Year of the slug

 

 

I have just looked back over my gardening diary for 2012 ( yes I know, sad is'nt it) and just realised what a truly awful year it was. A sort  of Anno Horibilis, as Queenie would say, for veg growers in the U.K.

It started all right, in fact for the first 3 months we had a drought leading to a hosepipe ban in April. The temperature was well up too, bringing on the blossom much earlier than it should, which then of course was hit by the frosts. Result, no pears no plums and about 15 apples. Great show for my little orchard.

Of course as soon as the hosepipe ban started so did the rain (it's sods law apparently) and then did'nt stop. For slugs it was like winning the lottery, and did they party! caution was thrown to the wind and without any protection whatsoever they multiplied in a hedonistic orgy (in one 10 minute foray after dark with a torch 54 three in monsters were dispatched with grievous bodily harm). The trouble was just about everything else intent on making hay did just as well.

After two sowings of carrot failed to show I put in plugs of beetroot, swede and cabbage carefully nurtured in the greenhouse and were much appreciated by the flea beetle which turned them into a sort of green colander. Potatoes, long a staple on the plot, have been difficult in recent years with the blight becoming part of our altered climate. This year even my sound spuds were turning to mush in the sack, so were given away before it became a total loss. Strangely the corn did well and would have been a good harvest if the mice had not decided it would be fun to nibble a small hole in the base of each cob. That in turn was like a calling card to every Magpie in the district (I counted 13 in a tree nearby)  to come and strip back the husk? and devour the unripe corn. A third sowing of carrot after the potatoes were lifted grew well and promised at least something from the plot, which was just what the rats thought as well. All that was left were the scattered tops and a small depression where they had scraped the earth back. Their distinctive trails led across three plots before disappearing into a compost heap - thanks a bunch pal.

For those who still deny global warming here are a few facts and figures gleaned from the web. Despite all the rain, 2012 (1330.7mm)  was not the wettest year on record (records began in 1910), that was 2000 (1337.3mm) . Four of the five wettest years on record have been since 2000 and over the last 30 years we have seen a 5% increase in rainfall. Call me silly but that does suggest there is something going on!!!