Friday 17 July 2009

The Weeds Are Doing Well !!




Still struggling with the arthritis - been more mobile, but had work and housework to catch up on as well as garden and allotment.

Did loads of weeding in the veggie patch at home this week. Have bagged up about 5 sacks of weeds. Thistles were 4-5 feet tall (you can just about see thistles in the potato bed in the pic on the left) and the ground was covered in a small leafed weed, not sure what it was.

All the garlic has disappeared without trace - presumed either eaten by slugs or strangled by weeds. Most of the broccoli and caluliflower ran to seed - I did manage to cut one of each that was usable, so not quite a total loss. All the spinach and most of the lettuce has finished so been pulled up.

The peas were dying off so pulled all them up too. Last year the Kelvedon Wonder grew to about 2ft tall, so the support "fence" I put up was only 2ft high. This year I planted Kelvedon Wonder one side, Rondo the other. The Rondo grew to about 4ft tall and flopped over. Good news is they had pods twice the size of Kelvedon Wonder and twice as many pods, so 4 x the peas I got from KW. Had 2 large pans full so far, all blanched and frozen.


The broad beans were destroyed by blackfly. Blackfly has also attacked the runner beans - see pic on the left with red flowers - I've sprayed them with ordinary bug spray a couple of times but not sure it's helped. Disappointing after the first lot of runners died and this lot are just touching the top of the wigwam and have started flowering. French beans are half way up the wigwam, not touched by blackfly yet, no flowers yet.

Bit disappointed with the potato yield from the patio tubs, but have had enough for several meals. Last night had 3 varieties of new potatoes with dinner - lovely - if only I could remember which was which!

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Have some vacant space on the legumes / salad bed (pic on left), and peas growing in modules in the greenhouse. Will build a solid frame for the peas with 2x1 timber and chicken wire and get that set up next week. The frame will be movable so I can resite it each year. Must sow some more lettuce and spinach
I also have vacant space in the brassicas bed, and loads of broccoli / PSB etc in small pots, so will get that planted out next week.

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