Tuesday 14 April 2009

Potatoes and Peas

The maincrop potatoes are now in - there was just enough room for every last tuber. I have also planted out my first lot of peas:


and they have been pigeon-proofed and slug-proofed (slug traps are 2 for £1 in Poundland!!)

I hoed the onions, which are coming up nicely:


and shallots in the foreground, which I saved from last year. I also planted out some sunflowers, and slug-proofed. Here is the cowslip I planted last autumn:


I used up all the compost from one bin, so decided to transfer the contents of the other bin by way of turning it, which it really needed, because the bokashi had got rather compacted and smelly. Hopefully a good airing will help it to finish decomposing.

Dug up a few weeds here and there, and watered where I sowed the carrots and spring onions the other day (no sign yet). Picked a few purple broccoli sprouts and came home.

Now that the peas and sunflowers have gone out, I have been able to put some of the more advanced brassicas into the coldframe, and I swear they have got noticeably bigger overnight. Unfortunately there isn't room to put them all in there, I think maybe it's too warm in the greenhouse. They are not yet big enough to plant out though.

One of my cucumber plants (and I only have four!) has become stunted and floppy, I think it's got damping-off disease. And my peppers and chillis are just not growing at all. You would think that being sown back in February, they would have more than one pair of true leaves by now wouldn't you? But since moving them to the greenhouse they don't seem to have made any progress at all. Perhaps it's just not hot enough yet? I understand I am supposed to keep them fairly dry, which I have been doing, but this morning I gave them quite a generous watering, to see if that helps at all. Failing that, I believe there is more warm weather on the way, so maybe that will get them going.

2 comments:

allot of veg said...

My chillis and peppers have stalled too. Must be the weather- it can't be both of us doing something daft surely?

Rachael said...

I think you must be right. They look perfectly healthy otherwise.