This recipe is good for using up the surplus runner beans. Now is a good time to empty the freezer to prepare for the new season’s crop.
Ingredients:
Distances between rows of vegetables, and the distance of the seed, or plant, within rows varies.
Click on this link for a chart of row distances:
Planting depth is important, because the seed has to be able to push its shoot out into the light before it runs out of energy. But the seed also has to be deep enough for it to remain damp, and for the roots to be able to grow into soil & reach nutrients and water.
As a rule of thumb, the seed should be covered by a depth of soil equal to the thickness of the seed.
Click here for a chart showing planting depth vegetable planting depth
Before measuring the depth, the seed bed should be level and firmed down. This may be done with a light roller, or tapping it down with a rake.
Click here for dates of planting
Each vegetable has an ideal time for planting .
Click veg planting dates for
Peas & beans produce a very long root as soon as they start growing. Ideally, this root should not be disturbed when the seedlings are transplanted into the veg garden, so that the root will continue to grow down to reach as much water and nutrient as possible.
If the seeds are started off in small pots, the root will curl round. When transplanted, the root will tend to grow in a tight ball. The root will not have access to as much water and food as it would if it were growing straight down. So the plant is compromised.
Therefore, if planting peas & beans in pots, use long pots. Supermarkets sell cream & yoghurt in narrow 250ml plastic pots. These are ideal, with a hole poked in the bottom. Long plastic pots can be found in garden centers or on the web, including special root trainers.
Spring is a good time to clean the greenhouse. Give it a good wash out, then fumigate to kill any remaining bugs and fungi. Make sure everything is out of the greenhouse before fumigating.
Garden centers sell tins of fumigant which contain a touch paper.Â
 
The tin is placed in the greenhouse, light the paper with a match, this causes smoke to fill the green house. Close all doors and windows & leave the smoke to fumigate all the cracks and crevises. Follow the instructions on the label.
Pigeons have been attacking the broccoli in some gardens. They eat the fleshy part of the leaves and severely weaken the plant.
Please note that the photos in this post were taken in the garden of a 90 year old!! TopVeg prefers a tidier garden!!
Pigeons tend to feed on garden plants very early in the morning or in the evening, before roosting.
Placing nest boxes in the garden can be very rewarding. Robins like to nest inside a container, like an old kettle or plant pot.
A cheap, woven nest box was put in some ivy on the edge of the kitchen garden in the middle of February. A piece of tin was placed over the roof, to keep the rain off.Â
A robin moved in within a week, and started to build a nest.
This is a photo of the nest inside the new box.
A module is a chamber or cell, filled with peat or growing medium, into which a seed is placed. Commercial growers use cell-grown seedlings produced in modular trays grown in greenhouses.Â
The seed is given optimum growing conditions of temperature, water and nutrients. The young seedlings are hardened off outside, before being planted in the ground.
Many garden centers sell module grown plants. They are more expensive than a pack of seeds, but they do have advantages: Read More »
Honey bees play a vital role in the vegetable garden by pollinating flowers. Plants can only produce fruit (or veg!) if their flowers are pollinated.A hive of bees in the garden will increase the production of veg, by increasing the number of flowers pollinated. Read More »
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