bee food

Trev was complaining of there being no bees at the allotments. And he's right, there are very few around.Early flowering plants like broad beans need pollinating insects - or we have no beans! One third of our food comes from flowers pollinated by insects.

But as I looked across the allotments, the consistent colour was green. What are we doing to attract and support bees at the monent. Not enough, is the answer.

I have a whole range of plants that will provide food for bees later this month and well into the autumn.

But after the primroses, cowslips , apples and plums there is a 'hungry gap' for bees and pollinating insects on our allotment that stretches through April and May. What can fill this gap?

Here's one candidiate, photographed at the Hope Farm RSPB reserve in Bedfordshire, England. It is the overwintering phacelia.

This can be sown as a green manure, but the advice when planting green manures is to dig them in or chop them down before the flower. Little use to bees!

This phacelia crop was considered highly attractive to bees and I will seriously consider planting areas that will host broad beans next year with phacelia in the autumn.

flocking pigeons

Early peas are cropping well this year.

We get them going in trays in the greenhouse and then plant them out under cloche protection in staggered sowings about two weeks apart. After they have got a good start, the fleece is removed and the sticks and netting go on for them to grow through.

The first batch are now being picked and the second batch are just about ready.

What I'd overlooked was flocking wood pigeons.

They had landed slap bang on top of the pea plants to feast on their leaves. The plants were flattened!

So, enter the netting protection. Hopefully there'll be a wonderful resurgence of growth by the weekend.

The marrowfat peas have been attacked in the same way, and they have had to be netted too. They will be in the soil for longer and their pods left until their contents are dry. I'm expecting them to recover from the aerial assault.

The shoots of late peas are now poking through compost in the greenhouse and will go into the ground vacated by broad beans. They will probably need fleece protection because of the dreaded pea moth.

And what a fine picture fresh-picked peas make!

Big, fat and round, broad beans are at the indulgent end of the beanfeast.

This variety (aguadulce) is an overwintering one. The seeds were sown directly into the soil in the autumn and the emerging plants made slow progress until May.

They did have the advantage of anchoring the soil and dissipating the compacting winter rains with their broad leaves as they grew. As they became taller, their lanky stems were secured with a perimeter of garden twine and canes.

Their fleshy green shoots are delicious to aphids and so must be pinched out in late spring or they will become infested.

But by the end of June, each plant was heavy with plump pods. We had taken an early crop of the pods before the beans have been formed. Chopped and stir-fried they are delicious. Add sunflower seeds that have been toasted and drenched on shoyu and they are wonderful!!!!

This weekend, the plants were stripped and their stems chopped and composted.

Their sturdy root systems have been left to continue to add nitrogen to the soil.

The pods have been brought home and the generous crop of broad beans eaten or frozen.

round and round

Organic systems rely on a rotation of crops so that pests and diseases do not build up in one area and so that fertility can be built up in the soil.

Our four-year cycle begins with potatoes after the ground has been well composted or manured. Field beans are sown into the ground after potatoes are lifted as a 'green manure'.

The following spring beans are planted. Their roots are mini nitrogen factories that pack extra nutrients into the soil.

Brassica (cabbage) family plants follow in the third year.
With onion tribe plants completing the cycle.

Here's the bean bed plan for this year.

sweet corn planted with beans: climbing blue lake
early peas: feltham first
sweet corn planted with beans: climbing blue lake
marrowfat peas: marro
strawberry: marshmello	french beans for drying: horsehead
broad beans: aguadulce
beans: climbing blue lake	french beans for drying: horsehead

broad is beautiful

An allotment specialty is the broad bean.
Planted in the autumn, it serves the purpose of a green manure but then goes on to yield a delicious crop. they are cropping from May and so are one of the earliest of the new season vegetables.

Here, the pods are still developing and the beans inside are tiny. At this stage they are picked, chopped and used in stir fries or are delicious steamed. We use half the bed for these baby broad beans.

The beans on the other half of the bed are allowed to grow onto maturity. Then, the pods are picked, the pods discarded and the big, creamy beans eaten.

Perfect in salads when cooked and allowed to cool.

When braod beans appear on the plate you can confidently predict you are in the home of a gardener.

beans meanz problemz?

Collocations:

Horse... Carriage.

Strawberries... Cream.

And..

Beans... Fickle!

What you want to achieve is simple....
Start with dried bean. Germinate and grow to healthy plant. Grow more beans. Next!

Actually, there seems much that can make germinating beans seem really frustrating.

So, let's get positive and talk about how to do it properly.

First, place dried beans on to plate lined with kitchen roll and moisten and cover overnight.

Return to beans next morning and add more water, ensuring each time that only kitchen roll is moistened and beans are not submerged.

Check morning and afternoon (ish), add more water until beans are fully reconstituted and water collects on plate - then add no more.

Next - sniff! Beans can go funny quickly and smell worse than broody hens. Be prepared to give the beans a gentle wash in a jug with running water and place back onto fresh moistened roll on plate and cover.

The beans should then germinate, as these beauties have. It may take a number of days to get to this point. Be patient. If you've got nothing to do, sniff your beans!

The next step is to plant out in trays in peat free compost. Cover - rodents are the enemy!!!!! Mice must be kept at bay!

Bring beans on and let their stems get nice and strong before planting out. In wet weather especially, the disgusting slimy jaws of slugs and snails will chop the baby plants off 'at the knee' if they go into the ground too soon. Hugely discouraging for bean and gardener.

Then, watch them grow!

if paradise was half as nice........

Phew! A sweltering spring day - and ideal growing conditions.
There was rain overnight and the ground was good and moist this morning. Today, the temperature was predicted to rise to 20C. You can almost hear the plants straining to put on height and leaf.
Under cloche protection we have been steadily planting out batches of early peas 'Feltham First'. Our third and final successive sowing went into the ground today.
Fleece cloches provide protection from frost and wind. They also provide protection from pests that are outside the cloche. The conditions inside are warm and humid. The soil is warmed and ready when the seedlings go in - and they race away.
Don't forget to water plants under cloches - they can become dry.
The picture shows what must be 'pea paradise'.

give (early) peas a chance

The early signs of spring are not restricted to the flowers that are emerging. The robust shoots and leaves of young peas are now showing in the greenhouse.

We had great success with Feltham First last year and so are using this variety again. There will be three sowings each two weeks apart and this should mean that we do not have one large, unmanageable crop but a spread over several weeks.

The pea seeds are germinated and brought on in trays in the greenhouse and then planted out under cover of fleece cloches where the earth is protected and warmer.

Early peas do not suffer from the little grubs that later ones do.

There is a unique sweetness to fresh, young peas. The challenge will be to bring home more than I eat while picking them.