Sparrows love string

The sparrows in my garden have been pulling bits off the string I tied up the bean poles with. I think they've been using it in their nests. This video is from June:

Fruit and veg that can survive slugs and snails

 

I have a major slug and snail problem in my garden, to the extent that if plants can survive my garden, fundamentally they can survive slugs and snails. I have had such a bad year for slug damage that I've barely been able to grow any brassicas or root veg at all. Currently I have a few surviving kale plants (mainly in copper slug rings), plenty of rocket (when I can get it to grow at all it survives them fine). and a few surviving chard plants. Slugs and snails have chomped their way through everything else (or at least, I'm assuming they're the guilty party, certainly my seedlings vanished). But I'm pleased to say that my rhubarb is surviving fine. I took the slug ring off when it was still pretty new to the garden, and although it does have holes in its leaves, it's grown well and is looking strong, with no damage to the stems. 

In other triumphs, the sweetcorn is also doing fine, although none of the corn I planted directly in the ground has survived. I think the slugs probably got it when it was still tiny. I learnt from Gardeners' World this week that the further apart you plant sweetcorn, the more cobs it will produce per plant. If I'd known then what I know now, I would simply have put the plants further apart.

My tomatoes were also a pleasant surprise. I haven't had much time for gardening this year, but when I went out and looked at them, a lot had grown quite big. It just wasn't initially visible until I staked them. Some even had green tomatoes growing on them. They do have some slug damage, but they are surviving well overall.

My broad beans, on the other hand, have been an unmitigated disaster. They ended up getting black fly, then they got rust, then – rust obviously being tasty to slugs and snails – they got devoured by slugs and snails, all before I could get any crop. I'll be lucky to get as many as 4 pods of beans from them this year. It hasn't been so bad in previous years, but this year, growing amidst my wild flowers, they've done appallingly.

They do not grow well with plants that can harbour snails. Some of my beans are doing OK though, despite sharing with other plants. The ones that didn't meet a snail-y death even went so far as to strangle some of my other plants.

The raspberries are also doing well - despite also getting some rust. They never get snail damage. The squashes only just survived though. If I hadn't put them in slug rings and gone on slug patrol to get as many slugs and snails as possible, they'd be dead - as would the two surviving sunflowers of the 15 I planted.

On the plus side though, the garden does look pretty and is bursting with wildlife (albeit with rather more slugs and snails than I'd like).