Devastation in the garden (sort of)

This has not been a good week in the garden. I've found black spots on on my broad beans. I assume these to be a fungus. I removed the affected leaves (quite a lot of them) and put them in the kitchen bin, not the compost heap because I don't want my compost to come with a fungal infection. I'd already previously removed affected leaves and it continued to spread, so I don't know if this is going to work. My only other hope is that I can get edible broad beans despite the fungus.

Then, as if that wasn't enough to be dealing with for one week, I found two snails inside one of my snail collars and the cabbages inside that one and another one are devastated pretty much beyond repair. I do have a spare or two though in the other slug collars - but I'm wary of using those, as I'm still expecting to lose more to molluscs, so I threw a few more seeds in and if those don't grow, I've got spare cauliflower seedlings which should fit fine in the area.

Another butternut squash plant also bit the dust. Its stem snapped right off. This is my second butternut squash to succumb to wind. They're clearly not very hardy. All my other butternut squashes are (partially accidentally) planted in pairs, but I decided not to try and risk separating them. Instead I planted another butternut squash seed in a pot in the shed. That means I only have three seeds left for next year, unless the ones that grow inside the fruit the plant bears turn out to be usable (assuming I don't lose all my remaining plants to wind).

 

Things are not going well in the world of sweetcorn either. Three of the eight I planted are not looking in the least well and I only have two replacement plants still in pots and no seeds of that variety left at all.

On the plus side though, my kohl rabi and peas are looking very good indeed (the peas in spite of attacks by slug and snail, many of which have now been drowned on snail patrol), so at least some plants in the garden are bringing me joy. And I've surely had at least £2 worth of radishes in my salad by now, well, OK, £1.50, but they've been fresh from the garden and I've enjoyed a sense of worthiness with my lunch that far exceeds the quantity I'm entitled to by sheer virtue of the fact that I actually eat salad for lunch in the first place.