So... picture this.

It's finally harvest time. The vegetables I'd lovingly planted back in spring were ready (or so I hoped). I wandered outside in my pyjamas, coffee in hand, taking in that fresh morning air and mentally planning my soon to be harvest.

Then... I spotted it. Rat-sized nibbles. In. My. Potatoes.

A month or two ago we'd noticed a little visitor in the garden. We assumed it was a mouse, naturally named him Gerald, and pretty much left him to his own devices. Turns out Gerald wasn't a mouse at all. Gerald was considerably larger than expected... and apparently had been bulking up on a diet of my home-grown vegetables.

To be fair, when we finally caught a glimpse of him, it did seem to be just the one rat. Unfortunately, one rat was more than enough. He'd managed to dig through and sample almost everything I'd planted, leaving only the tomatoes and peppers untouched.

Safe to say, I'm slightly regretting our very humane "he'll be fine, leave him to it" approach.

Instead of the exciting harvest I'd been imagining all year, I found myself playing the depressing game of "Is this still edible?"

Spoiler alert... the answer was usually no.

But despite Gerald's best efforts, I'm still incredibly proud of what I managed to grow this year. Everything grew so much better than I'd expected, and even if I didn't get to enjoy most of it, it still feels like a little victory.

The Beetroot
Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot tell you how excited I was about the beetroot. Some were tiny, some were absolutely enormous - genuinely tennis ball sized! I honestly didn't expect them to do so well.
A few weeks before they were ready, my lovely little dog decided to "help" by pulling one straight out of the ground. Naturally, I had to cut it open to see how they were getting on. And then... Golden rays burst from the heavens… or at least up… from the beetroot. Well... not literally. I'd somehow grown **golden beetroot**.
Firstly, I didn't even know golden beetroot existed. Secondly, I had absolutely no idea that's what I'd bought.
It was honestly one of the prettiest vegetables I've ever seen. Bright golden inside and completely unexpected. Sadly... Gerald thought they looked pretty tasty too. So, despite being my biggest gardening surprise of the year... **Off the edible list.**

The Carrots

This section is slightly shorter... Much like my carrots (Ba dum tss).

After finding evidence of Gerald digging around that area, I decided to pull the carrots a little earlier than planned. There were a few decent ones, but most were tiny. This was particularly frustrating because I'd already been on a complete emotional rollercoaster with these carrots. This year I tried seed tape for the first time. For WEEKS... nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. I convinced myself I'd somehow killed them before they'd even started, so I planted another batch on my kitchen windowsill.

Completely unnecessary because eventually the seed tape sprang to life, making my emergency carrots totally pointless. It was all a bit of a faff really... And after all that... Off the edible list.

The Potatoes

I grew lots of potatoes. Very, very small potatoes. I never got that magical "WHOA... look at the size of this one!" moment you see on gardening programmes. Lesson learnt - I'd planted far too many in one small bed, so they simply didn't have enough room to grow properly.

Gerald, however... Absolutely loved them. They were definitely his favourite meal. So they too... Off the edible list.

Although, if I'm honest, I wasn't quite as heartbroken about these. I wasn't overly proud of them this year anyway. Maybe I'm just bored of growing potatoes?

The Onions

Last year I accidentally bought tiny pearl onions while fully expecting giant cooking onions. An innocent mistake. This year I made absolutely sure I'd bought the right ones. They were doing brilliantly. Some were still basically spring onions, others were approaching golf-ball territory, and every single morning I'd wander outside to see how much they'd grown. I was genuinely so excited to harvest them.

Then one morning... Nibbles. Four had been pulled clean out of the ground. The rest had been taste tested. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. Off the edible list.

The Courgettes

Same story, different vegetable…. Or are they technically a fruit?
These courgettes tested my patience for months. They'd start growing. Turn yellow - Stop growing - Go green again - Repeat.
Eventually they sorted themselves out, producing these huge, beautiful orange flowers before finally starting to grow actual courgettes.
This harvest felt extra special because I'd nurtured these from tiny seedlings on my kitchen windowsill before moving them outside and fussing over them daily with frost protection.
Watching them finally grow was so rewarding.
Until Gerald fancied a healthy green snack.
Yep...
**Off the edible list.**
The good news is the plants are still producing flowers, so I'm hopeful I might actually beat Gerald to the next batch.
He had munched the back side of the one in this photo.

The Tomatoes & Peppers

Finally... Some good news! For reasons known only to Gerald, he's completely ignored both the tomatoes and peppers. The tomato plants are absolutely covered in fruit, and my pepper plant has three lovely peppers growing, with one already starting to turn orange. So there may yet be something from this year's harvest that I actually get to eat.

Watch this space...

Goodbye, Gerald?

Despite all the destruction, I genuinely am proud of what I achieved this year. I successfully grew almost everything I set out to grow, and had Gerald not discovered my vegetable buffet, I'd have had an incredible harvest to share with friends and family.

As for Gerald... We think his adventure may have come to an end. Someone further down the road had a pest control van outside their house, so it seems they had a much bigger rat problem than we realised. Since then, we've seen absolutely no signs of him. So...

Goodbye Gerald.

I hope your final feast was worth it.

What's Next?

As much as I've loved growing vegetables, I think I'm going to take a little break from them for now.

Instead... I'm turning the garden into a flower paradise. I've already had so much success with snapdragons, marigolds and alstroemeria, and there's something so lovely about wandering into the garden, picking fresh flowers and filling little vases around the house. It's quickly becoming my new obsession.

So next spring and summer I'm dreaming of even more flowers, more colour and hopefully... fewer rats.

Watch this space x