There’s been an amount of heavy rain recently and it looks like the slugs will be more like year 1 than year 2 🙁 All 3 of my amaranthus Velvet Curtains have been eaten, despite being in copper rings. Maybe the copper needs more mud cleaning off it.

Some plants are getting eaten, like one runner bean that clearly got beaten onto the ground during some rain, and the cosmos that were in the shed pot. I did a complete round with the slug pellets, lobbing some through to next door too. Happily, the purple bell vines are ok and have started having a bit more life. They have purple edges to the leaves now.

I’ve put a couple of dahlias in the shed pots and put rings around them. The dahlias in the beds are all fine.

Though weeds are coming up in the compost lines, the chard seedlings are starting to be discernible. I’ll leave it a while yet before deciding whether any need to be filled in.

What I hope is the flax is still going and is starting to get true leaves.

Most of the remaining dahlias have been put in around the back of the obelisk. A couple of nasturtiums have appeared at the front and various seedlings are coming up in the compost that I’m fairly confident are not just weeds. I need to pour more meadow mix out – it’s no use to me on the shelf in the shed.

All the beans are now planted. One that had been put out earlier has been eaten almost entirely, so if it doesn’t recover, there’s also another seed shoved into the ground in the same place.

If it weren’t for my lovely geums, this slightly rough start to the season would be more difficult. The angelonia will arrive in a couple of weeks, adding a bunch of bulk that should be of little interest to the slugs.