Unfortunately, today I spotted the first damage to the vegetables this year. The carefully nurtured Spagna Bianco beans, in their own small bed, had had their leaves eaten. I don’t know what did it, but the young plants have been under a mesh cover, so it’s something within the soil.

Soil-borne pests are invariably the most difficult kind of pest to eradicate, so I’m planning a two-pronged attack. Today I dusted the whole bed with this pyrethrum-based insect killer powder. And soon I’ll buy some nematodes, specifically designed for vegetable pests.

Together that should win the war against my mystery invaders. Until then, the remaining seedlings indoors will have to go into pots temporarily.

Much more positively, the potato beds are full of lush green growth. Of course, to maximise yields it’s necessary to earth up, covering the leaves to that they’ll develop more haulms and, in turn more potatoes.

A couple of bags of compost later and the job was done. Covering again with mesh was the finishing touch. The leaves won’t take long at all to push through again and with very changeable whether at the moment, it’s still important to protect against any night frosts.

Tomorrow I’ll enjoy sowing these seed balls. This tin contains twenty clay balls, each containing a hundred wildflower seeds. I plan to place them around the borders.

There’s very little else to it apparently, apart from looking forward to a colourful bounty of cornflowers, cowslips, daisies and more later in the year.