Pet shop ploys

Shopping in Waitrose today buying groceries. It’s an expensive supermarket at the best of times, but time was short and needs must. I had to buy some more oatmeal to deter the slugs and found myself reaching for the only plain oatmeal on the shelf. Looking closely at the label and the price tag I found out it was organic and rather a special brand. Expensive organic oats for the slugs? Wait a minute – these creatures aren’t beloved pets, they are vermin. What was I thinking? Back they went and I hunted out a cheaper more scabby brand.

I’ll be shopping in pet food stores next.

Bought a hose too. It’s only 30 metres (100 feet) long, and I have no idea if it will reach the plot from the distant tap, having never paced out the path with a view to running a hose. But it’s an experiment I am willing to undertake. Another year of wheelbarrow and sloshing watering cans and buckets cannot be borne.