Butterflies & Birds Beware!

Don't get me wrong;  I love butterflies and birds and in fact most wildlife - I say most because I have a bit of a thing about earwigs, but they don't feature in this.  In fact I have a potful of lavender cuttings to plant out at some stage to encourage honey bees and am aiming to deliberately plant things to encourage butterflies and so on later on.  It's just that everything in life has a place and the place of butterflies and bees is most definitely not on my cabbages.


I reckon you only make the mistake of not protecting cabbages once.  You soon learn that if the cabbage white butterfly has its wicked way you will end up with something resembling a green sieve.  So, I planted cabbages, sprouts, calabrese and cauliflowers and then built a cage:

When I say 'I built a cage I should maybe add that my friend Steve banged the posts in for me!  I am hoping it will take a very determined pigeon or butterfly to break in, but just in case...

...I added a rather attractive (ok, tacky) 'bird scarer'...

Then I had the maybe-not-so-great idea of digging up the comfrey.  I did this because there are other comfrey plants popping up lower down the plot that are in a more suitable place.  This one was a monster and in totally the wrong place, so i dug...and dug...and went back the next day and dug again.  I am not particularly hopeful that I have done any more than offend its dignity as I think its roots must go down to the Southern Hemisphere.  We'll see.  I am now on red alert for shoots.

I am pleased to say that the runner beans seem to have survived their battering by last week's wind.  They're picking up and some are making a valiant effort to climb up the canes.  The French Beans are looking rather less well but I'm crossing my fingers.

I am also pleased to report that I now have radishes and lettuce.  You'll be glad to know that they have now been thinned out a bit!








Onion Update:

They are looking SO much better!

In fact, they are looking like onions at last.  The problem is, they now need weeding (Remember...onions hate weeds), but guess what?  Yes...it's raining...a lot...again...