Saturday 9 May 2015

Know Your Enemies

I got screeched at by a couple of jackdaws! They weren't happy when I stopped them jumping along behind the frog which was trying to hop away in the long grass - poor froggy was only a little fella. Anyway, he got away safe. I wish the jackdaws would concentrate on slugs and snails, not the good guys!
We did a lot of weeding, tidying and feeding today - our strawberries have had a bit of tomato feed and are now netted as tiny strawberries are just beginning to develop.
This is the site after it's been tidied
Jamie completely dug and weeded the quarter where our parsnips and carrots are going - alongside our onions. I planted my purple-podded mangetout outside. I'm growing them up an obelisk. They're well-protected at present otherwise the pigeons wouldn't be able to resist. I don't intend to leave the bottle cloches on once they've got a bit bigger. I've planted all 11 plants, so the obelisk may get a bit overcrowded if they all survive. I'm hoping I'll be able to get at the pods...I'm guessing the flowers grow on the outside facing the sun so that's where I'm hoping the pods will end up!
I also planted out some of the Little Gem and Tom Thumb lettuce outside. I'm not protecting them as we have plenty, but may have to take action if pigeons, pheasants or slugs step up...
All the Boltardy beetroot are planted out now too - this is a part of allotment life that I love; filling in the gaps with tiny plants and watching them grow into food - hopefully mostly for me and Jamie! They're under cover, but only because they're going to share the small raised bed with Silverskin onions, which should be sowed soon.
Our Tenerife spuds are emerging in the bags! Not showing enough for a photo yet, but tell-tale humps in the soil. They obviously prefer the warmth of the bags more than in the ground at the moment.
And here are our bell pepper and chilli pepper. They've grown a lot since we bought them in Wilko a few weeks ago. They're staying at home for the timebeing...

4 comments:

  1. Hi Belinda,
    all looking neat and tidy (like mine at the moment!)
    Are your mangetout "Shiraz" ,that's what I'm growing this year. I think that gravity will take over and some of the pods will hang down inside the centre of the frame?
    Do you grow parsnips and carrots close together.Companion planting lists all seem to consider this a no no ,as with legumes near alliums ,but not many folks seem to follow this notion.
    Things up here are a bit slow because of the cold spring.Normally I'd have direct sown lettuce ,chard and
    beetroot coming up by now but this year have been sowing them in pots to transplant in the next couple of weeks.

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    1. Hello
      I think the mangetout are just listed as 'purple-podded peas'. I'll check later if I still have the packet.
      The parsnips and carrots are next door to each other in the same quarter. I wonder why they're considered poor companions; they're basically the same family aren't they? Maybe it's because disease can spread between them...
      Yes, we've had some warm weather but we're threatened with a frost tonight :-( Hopefully they've got it wrong. Really looking forward to doing ALL the sowing and planting very soon...

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  2. To the crow family if it breathes or once breathed it's a meal. Like you I have been sowing mangetout but ours have purple flowers and green pods

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    1. I'd like to think the frog made it, but it was heading towards a puddle in the middle of the car park, so it may not have much of a future even if the jackdaws didn't get it that time!!
      Purple mangetout flowers are as pretty as sweetpeas!

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Belinda