How To Get Peas Out Of Guttering And My Bean Trenches

Finally the weather has picked up and I have noticed the weeds have begun to grow at my allotment.  This isn’t all bad though, as the soil is obviously warming up too.

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This week, I have planted my onion seedlings that I sowed in modules back in January.  This is an experiment, as I am hoping that they will be slightly stronger plants than the onions I grow from sets.  I will also be planting onion sets as well, so I can compare them.  I have been warming the soil for a few weeks, by placing clear plastic over it, so hopefully this will give the seedlings a good start.

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Another job at my allotment was to plant the peas that I sowed in guttering on the 22nd March.  They have sat in my coldframe since I sowed them.

I have tried different ways of sowing my peas, but the best way I find to start my peas off, is to sow them into small lengths of guttering.  You can read about it here.

I promised to show you how I get them out of the guttering, when they are ready to transplant:

First I use a draw hoe to make a small trench the size of the guttering, ready to plant the peas.

Then I used a spare bit of guttering and I lift one end of the compost to slide the guttering underneath the roots of the peas.

The spare piece of guttering ”pushes’ the peas out into the trench that you made with the draw hoe.

  I then use the draw hoe to push the soil back around the peas and the compost they are growing in.

I water them and then I make a frame, using chicken wire and canes, for the peas to grow up.  I have been using the same chicken wire for three years now and it supports the peas really well.  I thread the canes through the chicken wire and then push the canes into the ground.

To finish off with, I put glass around my peas to give them a little bit of protection for a couple of weeks and also to stop the birds from eating them, as they love new pea shoots.

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I don’t know if you remember, but in the Autumn I dug a ‘runnerbean trench’.  Over the autumn and winter, I filled it with all my old vegetable peelings and then covered it back up with  soil.

On Tuesday I put my runnerbean canes up, (ready for the end of May) and I thought it would be a good idea to show you how my soil looks now, so I dug a hole to show you:

The photograph on the right shows no sign of any vegetable peelings as they have all decomposed.  The added organic matter will help the soil around the runnerbeans to hold the moisture, which is exactly what runnerbeans like.

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Finally, I thought I would show you the ‘aubretia’ that I grew from seed last year and planted around my pond.  I am really pleased with it, now it has started to flower.  There are a couple of tiny gaps still but I’m sure the plants will grow into these soon:

Thank you for reading my blog today.

I will be back on Monday at approximately 4pm.

Have a good weekend!