Flowers on the peas
Gad I love this climate. It’s still light and you can garden until after 7pm, and you can go away to the Lakes for a week and know that it will rain buckets while you are away. I was curious to know what it would be like being so away for so long during this precious growing season. And the slugs didn’t disappoint. Goodness they had been busy. Especially in the potato patch. I walked down the beds and looked for signs of decimation (the basil was safe, the celeriac was particularly tasty to them, and can’t find much left of the parsnips) but it was the fact they managed to almost strip the pink fir potatoes almost bare that was impressive. I inspected the base of each plant and found at least five of the blighters in the soil below each one. Yes, the nematode controls worked – every sixth slug was dead. But that left too many to work their way through their very own special vegetable patch. Who am I feeding here?
Still, at least now I can say that I have tried my best with organic controls and can go and get the heavy chemicals with impunity. That, or porridge oats.
Other things to see- the grass has gone wild, there were slugs under the lettuce (must try and grow such succulent things here at home instead) most of the bindweed was under control, but I found a fantastic plant that had snuck up under a potato plant in the main bed and it was about two feet long. The couch grass is under control thank goodness.
And after I had done a quick weed it was to the broad bean patch where the black fly patch was particularly interesting. Lots and lots of pests feeding on the juicy tips. So off came the tops of each plant and I happily spent fifteen minutes squishing the rest of the black fly to death. So gooey, but oddly satisfying. There are some ladybirds doing their valuable work, but the quantity of blackfly are just overwhelming. A lot of the pods have formed and will produce good beans in a few weeks; but I think the dwarf Sutton variety are less successful than the overwintering Aquadulce.
The runner beans are running which is good. And one of the white lady beans has come up. But the other seed failed to germinate. What a finicky variety of bean. I must try and plant another seed next visit. It does mean I am going to succession plant the beans, without planning it.
No sign of any soya beans. I wonder how long they are supposed to take to germinate. And definitely no carrots. I think just one has germinated out of the fifty or so that I sowed. So I’ll have to try again. Perhaps with a different packet of seeds. At least the cabbage are thriving. Getting under the netting to weed is a bit of a trial, but I will plant some more next week and hope that it will be crowded enough in there to deter the biggest weed. I don’t want to wait until they become huge before harvesting, so they can be planted quite closely together.
There are flowers on the peas. And they are growing well, except that I understand why people put up such elaborate pea supports. They do tend to drag on the ground. Which, as you know is Slug Territory. But they haven’t been mauled about like other plants.
Charlotte arrived later in the afternoon to plant up her tomatoes. She is doing great work – planting and weeding at the same time. She paid me for her nematodes, but hasn’t watered them in just yet. She commiserated over my slug damage, and we spent a happy early evening working away at our separate plots.
Must bring more seeds next time – I need to try these soya beans again, plus do more broad beans and peas.