Peas and Bonfire

Over the extended Easter weekend I made a couple of visits to the Allotment. The first task was to sow a row of Peas. I uncovered an area on the plot, turned over the soil to bury the manure, and then put in place three rows of chicken wire fences (see below). This is my usual method for growing Peas. The fences are about a foot tall, held in place with short bean sticks, and provide just about enough support for the pea plants. I then draw a shallow trench either side of the chicken wire fence with a rake and sow the peas ever couple of inches (see right). Although I've put in three rows of the fences ready for growing the peas, I've only sown one row so far. I'll wait a couple of weeks before putting the remainder in.


Over on the new plot I had amassed a pile of weeds and dead grass, most of which I had just raked off the surface as I started clearing the plot. Since it was mostly very dry straw like material I decided the easiest way to get rid of it was to burn it. I'd already decided against composting it as I'm fairly sure the plot was sprayed with a very strong weed killer before I took it on, and I didn't want to add that to my compost. So I popped down to the local hardware store and purchased a metal dustbin-style incinerator. Fairly soon I had a decent fire going (see below), and I gradually got rid of most of the pile. Anything that was left over I bagged up and took a car load of stuff to the dump to get rid of. So I have now got rid of the pile of weeds completely, leaving a nice empty area ready for digging.


The new plot is gradually coming along. There is still a fair bit of digging and manuring to do, but I made a little more progress this weekend. I also decided to sow a double row of broad beans (Feligreen) on the new plot, having already done so on the old plot a couple of weeks back, to give an extra harvest - making it the first thing I've sown on the new plot if you don't include the Asparagus crowns I planted last week.