Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves; and I do try to resist spending too much on the garden but sometimes a plant enthrals me and that’s it, an empty purse. Happily, 2018 was a bumper year for collecting our own seeds. For the legumes, I left pods to dry on the stalks and then finished off drying the seeds in the greenhouse, then stored them in a dry, cool place.
6 weeks ago I sowed peas and field beans into modules in the hope of an early May harvest. Within two weeks they had germinated, another fortnight in the greenhouse and they’d developed into healthy young plants; then into the cold frames to harden off.
In spite of the weather forecast the sun was out on Saturday afternoon and almost on a whim I decided to plant them out into the raised bed (I did need more space in the cold frame). I planted both the peas and beans in a zig zag pattern, the peas 6 inches apart and the beans 9 inches apart. When I started planting it was sunny, about half way through the job the weather deteriorated and by time the last plant went in hailstones were turning into sleet. Sod’s law or what?
Bara, pridd a Prosecco 