After going away for a holiday, there is always the question of how is my garden doing? In my case this year, there is also how much damage have the snails caused? In answer to these two questions, it is mostly ok, but also a fair bit of damage to certain crops.

I will start with the bad as I want to get it out of the way. The snails have been rather busy on two of my three pea varieties I had growing when I went away. My ‘Franks Pea’ and ‘Purple Podded Dutch’ peas got defoliated by snails. I was really looking forward to having some peas to eat as well. I can’t say I’m happy with this one, but I wasn’t here to do snail removal so I just have to accept it.

The other disappointment is that I now only have one brassica plant that has escaped damage from snails too. I had thirteen plants growing really well up until this point. Now, I have one broccoli plant that is completely fine and one Brussels sprout plant and one broccoli plant that will hopefully come back.

Now on to the good news in my garden. There is more good than bad, so overall, I shouldn’t be too disappointed. All my nasturtiums are doing really well. They have all grown a lot in the past week, which I am so pleased about. My strawberries are also doing well.

My beans are still growing well with little, if any, damage. I have yet to see any flowers on them, but the fact that they have grown and have no damage is really positive.

After the disappointment of the Franks Pea and Purple Podded Dutch peas being eaten, my sugar snap peas are growing nicely so far.

Inside, I am also having some success still. My very tiny poppy plants have grown in the week I have been away. They are still really small, but there are some new leaves there now. Awesome. My mixed cacti seedlings are also growing really well. I still don’t know what species they are but I’m loving the fact that they are growing well.

Over the next few days, I am going to decide what to grow in the space now freed up by my lack of peas. I am looking forward to getting back into my garden to get sowing seeds and doing a little potting up where required. That can be a post or two over the next few days once I know what I am going to do. Until next time, happy gardening!