Guinness IS good for you

Rather reluctantly, but fortunately very briefly, we have a quick update on our tomatoes. We now have two. Huge thanks for this has to go to the local GIY group, who had a plant swap. We managed to get ri... oops, sorry, we mean "reluctantly part with" some rather fine, rooted cuttings from our Gooseberry bush that, tragically, got themselves cut off when it was moved last month. In return, we scooped half-a-dozen seed potatoes (although we've forgotten if they were Roosters or Records) and a Tigerella tomato seedling. Added to our remaining Gardener's Delight, we might yet get the tomatoes to raise and dash our hopes again before the end of the year.

Gardeners Delight (top) and Tigerella (bottom) Tomatoes
(with several departed in the background)

We've found that living a Good Life is very much swings and roundabouts, checks and balances. Something goes up, another comes down. We had hoped to report on the salad bed that we've now sown with the first round of seed of the year. Last year this was one of the top performers in the garden. Things had started well this year - the Rocket had germinated after a few days and all was good. Then disaster! All but one of the Rocket seedlings disappeared and, day after day, nothing else appeared. The reason? Slugs. Adjective adjective Slugs! Unfortunately, we had forgotten to deploy our beer traps, which we normally bait with good old Irish Porter. On discovering our problem, we rushed to the drinks cabinet only to discover no stout. So we did the best we could with what we had. Unfortunately, we are sorry to report that pear cider does not work in Slug beer traps (which is a pity since this would be a good way of getting rid of the awful stuff). Of course, on the plus side it does mean that we're now forced to re-stock the drinks cabinet. See? Ups and downs; swings and roundabouts!

Salad bed with row of Rocket seedlings
(and, hilariously, the forgotten beer traps (green) along the back)