Sunday 20 April 2008

Sweet peas, beans and pumps

We dodged the showers to do a bit more work on the allotment. The remaining sweet peas were getting very tall and floppy, so we planted them out. The last lot got eaten in a few hours, and I think that was rabbits, so this lot were planted inside the fence, so I hope they survive. These nine plants are the last of our sweet peas, so if they got scoffed we're sunk.

We also planted another fourteen broad bean plants. The first row we planted a few weeks ago now have flowers forming. We're holding off sowing the last beans to delay their growth otherwise we'll be overrun with beans all at once. You have to pick them when they're ready, except for the few we will allow ripen fully. These will be next year's seeds.

We have moved all of our leeks up to the greenhouse now. There are about one hundred little plants. I think we can just fit that many into the bed we've set aside for them. They are way too small yet, but the weather forecast is saying that the temperature should go up next week, so things will grow more quickly.

If the temperature goes up, so the need to water will increase. I'm still mulling over the best way to automatically water plants, but no firm decisions yet. I have found a pump from MUTR which is an outfit I have used before. It runs at 3-6v so, since I'm thinking about using a car battery, I'd need to step the voltage down. I think I'd also step the voltage down to a circuit board to time and switch things. This stepping down is worth it I think because a car battery is a big reservoir of energy, I have an old car battery to use and I have a solar powered 12v battery charger ready to use. I've looked at a few simple systems on t'internet, but they don't get any recommendations from people who have tried them.

We harvested some more spinach for a couple of meals which I can really look forward to.

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