The broad beans and peas that I sowed back in February have been planted out into the raised bed this week. I have made a second sowing of them, including the variety of pea called Eddy and like the first sowing I have done this in pots and will keep these in the greenhouse to protect them from any slugs until they are big enough to be planted out. I have also sown my climbing French beans – varieties Cobra, Carminat, Monte Cristo and Monte Gusto – and dwarf French beans – variety Purple Queen. Like the broad beans and peas, these are sown in pots in the greenhouse.
The onions and garlic that I sowed in a raised bed last autumn are looking well and I’ve started to water them. Last year they really suffered in the dry and hot weather and they didn’t get enough water.
During the week I’ve received my tomato and pepper plug plants through the post. I am trying the following varieties this year: Aviditas, Honeycomb and the Tutti Frutti series of cherry, mandarin and grape for the tomatoes; Thor and Orange Kiss sweet peppers. I am also trying melon for the first time and have variety Alvaro. I’ve potted these up into small pots.
I have two small raised wooden beds for asparagus. However the wood has begun to rot and over the winter one of the sides of one bed came away. Rather than replace it with wood and have the same thing happen again in a few years, I decided to look for a replacement. After a lot of research I decided to try one made of steel sheeting – the company kindly sent me an Email with a link to a video on how it is put together. Thankfully it is as easy as it looks in the video and I managed to put it together myself with the help of a screwdriver. I was able to remove the old wooden bed and place the new steel bed over the soil without any disturbance. The new bed is slightly larger and taller so I’ve filled up the sides with some compost and in the autumn, once I’ve cut the asparagus down, I’ll add more compost on top. The asparagus have just started to shoot so it won’t be long before I can start eating it.
I have two dwarf patio fruit trees, a Cherry called variety Stella and a Pear variety called Conference. They are all self-fertile and grafted onto a adminstock that reduces the vigour of the plant to enable it to be grown successfully in a pot. I’ve given them all their first feed of the year using a seaweed feed.
I also have four citrus trees in pots, a lemon, a lime, a mandarin and an orange. I will be buying some citrus compost in the next couple of weeks to top dress them and will be starting their feeding regime this week. I keep these in the greenhouse over the winter and will put them outside when it starts getting warmer.