine

My poor plants are fighting to survive against cats, slugs and me.  It is an awful lot of work for little return, but it is worth it when you tip out the potato bags and find beautiful new potatoes despite the blight that destroyed the leaves.  I love pulling up the little carrots, washing them off and munching away at them raw.  I'm looking forward to picking the peas and sugar snaps and eating them raw.  I am grazing my way around the garden like a giant slug.

I am lucky that I don't have to rely on what I grow to feed my family like many people all over the world, the loss of plants would be devastating to them.  My paternal grandparents had ten children to feed, they grew their veg, kept cows and chickens to ensure their family ate well.  When the family had grown and left they sold the extra produce.  As a child I remember helping to collect the eggs and watching my auntie milking the cows.  We would then load the milk churns onto a cart and pull it up to the road for collection by the milk lorry.  A tiny little churn would be kept for the family, milk straight from the cow with no treatment at all.  It tasted completely different than the milk we have now.  They also grew flowers that the family would help to bunch up and take to the station to send up to London.  It wasn't called self sufficiency, it was just what people did.