Broad Beans
A couple of days ago I sowed another bed of broad beans. I used an unopened packet I bought over a year ago as well as some saved seed from 2 years ago. The variety was Masterpiece Green Longpod. This bed will follow on from the bed of Aquadulce Claudia I sowed last autumn and which are already over a foot high.
Last year I tried one of Bob Flowerdew’s ideas on companion planting and threw a broad bean seed in the planting hole with each maincrop potato. The idea is that the first growth shields the young potatoes from late frosts, and then the roots break down releasing nitrogen to the soil which the potatoes use when they are swelling. I did get a good crop of both spuds and beans, but I don’t think the idea works as intended. Even after harvesting the beans, the plants were still growing, and I don’t think the timing for the release of nutrients to the soil was right. Also I didn’t really trust the slight protection offered by the beans against the frost. But my main concern was spotting the beans amidst the foliage and actually managing to harvest at the right time. All in all I am not sure what I actually gained, and have decided not to do it again this year.
Onions
The sets arrived this week and yesterday we put them in. I used a greater spacing than last year, in order to allow me to easily hoe across the beds. So we put in 2 bags about 6” apart in transverse rows 10” apart. These were Hercules, an F1 variety which seems to tick most of the boxes. I have never succeeded well with my onions, which is why I moved them in my rotation to grow in the recently manured soil vacated by last year’s spuds. But I want to give them all the help I can, so this year I chose this, a more expensive, variety.
I also received a pack of Snowball, a mild, white, onion. (I remember eating something similar while on holiday in Portugal a few years ago, and finding them delicious.). I had expected to fit these into the onion bed as well, but as I had no room left, I had to look elsewhere. Initially I thought of the bed which contains garlic & shallots. However these should be lifted by early July and their place taken by climbing peas or beans. Spring-sown onion sets are unlikely to be ready for lifting before late July or early August. So I sowed a couple of rows of Spring Onions Ishaguru next to the shallots instead and thought again.
In the end I fitted half the pack in the bed where the leeks had been, (not ideal to follow one allium with another, however). The rest I put in at the end of the Field Bean bed, There were a few gaps in the rows, and by transplanting from one end into the gaps, I had just enough room to put in the rest of the Snowball.
First Early Potatoes
When I pulled back the black plastic covering the bed destined to receive my First Early Potatoes, I could see that the worms had not yet managed to dig in all the manure for me. So I lightly forked it in and raked it over. Then I put out my first early spuds Accord, 12-15” apart in all directions. As usual I used a bulb planter for this, drawing out a core of soil, placing the tuber in about 6" deep, and replacing the soil.
Carrots
Later than planned, I put in some short rows of carrots under the cloches which have been in place for several weeks now, 1 cloche each for Parmes and Zian.
I'm Rubbish at Seedlings!
I finished building another length of staging for the greenhouse out of wood and aluminium this week and transferred some of my seedlings there from the conservatory. Unfortunately the brassicas are not looking too healthy, probably because I accidentally watered them with the wrong rose on the can and flooded & flattened them. I will have to start another batch off as soon as the propagator is free.
Fortunately the tomatoes seem unaffected by their unintended power shower.
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