Peas and broad beans have been among the first things to be planted on the plot.
So far two lots of broad beans - Masterpiece Green Longpod and Witkiem Manita - have been planted out with a third variety - Crimson Flowered - hardening off in the cold-frame.
As I've mentioned before weed control fabric has been used on this bed and the beans planted through it in a crossed slit. We're learning as we go along which type of planting technique best suits which type of plant. When planting the first lot of beans I tried to scoop soil out of the 'hole' in the fabric but for the second lot I sort of scooped aside a planting pocket in the soil keeping the soil under the fabric. During the last visit to the plot both sets of beans were growing well.
At first we thought that the fabric was keeping weevils at bay but they have obviously now homed in on the plants and started nibbling.
We're also using weed control fabric with our peas. Here the method is different as we have planted the peas into long slits in the fabric - in the same way as we have planted the carrots, parsnips, onions and shallots. The pea plants - Meteor -were first raised by sowing seeds in small pots to grow them on before planting out on the plot.
We have also planted two taller growing variety of pea - Sugar Snap (this was a substitute for another variety of pea that we ordered) - and a mangetout variety - Carouby de Maussane. The latter has purple flowers and we have grown it before.
We have just coppiced one of the hazel bushes planted on the plot, (originally these were transplanted from the garden where they started life as one corkscrew hazel). The 'prunings' are being used as pea sticks. The manure mulch is just really to prevent the fabric from blowing about and will be of no harm to the peas. Once the fabric is removed it can be incorporated into the soil and so eventually serve two purposes.
Again it will be interesting to see how much weevil damage the pea plants suffer.
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I didn't planted my peas this year because there was snow lying until April, and it was too late to plant peas. As an old Polish proverb says who plants peas in March gets a lot of pea pods, but who plants peas in May gets nothing. (this is translation of course :) In Polish it all rhymes.)
ReplyDeleteI hope the rhyme isn't true of the UK, Dewberry!
DeleteIt's all looking good Sue and it seems like your use of the weed fabric is working well. I'm jealous of your hazel sticks, they'll look great with the peas winding up them.
ReplyDeleteWe've another hazel bush to coppice next year Paula so hopefully we'll have a good supply
DeleteThose weevils have certainly had a good meal, I think they make the leaves look kind of pretty though. It's a good job the harvest won't suffer.
ReplyDeleteThey do become a problem with directly sown plants though. Jo.
DeleteI'm glad your beans have withstood the attention of the weevils!
ReplyDeleteYour peas and bens look wonderful. Mine are coming on now too....xxxx
Now all we need is a crop, Snowbird
DeleteI love those pea-sticks you have. So delightfully old-fashioned. Much more elegant than canes or string or plastic!
ReplyDeleteWe're hoping we have enough for the sweet peas too, Mark. If not we should have next year.
DeleteI'm debating about a couple of hazels in the front garden. I do think pea-sticks look much nicer than canes.
ReplyDeleteThe hazels aren't exactly attractive plants, Jo but where they are on the plot isn't really a consideration. They are vigorous too and can be prone to greenfly.
DeleteI have never heard of weevils eating broad bean leaves - I have only ever had trouble with blackfly. That has to be the lesser of two evils. Get it.
ReplyDeleteIndeed I do Elaine - very good :) We don't seem bothered with blackfly - famous last words!! The weevils also nibble the pea leaves - they devastated peas sown direct last year as the plants grew so very slowly they couldn't outgrow the damage.
DeleteThey are looking good but never seen the weevil damage before - I do feel fortunate not to have many pests in the garden (famous last words!) - love the hazel coppice I must get some, stuck with dull bamboo canes!
ReplyDeleteI think we get more pests being on a plot rather than growing in the garden, Damo. There is a more extensive food supply so pests can take hold. We never suffered blight when many of the plots were derelicts and all the plots around us were over head high in weeds.
DeleteNice looking plants despite the weevil damage. The pea-sticks look brilliant too.
ReplyDeleteWe've been meaning to use hazel as pea sticks for a while, Rooko but the last lot that were coppiced a couple of years ago didn't have suitable branches.
DeleteYour peas and pea sticks look great (nice sunny day too). Hope there is minimal weevil damage.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice a sunny and warm today too, Kelli
DeleteI have to check my records, because one set of my broad beans is flowering really well, and the other, planted earlier, is hardly flowering at all. I am trying Carouby de Maussane too - were the peas you had substituted "Junos" by any chance? My replacements for those are just popping up which is encouraging.
ReplyDeleteThe pea replaced was Alderman, Janet - they sent Sugar Snap as an alternative.
DeleteI love your climbing structures, they are so much more pleasing to the eye than the canes I have in the ground.
ReplyDeleteJust hope that they do the job, Tanya
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