This year I’ve had a real problem with mice digging up and eating my pea seed, also snails and slugs eating my carrot seedlings. Thanks to my slimy and furry foe I’ve had 3 long rows of carrots wiped out and endless amounts of pea seeds.

I’ve started the carrots again, carefully placing clippings from our holly tree around the rows. I switched from direct sowing of peas to sowing in modules (I must get on the guttering train), along with purple and green mangetout in the greenhouse. I planted out a tray of Shiraz mangetout last weekend, placing lots of holly clippings around the base of each seedling.

Hopefully the prickly holly will protect my peas and emerging carrots.