Tag Archives: peas

Companion Planting Peas

All peas including snow peas are members of the Legume family, they all fix nitrogen from the air. This gives us gardeners two main advantages, firstly at the end of their growing season they add nitrogen to the soil (making it available for the following crop). Secondly when companion planting peas with other plants there is no competing for nitrogen. Companion Planting Peas The best plants to grow with peas are plants that thrive in the same environment with peas and have the same watering and nutritional needs. These include:- Carrots Sweet Corn Radishes Beans Celery Tomatoes Peppers Aubergines Parsley… → Read More

Companion Planting Peppers

Often expensive to buy in the shops, peppers whether green, yellow, orange or red are relatively easy to grow in the home garden. By companion planting peppers with other helpful plants you can certainly give them a much better chance of success. Companion Planting Peppers Peppers are a member of the same family as Chillies, Aubergines, Tomatoes and Potatoes so they need to be included in your rotation plan. Plants that will help peppers grow include:- Alliums (Chives, Onions and Leeks) Beans and Peas Basil Dill Parsley Marjoram, Rosemary and Oregano Tomatoes Radishes Petunias, Marigolds and Nasturtiums Chard, Lettuce and… → Read More

Companion Planting Grapes

For centuries growers have been companion planting grapes to improve their crops. The Greeks and the Romans too, so if it’s good enough for the classics then it’s good enough for me as well. Companion Planting Grapes Grapes are not just a good source of fibre, they also contain many vitamins and minerals. But that’s not why they were popular in ancient times, no that was because they make great wine. That’s still true today but as with all plants the flavour, health and yield can be improved upon with companion planting. What To Companion Plant With Grape Vines There… → Read More

How To Freeze Broad Beans

Just got back from the allotment with two full buckets of Broad Beans. Obviously I won’t use that many Broad Beans at once so I need to store them, so I thought I’d share with you how to freeze Broad Beans. How To Freeze Broad Beans There are many different schools of thought and techniques for keeping Broad beans,from drying them bottling them but for me the most convenient way is to freeze them. This leads us to our first choice, whether to blanche them or not. Blanching is the term used to describe the process of par-boiling the Beans… → Read More

The new season begins

Leeks

This morning I planted some peas that I’d had soaking indoors they’re now in individual pots in the greenhouse. In a few weeks I’ll transplant them onto the plot to replace the ones that rotted. I also sowed some leek seeds (Musselburgh) in a seed tray in the greenhouse, these will be grown on until they are roughly pencil size and then I will plant them in the raised bed that is already prepared for them on the allotment. My seed potatoes have arrived and my shallot sets. I will be chitting the potatoes over the next six weeks and… → Read More

What’s happened to the peas

The no show peas

About a month ago I sowed three rows of peas (Kelvedon wonder) and having just inspected the plot I only have about eight seedlings. So where have they gone? Whats happened to them? What’s happened to the peas? I expected thirty or so seedlings, so I did some research. Peas are a source of food for birds in all stages of their life, seeds, seedlings, plants and pea pods. Well I knew this and I netted the pea bed at the same time as sowing. Mice and other rodents also feed on peas but there is no evidence of… → Read More

Container veg growing

Most vegetables can be grown in containers. The bigger the container the better, I had best results with old flower buckets (morrisons sell them eight for a pound) fill with a good quality compost and feed and water regularly as pots and containers dry out quickly in dry spells. I have grown:- carrots calabrese cauliflower courgettes spring onions broad beans runner beans dwarf beans tomatoes turnips radishes potatoes peas with varied results. I found that courgettes grow well if the container is big enough, other squashes however, didn’t do so well I suspect that they need more space. I have also grown potatoes… → Read More