OCTOBER RESULTS

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October

The weather in October followed the pattern set by the previous month and was notable for being exceptionally mild (Temperatures this month have been consistently higher than they were for most of the summer). Although it rained consistently for most of the month, there was only one occasion when floods threatened to invade the garden. Severe gales brought down cascades of leaves that compromised all the plots containing the Snail ban. Slug and snails numbers were still high due to the mild weather and a few slugs managed to cross the Snail ban via the fallen leaves, although damage to the remaining lettuces was slight. This was reflected in the fact that I could only find seven slugs over the whole of the four plots during clean up operations. Normally, at this time of year, lettuces would have either been totally destroyed by snail attack or killed off by early frosts.

The lack of slugs and snails could also be due to the abundance of  frogs that are hiding between the sleepers and the hurdles. They have only just appeared and I would expect them to migrate to the compost heap to hibernate very soon. Thrushes have also re-appeared as the hawthorn and blackthorn fruits are now ripe and there have been several mornings when I have heard the satisfying tapping of snail shell against paving.

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