Pea and Bean Weevil

We were all away at the weekend so went down to the allotment briefly this morning to see what's happening.

Spread more pelleted chicken manure pellets on the potato bed.  Altogether it has been fed around 2kg of chicken manure and a cubic metre of last year's compost per 10 square metres so hopefully we will get a good crop.

The kale looks like it's starting to go to seed now but it needs to be dug up soon to make room for seed planting.   The carrots in the cold frame have germinated and a few pea and broad been seedlings have come up too.  Very exciting!

Some of the broad beans have little U-shaped notches around the edges of the leaves.  Apparently this is characteristic of Pea and Bean Weevil.  They are a common pest of young pea and bean plants but they usually grow out of the vulnerable stage.  There is nothing much that can be done about it other than keeping the young plants watered in dry weather.  We had this with the peas last year but we thought it was mice nibbling the leaves.

B

Been Seed Planting

Over the last few weeks have planted some seeds:

Indoors - Used up all tomato seeds from last year (3 tumbler, 3 beef tomatoes); planted 3 twilight chillies; 6 orange peppers; 6 red peppers (all pepper seeds taken from peppers brought to eat).  So far 4 tomato seedlings have appeared.

Cold Frame: Have planted 19 Brussels Sprouts (Evesham Special); 11 Cabbage (Golden Acre/Primo); 10 Cauliflower (All Year Round); 6 Lettuce (All Year Round); 5 Lettuce (Butterhead - Trial).

Shallot Sets and Salad Onions. Cabbage Whitefly

Another lovely day, and very productive.

The plum trees are in blossom and there are bees about.  The broad beans have started to come up.  The green manure (Winter tares / vetch) sown last Autumn at the front of the plot where we are going to plant brassicas and sweetcorn is growing strongly.  It will need to be dug in next month.

In the fruit bed, the currants we pruned last month are looking healthy with plenty of new leaves starting to open.  The whole fruit bed could do with a good weeding and a mulch when we get time - maybe with cardboard and a layer of compost.  Weeded, fed and mulched the Wye Challenger hop that we put in two years ago, and fixed up its hazel wigwam.  It has really strong roots now so should do well this year.  There are plenty of strawberry plants and runners around the base of the hops.

Planted four rows of shallots (Red Sun and Golden Gourmet) and gave the whole onion bed a top dressing of chicken manure pellets.

Thickly sowed a short but wide drill of mixed red and white salad and pickling onion seed (Paris Silverskin and Lilia) in the raised bed  near to where we will be planting carrots next month.  They make a good companion plant as the smell from onions deters carrot fly.

Used the heavy Azada to finish making the potato bed and spread chicken manure pellets and a whole bin of our compost on top.

Small clouds of Cabbage Whitefly were seen as we hoed around the brassicas.  Marigolds as a companion plant are supposed to repel them so might try that this year.

We harvested leeks, young kale leaves and some sprout tops.

Peas and Carrots

A lovely Spring day today.

Planted a triple row of peas (Rondo) in a shallow trench in the raised bed and laid some window panes on top to make a cloche.

Found a packet of carrot seeds in the shed (Kingston F1) still in date so gave them a try; broadcast sown in the cold- frame.  Maybe a bit over- enthusiastic in planting the seed so soon but if they grow we will have some very early carrots.

Dug most of the rest of the potato bed.  It hasn't been cultivated and was well-trampled, so the Azadas were needed to break it up and get the bramble roots out.  The bed is still quite wet at the lower end so it should hold more moisture and be good for the main crop.

Slugs

The Spring cabbages we planted out last Autumn have been nibbled.  Checked over the leaves in case the culprits were those tiny snails.  No sign of them, so it must be slugs.  Hoed around the cabbages and put down some organic slug pellets.  They should be OK.

Laid out the old windows we use for cold frames on the ground to warm it up for planting peas and early carrots, hopefully next week, weather permitting.

Compost, Comfrey & Manure

It hasn't rained for most of the week and the ground is dry enough to dig.  A beautiful sunny day today but cold.

Dug over half the potato bed, around 25 square metres.  Got a lot of couch grass roots out; there will be plenty more still in the ground.  Spread one of the bins of our own compost from last year  and added 2 kilos of chicken manure pellets (quite a lot, but the ground needs it) ready for planting out the early potatoes at the end of the month.

The comfrey patch got a good feed of chicken manure pellets and a mulch of the free compost.  It is much wetter on the lowest part of the plot where the comfrey is, so it's in a good spot.

The broad beans haven't come up yet.  To keep the pigeons off we strung up some CDs and put some cut plastic bottle 'noise makers' on bamboo poles where they are planted.

Dug up some leeks to make room for the shallots.  They are very small this year.  Drought we think, and maybe need to pay more attention to feeding.

Also picked a few tiny sprouts and sprout tops, a few small leaves of kale, some Jerusalem artichokes, and the last two parsnips.