Storing for winter

With all the snow and icy weather we’ve had, the crops out on the field seem to be in suspended animation, putting on no growth but just ‘sitting tight’ until the spring. Only in the polytunnels is it warm enough for plants to be growing at the moment- there, the spring cabbages are hearting up and our peas and broad beans are coming up quite nicely under cover. 

A few weeks ago, however, we noticed large gaps in the beds with no seedlings at all. Could it be slugs? No telltale slimy trails… Could it be mice? Or faulty seed? Hard to tell. Until, that is, dense clusters of pea and bean plants started coming up where none had been planted- dozens of them crammed into a few inches, giving away the secret of our mouse’s winter hoard! When Tammy went to dig them up and replant them, she discovered they’d been planted so far down, she needed a long iron bar to make a hole deep enough to fit their straggly stems. The depths those mice will go to!..