Yesterday afternoon was spent in my favourite place with another long list of jobs to do. Not that I’m complaining at all, I do love this time of year and I’m pleased to say I picked my first proper harvest of the year. I carried home a lovely little basket filled with broad beans, strawberries and some sweet peas too!
Other jobs included treating the broad beans, this year the black fly has been terrible and I just haven’t had the time to treat it before it got so bad. I’ve read somewhere about spraying the plants with soapy water so I armed myself with a pressure spray bottle, some tap water and some fairy washing up liquid to tackle the problem. It will be interesting to see if it works!
I also bought some straw in my local hardware shop just round the corner from the allotment site so I could finally mulch the strawberries. Apparently the straw is meant to help them ripen but I do this every year just to stop the strawberries rotting on the surface of the soil. The straw also helps to lock in moisture which is a bonus too.
My trailer was loaded with more plants that desperately need planting out, the kale is ready to go in and there’s lots more flowers too. I was a bit over excited when sowing the flower seeds in the greenhouse and I just can’t bring myself to throw any seedlings away so I’ve decided to plant some in and amongst the vegetables to brighten them up a bit. My Dad’s also chosen a few flowers to go in his allotment and I just think the more flowers the merrier! There’s also some dill and nasturtiums that need planting out in the brassica bed to help deter cabbage white and other aphids, plus they look nice too and the nasturtium petals are delicious!
I couldn’t resist sitting and watching the frogs for a few minutes either and they are really loving the water forget me not. I’m seeing more and more of their little heads popping out of the water surface these days and I couldn’t be happier. They seem to be doing there job too as I haven’t seen or had any problems with slugs this year!
I’m back up the allotment today to finish off a few more jobs, to plant out that kale, to do some tidying and some more thinking about those chickens!
2 thoughts on “The First Harvest!”
An older gardening friend said that she keeps a bucket of soapy water in her garden. When plants look like they are being eaten she pours some of the water on them. She puts a bar of pure soap in the bucket. I did that this year. I also took a tin can that was on its way to the recycle, filled it with water, froze it and after is was frozen I took a hammer and nail and pounded holes in the bottom of the can (easier to do with frozen water in the can). I keep that in my soapy water bucket and top up with more water when needed. So far I’ve used it on my kale, rhubarb, lettuce, beets and radishes and it seems to work. This summer I’ll put this plan to the test.
Hi Katie,
Did you pinch the tops out of the broad bean plants? I always try to do this before there’s any signs of blackfly.
Seems to work ,but maybe you get more insects down in the south.
Pinching out the growing tip also makes the plants bushier and extends the production of beans.