19th November 2022

Everything is growing fast now that the night-time temperatures are warming up, as well as the day-time temps.

Our climbing peas won’t climb up the canes, without garden string pegged down at the base of the cane and wound round the cane to the top. They must be helped, by tucking them behind the strings as they grow. The runner bean plants on the other hand, naturally wind themselves around the canes as they grow.

All the spaces around the dwarf and climbing peas and the runner beans we have filled with dwarf beans, spaced at 20cm (8 in) apart. This combination of climbing and dwarf peas and beans makes the area very productive.

Our apples pollinated extremely well this spring, so that we have had to thin out the bunches of swelling baby apples. Apple trees will naturally jettison many of the undeveloped baby apples, but that is often not enough, and we have to help them out. There are usually 3 or 4 little apples grouped together, so thin them out removing those that are touching, so the remaining ones can grow without rubbing and bruising each other.

The tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings have been planted out in a row, so that my wife can create a fine netted structure over them to keep out the tomato/potato psylid getting at the plants and injecting them with a nasty bacterium, while they suck the sap. Frost cloth stretched over a stronger plastic mesh works well – remembering that psylid bugs are very small, about the size of a bean blackfly. The symptoms are yellowing tips, curling under leaves, twisting leaves, smaller, thinner fernlike foliage, less flowers, fallen flowers and slow growing (plants and fruit).

We plant one bed each year in the “three sisters” method, developed in the traditional central American way – Sweet corn (maize) in the middle of the bed, with squash and pumpkins growing out from the edges, or corners to cover the ground, plus climbing beans sown at the bases of the growing corn plants – to climb up the corn plants – a great example of traditional companion planting. At the moment, the sweet corn is still only 150mm (6in) high and needs to grow twice as high before sowing climbing beans at the bases; but the squash and pumpkins are looking good and will start sending out runners at some point.

Have a great season!