It has been a week for wildlife in the vegetable plots. We like to encourage the birds and beasties as much as possible. Gardens are very important habitats for wildlife, and edible gardens benefit from the presence of natural predators and pollinators.

We found three frogs in the polytunnel this morning including the little chap opposite. They are more than welcome to make a home for themselves here, as they do us a great service in keeping down the dreaded slug population. In fact, apart from picking slugs off the crops when we find them we don’t use any other control methods.

Having said all of that, wildlife can do damage too. Our resident badgers polished off the last of the parsnips last night. They have very particular tastes and carefully select all of the carrots first returning on later nights for the parsnips! I really quite like the badgers though – and we still have root crops growing in the polytunnel (for now…).

The other excitement this week was an interview with the Beechgrove Potting Shed for BBC Radio Scotland. Scheduled for the Sunday the 5th August, listen out for us talking with producer Laura Seawright.