Lesser of two evils..

[muddled]

Popped up to the plot today.
My netting defences have taken a real battering and left all my psb, romanescos and peas quite naked
Strangely though, there is no discernable pigeon damage on the brassicas and the damage on the peas might well be from slugs.

So, I'm wondering....might the mild weather mean the birds are less hungry and the slugs are still active?
Should I leave the netting off so that birds can get to the slugs?
And how many slug eaters are there anyway at this time of year?

This mild weather flumoxes me...I still have roses in bloom in the garden for goodness sake

[Scarlet]

I'd get the nets on quick. There are lots of berries around at the mo so that may be a reason your greens haven't been touched but it usually doesn't take them long to eat the lot if left uncovered. I wouldn't chance it.

[Nicos]

^^^^^ snap.

[muddled]

Okay, I'll do the nets in the morning. Thank you both.

[Glutton4...]

The big rose that I cut right back in the autumn (it was tatty and in the way of the path - planted long before I was here), now has seven or eight blooms on it, too.

I also have primroses, that have been blooming since November, and a friend has snowdrops and daffs coming up!

[Scarlet]

No sign of my snowdrops yet but I've found half a bag of tulips sprouting outside must have got side tracked half way through planting and forgot the rest

[Penellype]

I've got a similar dilemma, which I didn't have last year. I've already taken the net off my brassicas (mizuna and kohlrabi) because snow was forecast and the nets were only supported on flexi balls on top of bamboo canes, which would certainly not have coped with snow. I tried dropping the nets to ground level, but even though I left them loose they seemed to be causing a lot of damage to the mizuna leaves, and I felt they were harbouring slugs. I don't have a big pigeon problem here - I grow broccoli unprotected over winter without problems.

My dilemma is my carrot cage which has been where it is for nearly 2 years and is the absolute devil to cover nicely with netting because the back of it is up against the garage wall. Its not going to snow for the next few days, but when the current cold snap finishes we are likely to get snow before it rains, and I'd hate to find the whole thing had collapsed onto the floor.

For those of you in the tropical south, this is what my garden looks like at 11.20am this morning - no snow, but its pretty cold!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Crikey your lucky this is my patch taken just 5 minutes ago, plenty of snow and pond still frozen.

Brother in law lives in Buxton Derby's and report 8 to 10 inch's there.

[Penellype]

Agree, we were very lucky here - we were just on the edge of the yellow warning area, and the radar was actually registering snow here, but it fell as wet sleet. I am not at all confident that we will miss the next lot though.