Broad Beans

Is there anything as wonderful as that very first time when you can proudly take something home and call it a crop?

Well maybe, but it still feel pretty special! At last visit the broad beans had plenty of pods and didn't look half bad. Visiting last night I had plants literally groaning from the weight of the pods and looking as though they could barely keep upright in a couple of cases.

Having done my investigations on the best methods of harvesting I started with the lower pods that were actually trailing on the ground and was surprised to find half a wheelbarrowful by the time I finished. A couple of the plants that looked really unpromising I got rid of, but left the roots in the soil as they are laden with nitrogen. The rest I have left as I am expecting a further crop from further up the plants.

Elsewhere it was definitely time to liberate the raspberry canes I had inherited. The grass is so high around them that I only know where to find them because I already knew they were there! As I did not want to disturb the canes themselves this was a tedious case of pulling the grass little by little by hand rather than digging. I have got rid of some suckers however that I do not really need and are coming up in totally the wrong place. Still a lot of work to do, but one side of them at least looks like someone cares about them!

Cabbages are still doing well, but I have pulled up a few plants from the edge of the net cage that must have been too close to the edge and were peppered with munch marks. If plants are too near the net, then the pesky varmits that want to munch them will still get through.

I also decided enough was enough and started to strip the surface off a couple of metres of my jungle and get close to joining up a couple of the beds that are in existence. All very depressing and the beginnings of a bad back!

Top pests of the day are therefore snails....grrr..... and from the plant world, bindweed. I hate bindweed. It is everywhere.

Still, once home there was the crop of broad beans to gloat over. I podded them, boiled them for a couple of minutes and squeezed them out of their shells to leave just the bright green inards. You can of course eat them with their 'skin', but I prefer without. I made a risotto which was finished with the broad beans and some cream and it was completely delicious! Yum! It did look like an awful lot of pods for a small amount of return though...

It has inspired me to clear more growing space....

Snails! The Enemy!

They look so small and harmless. They look so slow and demure.

They are none of these things! They are the enemy! Nothing more to it than that! What do I speak of? Snails! Snails and their little homeless friends, slugs!

The weather is still inclement for the intrepid allotmenteer in Dover and so I resorted to building my little green house as I told you before. In just one night I have found 6 little budding urban terrorists marching towards my red cabbage seedlings! The cheek!

So how do we deal with them?

1. Chemical warfare. Now I know that seems harsh and will certainly not appeal to the organic among you, but sometimes I feel pushed that far! If that is a no then what about...

2. Drain pipes, loo rolls or plastic bottles. Mad as it sounds (though obvious to many out there I am sure) a physical barrier to deter the little slime-meisters can work wonders. The plastic bottles also double up as a cloche.

3. Eggshells. Now this does seem to work, but it is a bit time consuming and fiddly for me. First wash your eggshells and take out the filmy membrane from the inside. Leave to dry out for a few days somewhere sunny. Crunch up the eggshells (not too finely) and then sprinkle liberally around your plants. The theory is that they will not want to crawl over the nasty pointy eggshell. Sharp sand apparently works quite well too.

4. Salt. Yes I know it's cruel and I really can't condone this, but there is no doubting at all that a ring of salt around your plants will work - if the weather is dry.

5. Hand picking and removing and providing the local thrush population with a decent size stone they can use as an anvil to break them open with. Not my idea of breakfast but who am I to argue!

That's my top five tips. First thing tomorrow I will be seeing if they are back!

All this before I even leave the garden!