Beans

Lovely young broad beans

One of my favourite crops of the year is starting to be ready, broad beans. They have been a bit battered by the heavy rain, so I've propped them up a bit more. They have plenty of pods and a I could feel the beans in some, so I took them. I'm trying to take them as the beans are small and sweet. That means you get less beans by weight, but they are so better to eat it is certainly worth it. There were still some black fly on some stems, so I cut them off, but they have not done much damage, unlike last year.

Everyone seems to be losing plants to slugs, mice and pigeons, much more than recent years. A few people have suffered with rabbits too. One thing that has not suffered with pests is our fruit.

Our raspberries, in spite of being badly damaged over the winter, are still providing some fruit, with lots of shoots for next year too. Our blackcurrant bushes are weighed down with fruit, all beautifully swollen by the rain. We took our first half kilo today and they look superb. The gooseberries too look very good, with lots of fruit which is beginning to ripen, but not quite ready to take yet. All of the fruit bushes have put on a lot of growth, so they will need carefully pruning later in the year. The disappointment are our strawberries. They needed more sun and warmth I think. We should get some, but not many and they are getting eaten by slugs too. Time to think again about how and where we grow them and whether to buy new stocks.

The next big job is a weeding session. The various covers make weeding awkward and the rain has helped all sorts of weeds shoot up. many hours weeding will be needed this week if the rain holds off for long enough.