Don't you just hate when that happens ... slug attack

So, this year has been a bit of a non-starter where seed sowing is concerned, and it's not for the want of trying. 

Let me explain.

As early as mid-February I had seed sown in my indoor propagator. These went by the way-side after they germinated and the seed tray was accidentally pulled off its table. These were rescued as best as I could, some additional ones sown, and guess what, they ended up on the floor again. 

Well, not to be defeated that easily, I sowed some more in mid-April, and these have germinated and grown well. I've been particularly happy with my orange flowered Cosmos 'Phoenix', which were a slightly more expensive seed, but well worth it judging by pictures I've seen. 

So these seed, among other plants in the garden, have been regularly inspected at night by torchlight, I've used a beer trap or two and the occasional sprinkle of slug pellets. 

Great. 

Won't be long before they're ready to plant into containers.

Hmmmm ... famous last words. The past two nights I've been busy and haven't been on 'slug watch', and guess what, they've scaled past my defences and had a good chomp on the Cosmos.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed.  I went out again this evening, torch in hand and caught one big dark coloured fellow red handed. He was dispatched to a distant hedgerow quicker that he could say 'Phoenix', and hopefully good riddance to him. As for the munched plants, we'll see do they have the energy (and I have the patience) for something to come of them, time will tell.

I did console myself with a trip to the garden centre to buy a couple of trays of bedding for my up coming container planting event. 

By the way, the plant at the top of the post is a self seeded Aquilegia that's in flower today in the garden. It's beautiful, isn't it, and a reminder to me, that sometimes we should trust nature to provide the colour for us.

Happy gardening.