[18th July]
Spent most of today out in the garden. Finished shredding the laurel we “pruned” at last, and added it to the compost heap. Then planted out the last of the brassicas (some multi-coloured cauliflowers my daughter chose) and the peas that have been hardening off. Had to make some more patented plastic partridge-proof pea protectors for those. Handily I’d found some old 3mm-ish diameter fencing wire that was in the barn when we started the conversion that I could use for supporting the plastic mesh. It was a pig to cut, mind, even with fencing pliers.
I was also treated to a little reminder of nature in action. There were a few Large and Small White butterflies flitting around the brassicas looking for suitable places to lay eggs, and not far behind them a group of wasps out hunting for “baby food”. We’ve had very little caterpillar damage on the brassicas so far this year and whilst some of that is down to me getting rid of them when I’ve found them, I wonder if it isn’t mainly because the wasps are doing a very efficient job.