Let there be broad beans

The recent hot weather has certainly pepped up the growth of the veggies. The broad beans have flowered and are now producing lovely succulent beans. The runner beans have just started to flower so I am expecting beans in the next week or so. the borage that I transplanted next to the beans has gone ballistic with great big healthy-looking leaves.

Yesterday evening I was out scouring for blackfly eggs. I came across little clumps of tiny yellow eggs on the nasturtium leaves. Not sure what they were but I dispatched them with a quick wipe. It was nice to see the bees and the hover flies flitting around the broad bean flowers doing what they do best.

The slugs are back with their eyes on my lettuce, so yesterday evening I went out armed with a torch. The first group were found behind the herb trough. I think they had been making their way up the wall and then crawling onto the mint to get into the trough. This is how they got to my basil seedlings. I collected three slugs and then cut back the mint.

In the lettuce bed I found another couple munching away. I'm not sure why the nematodes are not working. Maybe I need another application. Then again maybe the slugs population would be much worse by now without them.

Lettuce

We picked our first lettuce at the weekend. Pure organic goodness! It tasted delicious with a crisp fresh taste and nice frilly texture.

The dwarf beans are doing well. Still no sign of the beans, either broad or runner.

Over night the three chilis have started to emerge. At the moment they are green so I guess they will turn red later(unless they are green chilis).

Black fly

The black fly are loving my nasturtiums and broad beans. They are less partial to the pumpkins and runner beans though. Every morning and most evening I have been turning over the leaves and checking the stalks for the eggs. When I find these they are dealt with by squashing between thumb and forefinger. A little icky but it does the trick. On the nasturtiums the beasties tend to congregate just belows the leaves on the stalk. It's easy to miss the little blighters so particular attention is required.

Trudi, my esteemed neighbour, has been battling the slugs and it seems her veggies have finally succumbed to the relentless attack. I've applied some more nematodes so fingers-crossed that my lettuce will survive.

Hey squirrel. Leave those nuts alone!

I recently put up a bird feeder to attract some more avian fauna into the garden. My feeder is supposed to be squirrel proof but unfortunately the local squirrel mafia don't seem to think so.

The other morning there they were, squeezed into the outer cage, frantically nibbling at the inner cage that contains the nuts. The pigeons were enjoying this spectacle and were hoovering up the nuts that were falling to the ground.

Yesterday I found the whole feeder empty and broken lying on the grass. The outer cage had been peeled away(probably the work of the Brockley Parakeets) and the inner mesh had been cut and opened out. I will need to repair the feeder before putting it up again and in the meantime the birds are going hungry :-(

No more basil

I went out this morning to see how the crops were doing. The small basil plants have gone or at least that's what I though at first. Upon closer inspection the stalks are there but all the leaves have been eaten. This is odd because the plants were under a empty yoghurt pot for protection. One of the adjoining runner beans had signs of a slug trail so I guess these are to blame. I can only assume that eggs have been laid under the soil and the little tiny slugs have come up and had a feed.

At the back things aren't looking good for the borage. The two that I didn't cover have been partially eaten and the one under cover is looking rather unhealthy. My nematodes arrived last week so I think today is the day to apply them.

Raised bed...done

Like the Ramsey-esque title :-) ?

I spent around 5 hours hours on Sunday finishing off the raised bed. I lost the posts used to connect the two ends together so I had to fashion some using some offcuts of wood. Once the frame was together I had a hard time man-handling the whole structure to the bottom of the garden.

I didn't realised quite how steep the slope is at the back. The front end of the bed is almost level with the surrounding soil. I had to build up the other end to get it nice and level. The good news is that it is all done now. The next step is to double dig the bed and add some nice manure.

The broad beans are doing very well with lots of flowers emerging from their stalks. The borage has been attacked by slugs so I shall need to apply some more nematodes. The chili is also blooming...literally. It now has three lovely white flowers. I wonder when the young chili pods will emerge?

Take that you pesky fox

All is not lost with my carrots. They must be hardier than I thought, as several of them have sprung to life after being squashed by one or more fox cubs. So now they need protection!!

A couple of days ago I ordered a device to try and rid my veggie patch of my foxes. It uses an ultrasonic pulse that is triggered by a PIR device similar to those used in security lights. This high pitched noise is particularly unpleasant for foxes and cats(a bonus there then).

Last night I set it up next to the shed pointing in the general direction of the carrot bed. Then I put my mesh back over the carrots and secured the whole lot with some bricks.

I'm happy to say that this morning the mesh was intact and undamaged :-). Was this a one-off? Only time will tell...

Oh the irony

My enviromesh netting and support hoopes arrived on Friday. I set about putting it up around my carrot patch. I placed the hoops at equal intervals and then put the mesh over the hoops. I held the whole lot down with some soil that I excavated when digging out the raised bed. Not pretty but it did the job ;-).

The next day Ames was in the kitchen and saw a fox by the new mesh. I went down there and saw that the fox cubs had taken to using the mesh as a bed. The mesh had been clawed at and the carrots were completely squashed. I have now taken the mesh off because I don't want it to get shredded. So now my carrots are at the mercy of the dreaded carrot fly, and looking very poorly to boot.

Weekend away

I have just got back from a well earned rest. I had been worried that the potted plants would have dried out but the tray I left them in was still full of water.

It has been hot over the weekend with lots of sunshine. The rocket and onion seeds have started to emerge and my makeshift coldframe has done the trick of protecting them from animal damage.

It looks like the slugs are back. Last night my basil plants were attacked. I've ordered some more nematodes to keep the slimy suckers in check.

We popped into the garden centre and bought some long canes to support the runner beans. I made a wig-wam and tied some lengths twine around it at several height intervals.

Still haven't finished the raised bed...