One of these varmints has reduced my tomato crop by the above amount...
This year, as in many seasons past, Scrobs has sown tomato seeds in abundance, sometimes manic, screaming profusion, because we especially like home-grown tomatoes, and the passion also extends to giving plants away to chums whom we particularly like, and they provide a super opportunity for receiving several lingering hugs from the benefactors, especially if they are the local girls!
So the greenhouse has shelving bulging with 130 plants of varying types of tom, 'Shirley' being the main crop, with 'Roma' a secondary sowing, and 'Orkado', which is a new one I'm trying out this year. The 'Roma' seeds were thrust at me by a lady chum last year, as she always had trouble germinating the seeds for some reason, so I acted as surrogate grower for her, and received the obligatory squeeze and prolonged peck for the result, which was jolly interesting, I can tell you!
But this year, the 'Shirley' seeds seemed to go into a sulk, and refused to show in their compost for over three weeks, which is just not normal! The others were also struggling, so in panic, I visited our local garden centre, where the lovely lady there told me not to worry, sit down on a bag of compost to rest, and she would give me three more packets of seed buckshee, as the rep for the seed company was coming in that afternoon, and she'd get a full refund anyway!
So, after her Gladys Emmanuel moment, which is always extremely gratifying, Scrobs returned to sow the new seeds, and pray for a result! The prayers included the wish that at least one or two of the earlier seeds might show, so a decent crop could be managed, and sure enough, about a nano-second after checking the original crop, the whole bloody lot appeared with a symphony of greenery rather like a hundred Kermits on a trampoline!
The new seeds took just a few hours to show, and there was a bemused Scrobs with 130 plants on his hands, and wondering how he could cope with all the hugs, squeezes, pecks etc., which would be due from an increasing list of benefactresses! I began to make a list of names, well away from the interested eyes of Senora O'Blene who would soon be asking certain questions...
But...! Catastrophe!
An early morning visit to the greenhouse turned into an arrival at a murder scene, as one of the dear little Shirleys had been demolished by the very evil sort of mollusc shown in the mug-shot above! The evidence was all there with the slime trail leaping over the edge of the seed tray!
Slug pellets had to be distributed with immediate effect, and sure enough, the following day, the offending little critter had succumbed to the dubious chemical and become a late mollusc, and not before time!
So, there are only 129 little darlings left, and already Scrobs is readying himself to receive the various bodily conversations to be expected in the forthcoming days - one was a phone call, but he is an elderly chum, and the other is an email, but I'll get there sometime very soon, as soon as signing off this post if I'm lucky...
4 comments:
Many years ago, I lived in the country and had some welsh onions growing in a bed which was above a retaining wall.One quiet summer evening I had let the dogs out for their last pee before bed and I was standing next to the onions which were about eye level.I became aware that I could hear a rasping sound coming from the onions and then I noticed the snails on the stems. I could actually hear the damn things eating!
I once knew someone who would go out at dusk and sprinkle salt on the little blighters. He saw it as a battle and liked to see his victims die.
Hellfire, John!
Frightening experience that...
We used to have a resident toad in the GH - called 'Toadlee', and he/she used to see to all these offensive molluscs, but sadly, I found this little cadaver in a deep flower pot, where he/she'd fallen in and couldn't get out!
I was heartbroken!
Toadlee, R.I.P.
Salt is a good idea, AK!
I still have loads of the pellets which are now banned after yet another useless EU flabbery, but I stocked up on several packs, plus enough Bordeaux Mixture to kill all the Blight in Southern England!
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