These slug eggs were uncovered from under some weed control matting when I was preparing ground to plant out my winter cabbages, calabrese and kale. That’s bad news as anyone who grows brassicas knows. Slugs and snails are the enemy of the vegetable gardener – they can destroy a whole bed of seedlings in a single night.

I don’t/won’t/can’t use pellets – they are full of toxic chemicals and therefore not what I want anywhere in my garden, let alone in the veggie patch, where we’re going to eat the produce.

I thought I’d let our hens in for a bit and get them to clear the space, but then I ran the risk of ending up with my leeks, which are already planted and going great guns, being eaten too.

So, these eggs were unceremoniously lobbed over the fence into the path of Mo – who has an eye for a nice tasty morsel and I kind of like the idea of the eggs of a pest becoming food for a pet to make an egg for us!

As for the adult slugs – they’ve been treated to slug pubs – for those who don’t know the principle here, you sink a jar into the ground, fill it with beer and the slugs are magnetically attracted to it. I’m not sure whether the slugs drown, get poisoned by the alcohol or if simple drunkenness means the lose their footing but whatever the reason, you end up with loads of dead slugs and no damage.

I’d always been a bit cynical about whether this would work in reality. I’d heard about it many times, but a discussion with Andra assured me it works for her so I bought some cheap bitter and there are now three beds planted up with my veggies for the late winter and early spring , each of which has a nice choice of establishments for the slugs to get completely plastered in – let’s hope they don’t get the munchies after their drinking sessions.

I hope it works…..I’ve worked hard today digging, manuring (thanks to Emma and Jim) and planting. I don’t want to get up tomorrow to find they’re all gone. However, it’s good for my soul – the hard physical work in the fresh air has made me forget my woes for a short time. That’s got to be good, I’d say.

While I was working, I was digging up the last of the potatoes (the ones that grew before the blight hit), beetroot and carrots - so supper tonight had beetroot, onions, potatoes, chillis and carrots, all 'parchmented' with garlic and honey for an hour, along with chives, tomatoes and eggs, made into a clafoutis with yogurt, flour, and cheese. This is a huge proportion of home-grown to shop-bought and as the honey, garlic and yogurt all came from within five miles of here and nothing came from outside the UK, I'd say we're about as good as we can be for our 'food miles'.

Last year, I was shooting chillis.