Slugs, Strawberries and Bumblebees

Things have picked up at the allotment as the weather has improved although it also means the grass paths seem to be growing really quickly so spending a lot of time mowing and strimming. Also had some problems with suspected slug attacks as a whole bed of small cauliflower and cabbage plants disappeared pretty much overnight, quite disappointing as we'd started them off at home from seed before planting out. Luckily we still have a few sprout plants left (well, lucky for Alison, I'm not keen on them..yuck)

We've also planted out some summer squashes and also a couple of pumpkin plants started at home from seed we swapped for at the seed swap earlier this year - they're all doing well so far and not been attacked by anything (yet). Also our strawberry plants are growing well and starting to fruit, the strawberries are huge and there seems to be loads of them :)

The raspberry canes also seem to be growing well, hopefully soon they'll be tall enough to tie in to the wire & stake supports I put up (which are a bit wonky to be honest but they'll do). The potatoes also seem to be growing really well with lots of foliage. We also have sugar snap peas and regular peas which are doing okay. There's also some onion sets along with my rather pathetic attempt at growing some from seed (maybe 3-4 of them left, they look more like blades of grass at the moment). Lots of garlic still in the ground which seems to be doing well, and also some fairly tiny leeks which will hopefully pick up soon.

Mowed, strimmed and had a tidy in the garden at home this evening after work - along with what's in the cold frame we have some herbs and other bits and bobs growing in pots and around the garden. Took this picture of a bumblebee on the chive flowers, seemed to be loads of them in the garden this evening. Good excuse to experiment with the macro mode on my new camera :)