Biological warfare

Last year we had a big problem in the garden with shrub leaves being eaten - leaves looked like this:

and we think the same critters finished off the blueberry. Best guess they were vine weevils and it seems the best way to tackle them is with more critters - in this case microscopic nematode worms Steinernema kraussei - sold as NEMASYS:

You have this "cake" in the pack which you water down, then water down the watered-down mixture to put on the soil - we bought a 100m pack which looked like this in the bucket:

but dissolved fairly easily - have put it all over the borders, under the hedge and in the pots around the back so hopefully this year we won't have little squares taken from all our shrub leaves.

The mechanism of action is pretty awesome: the worms hatch and then infect the grubs of the vine weevil, which get infected in turn with bacteria which multiply and then kill the grub. The worms then eat the bacteria - so there are three levels of warfare going on here.

Let's hope they work. Have released 50 million of the blighters!

Bean Season

After removing the peas from the root trainers immediately sowed some beans - some Orient Wonder long beans - also known as asparagus beans - which needed soaking overnight and the last of our Purple Queen dwarf french beans - 10 x OW + 20 x PQ beans in one tray, then a second tray completely filled with Black Turtle beans (which dry well, we still have a few from last year) and finally a tray half filled with Borlotto drying beans and Blue Lake green beans:

The Orient Wonder require rather warmer weather than we have here - apparently can grow to ~ 8' tall in ~ 8 weeks which will be interesting to watch. Did not germinate at all last year but this time we actually read the packet which told us to soak the beans overnight before sowing...

Yes, the picture above does include ~ 90 cells of bean plants (hopefully) so will need to do some more ground preparation up at the allotment to make space for them all...

Peas on Earth

After making a long A-frame for peas we planted them - Waverex Petit Pois and Hurst Green Shaft:

We started them off in root trainers - which are great as you can open them out to remove the seedlings without disturbing the roots. I would not buy them from Amazon as I got them for less than half of this from the local hardening association, but it is the same thing:

Had a few which would not fit so made a couple of traditional teepees for them -

Small for the petit pois, big for the other ones: