Does frost really kill pests ?

We have had several quite servere frosts in recent days but when I went to pick some sprouts I found these little fellows having a good feed.

The sprouts themsleves are quite good, the variety is Bridget

Crop that did promise

In the pictures of my promising crops you can see my sweetcorn. I picked several cobs and they were so good. My wife Ann thought she might have added sugar as they were so sweet but it was the variety, however the next time I went to my plot , I had had a visit by a badger he had climbed over the fence and eaten every cob.It has been suggested that he would have burrowed under the wire but I think I would see some sign of this and it is known that badgers can climb.

promising crops



Several people are having a bad year for runner beans and some with sweetcorn I have done nothing special but at the moment both of these crops with me promise to be good. I sowed the runner beans at intervals so that hopefully I will pick well into October ,weather permitting. These pictures weretaken on Tuesday 21st August

I had a load of manure delivered but it was some way from my plot so it meant a lot of wheelbarrow work.I have lifted most of the old wood surrounds so now need a good bonefire.Managed to get enough claer to plant a row of raspberries.

Just to update on the progress with my new plot. It is taking time as there is such a lot of couch etc. to get out but I have now planted a row of raspberries. Another plot owner helped me by taking away all the old carpet etc. that was between the wood surrounds left by the previous owner. Wednesday 14th March I spend about a couple of hours most days digging and cleaning , I have planted some black berries and strawberries. I am told the badgers like fruit so will put some wire netting round that area. I have about half of my new plot dug now.
Progress on my allotment. Most things are growing quite well , I have planted some raspberries,strawberries and blackberries, these should all crop well next year although we are getting a few strawberries now. the potatoes, parsnips,swedes ,onions,beetroot and various brassicas  are looking good. I am getting quite a lot of weeds coming back but hope to keep on top of them.


Sweetcorn is looking good along with the parsnips. I have had to put netting round as I am told the badgers love both.
We are now picking runner beans (3rd Aug) I have planted at intervals to get a long period of crop.
The tomato plants are grafted as they are supposed to be resistant to blight.It looks as if there will be a very large crop.

I have mentioned that having moved and lost our garden and greenhouse etc. I now have to do things in a different way. One thing that changed was having my begonias in pots in the greenhouse further down you can see I had them last year in containers but then I had nowhere to dry them off, so they have been in the shed with a fair amount of the old compost still attached. Normally I would have started them into growth by now but with no greenhouse this could not be so. Today March 18th I have cleaned them up ready to put them into trays and I thought you might be interested to see the amount of roots I get by covering the corms with compost rather than leaving them on the surface as we used to. The whole corm can produce roots if in contact with compost and when we used to leave them on the surface this was not possible. You should not worry about water collecting in the top of the corm as the compost will draw this out.