Poor Mum

I owe her a phone cal, it's long overdue and I feel very mean about itl. I keep meaning to ring when I get a moment but the garden demands my time.
I ended up getting home last night, mowing the lawn at 8.40pm and then working on a project before falling asleep during the pre recorded Gardener's World at 10pm when the rain woke me up. Having found one of the newly planted courgettes eaten already, it's soft stem gnawed at by slugs or snails, I've taken precautionary measures by sprinkling with a very few slug pellets (I don't like using them as they endanger other animals like the hedgehog as well as the birds), some oyster shell (the slugs don't like crossing sharp, gritty ground) and then circling the courgettes with chicken wire to prevent the hedgehog finding the pellets. Running out of chicken wire meant I had to improvise and the last courgette has an upside down empty flower basket topping it. They have survived the night but I'll be keeping an eye on them.

It's infuriating when you've nurtured a plant only to have it decimated by slugs. Mind you, last night as I was mowing the edges I took out one of the slow growing box plants that was happily growing into a low hedge. It now has one stem left, the rest being ripped away by the roatary blade. An own goal! Idiot.

Sadly two of the three courgettes got slugged. I'm pining my hopes on the last one!