Vandals, Sweetcorn, Peas, Beans & Artichokes

Vandals Caught in the Act

It’s been quite a busy day. I noticed our little vandal horde wandering down the street at lunchtime and rang Larry who told me he’d caught them on the plot earlier. They denied having been on the plot before and were a little shocked to be confronted with photographic evidence of their heinous crimes.

What a shame that the Australians have become so stand-offish in recent years and transportation to the colonies has ceased. Never mind, he told them they’d best tell their parents that the police would probably be coming round to discuss things.

Fact is, these aren’t bad lads, just naughty boys and a few days worry will do them good. Plus it will be all round their school that messing on our site gets you photographed.

Sweetcorn

I started chitting the sweetcorn. It’s that time again. This year I’m trying Lark from Thompson & Morgan, an F1 tendersweet variety. We’ve a lot of sweetcorn in the freezer still so I’m under instruction to not grow so much this year. The packet states average contents of 30 but there were 36 seeds in there (yes, it’s really sad when you count them)

Rather than go over old ground, there’s a photo of chitted sweetcorn in my photo gallery here and a photo from the year before with an explanation, here. One point, prompted by an email to me, the little shoots that appear are the root not the stalk. Plant them facing down. It may seem obvious, but a lot of things seem obvious when you know.

Moving the Leeks

The forecast was rain so, of course, it was a nice day. Sunshine and cloud rather than showers. Perhaps this really is it and we’ll have a summer this year. So I loaded the leeks into the car and headed for the plot. Usually I start them in large pots and grow them up to plant out but I’m trying doing a lot in modules this year. Last year they were in the pots too long and the roots got all tangled making transplanting difficult.

Larry was so dissatisfied with them that he’s growing his own stock this year. Anyway, we’ll see if modules work better than deep pots. I’ve just over 100 plants, hence using the car.

Sowing Peas & Beans

Sowed a double row of Misty and a double row Kelvedon Wonderpeas, both under cloche more to keep those blessed pigeons off than for the warmth. The Kelvedon Wonder are actually Merveille de Kelvedon, because I bought them in France. A large box being less than a packet here and me being a bit mean.

With peas, I’ve tried sowing into gutters and modules then planting out but I get better results from direct sowing. I think the roots establish better.

They’re on the bed on plot 29 I prepared the other day. I left space for another couple of rows and then sowed a double row of Bunyards Exhibition broad beans. They’ll follow on the Express broad beans that are over on plot 5 in a raised bed.

I wondered about a second row of beans but we still have quite a few in the freezer and I’m actually getting a bit tight for space on the plot, so decided to be restrained.

Globe Artichokes

The last thing was to plant the three globe artichoke crowns I bought recently. These are not related to Jerusalem Artichokes, by the way. Globe artichokes are a delicacy, as long as you know how to eat them! They’ve gone in next to the rhubarb that I weeded around while I was at it.

Val arrived as I was putting in the artichokes and dragged me off to vote. It’s funny how people you’ve not heard of or from all year suddenly are telling you how much they do for you. And just a tip for the politicos, I don’t care what the government is up to, with local elections I vote for the candidate. So, the councillor who supported me in the great allotment chicken war got a vote.

We had 3 votes due to changes so that left me with 2 to decide on. The first was easy, eany, meany, miny, mo, you get my vote, here you go. The second was trickier; one potato, two potato, three potato, Vote! Didn’t half get some funny looks as I left the booth.