Very Hungry Caterpillars
When Millie and i were in the garden on Sunday i found my Calabrese plants had been munched to death by literally hundreds of caterpillars. Some of the plants were just stems!!! I consulted my books and it said to pick them off and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Now call me an old softy but i couldn't really bring myself to do this (most were just babies!). So i selected 4 for us to observe and put them in a jar, and the rest i distributed about the garden (ok, secretly hoping they would be eaten by birds, frogs, hedgehogs.....).


Browsing Merry's Blog the other day i discovered she was having the same problems (see Sat 26th July) Merry's caterpillars look just like ours.

and The Enormous....courgette!

Been in the garden this morning and found this!!!!



It is obviously one i missed when i checked on Sunday - i can't believe the size of it!



Dd found it highly amusing too!

Yesterday we picked our first lot of beans, runner and French. We had them for lunch and they were yummy. I've never thought much of french beans in the past - always seemed a bit tasteless- so i was pleasently surprised by our crop as they were lovely, sweet and crisp.
The peas that i planted the other day are starting to emerge :o) We have taken the other lot down now as they were making the whole row unstable and also i think the had powdery mildew on them???? Or something like that anyway.