It may just be the effect of the glorious sunshine but this afternoon I am feeling good about my vegetable garden again after several days of slug-induced negativity. Everything seemed to be going great thanks to the warm spring until last Monday when I arrived home from a weekend away to find my entire first and second plantings of oakleaf lettuce had been munched. One lonely plant remained but did not last much longer. I felt my loss more keenly for seeing how much they had shot up in the three days I had been away. I don't begrudge the slimy gits a nibble but the loss of an entire crop brought down the red mist.

Out came the yoghurt pots, out came the beer. The beer went into the yoghurt pots and the yoghurt pots into the ground around my vegetable patch. Judging by the number of decomposing slugs I have slung onto the compost heap today they are working. I did feel a twinge of vegetarian guilt, but this is my salad they're competing for, and I haven't tasted oakleaf for months.

Here's a tidbit on slug traps I picked up from a forgotten source: leave a centimetre or so between the top of the soil and the top of the trap. This prevents our chums the earthworms from haplessly falling in. It doesn't stop the slugs from slithering to their doom, I can vouch for that.

Yesterday I was starting to think growing veg was not for me after all. When my family visited at the weekend we sampled the first fruits of my labour in the form of a handful of mizuna leaves mixed in with lettuce from the supermarket. This moment should have been joyful, but the bounty was too meagre to give me much cheer. I wondered if my kitchen garden would ever amount to more than a garnish. But it seems there has been a growth spurt in the few hours I was away from the house this morning. I can see at least one decent salad out there, perhaps two. The sun is shining and there's planting to be done!