Leafy growth spurts (before and after)

I've been looking at my vegetables every evening while I water them, so, much like children you see every day, I didn't really realise how much they'd grown until I decided to do a before-and-after comparison to add some context the fact I've just needed to expand my butterfly net (the one I put up to prevent butterflies from landing and laying eggs on my brassicas). For quite a while now my swedes and cauliflowers have been straining against the confines of the net and I've been wondering what I was thinking building the butterfly tunnel so small, but looking back at the old photos, here's my answer:

Before (24 June)

After (post-net expansion – 10 August)

It's amazing how much they've grown in just a month an a half. The leaves on the sunny end were practically bursting through the netting, so I found another stick and bent it into an arch to increase the size of the left-hand end.

Turns out that's a much better idea than lashing sticks together if you can find ones that are prepared to bend without snapping. The only slight downside of the expansion is that I'd cut the netting a little too short to easily cover this extra height, so I had to carefully pull and twist it so that it still goes down to the ground all round.
All in all it's been a highly successful measure. I haven't found a single caterpillar in there yet, so it turns out it doesn't matter if the leaves touch the netting, what matters is that butterflies can't get underneath any of the leaves to deposit their eggs.

While I'm on before and after, look how well my bean is growing:

Seedling (9 July)

Devastated by slugs (17 July)

Now (10 August)

I've also noticed another stump that looks like a bean stem stripped of leaves (or possibly a new stem yet to grow leaves), so I've put a slug ring round it to give it a fighting chance. I still suspect it's too late in the season for me to actually get any beans from these, especially given the shady position I'm growing them in, but, as they used to say about the lottery, you've got to be in it to win it.

Bean and gone?