Allotment gardening

I try to tackle some of the tidying up of pathways and beds that needs doing. While my two sons play at various games, I hack back brambles, stinging nettles and grass that are growing all over the path and in the beds themselves. I also continue to clear the bed where the onions were, trying to pull up as much bramble root as I can. I pick about eight ripe tomatoes, a large courgette and then, as the rain seems to be holding off, dig over the part of the potato bed where the earlies were. In the process I unearth about five new potatoes which I add to my pickings. While clearing some weeds around the carrots, I notice some of them have been eaten from the top down. I pull them up and find some horrible-looking fly-type bug inside. I suspect carrot fly and run home to try and find out what I have to do. One book tells me to pull up all the infected plants so, later on, I go back to the plot to inspect the whole crop. The good news is that it seems as if slugs are the culprits. There are loads of big orange buggers all around the carrots and, a couple with holes in the tops, actually have slugs inside them. I dig a couple of the rotten ones up and resolve to come down on my next day off and really weed among the carrots and parsnips as I think it may be all the weeds that are giving the slugs enough cover to carry out their dirty work.