Look at this magnificent specimen. Well, it's magnificent by my standards. Despite my long term pea passion, this is the first time I've had a purpose-designed pea frame, and I thought my breeding projects probably deserved it by now. It's made from aluminium tubing with jute netting, and it's very sturdy (purchased from Gardening Naturally in Swindon). I even splashed out on some Thermacrop to wrap round it, a type of horticultural fleece which is normally used to keep plants warm but in this instance is for keeping the wind off. Peas aren't too bothered by the cold but they get traumatised by the blustery squally winds which are part and parcel of our spring weather in the UK. The way things are going, it might also come in handy for shading the plants from the full force of the sun.
The new frame (frames, actually, because I bought two) has been brilliant so far. I can fit two whole seedtrays of peas in it because it's so spacious, so it's now planted up with both red podded mangetout peas and pink-flowered peas – two breeding projects in one frame.
Just to give some context, I used to do it like this.
This contraption (from 2009) was made from some of the reams of net curtain which I removed from the windows of my house when I first moved in, plus some bamboo sticks painstakingly lashed together with string. It may look as if Miss Havisham's bloomers blew off the washing line but it was actually extremely effective at doing what it needed to do, which was to give targeted wind protection without losing too much sunlight. So I would absolutely advocate doing it this way if you're on a budget and have a heap of unwanted net curtains available.
But it's labour-intensive to cobble together a shoddy frame like this, and it seldom survives more than a season without needing to be redone. It's too small-scale to hold a lot of plants and sometimes needs emergency reinforcement when their weight gets too much for it. The net curtains work fine but Thermacrop does a better job, because it's got a very open weave which lets the wind move freely through without buffeting the plants. Thermacrop doesn't cost much anyway, so it was well worth the upgrade.
To prepare for the new frame, I dug over a small patch in a sheltered corner where the soil is really good, because I've dumped loads of horse poo on it over the last couple of years. When I say dug, I should explain that my methods have changed a bit in recent times. I now work on the basis of doing as little digging as possible, and I've also discovered a medieval-style field hoe which has been a gamechanger in backache-free tilling. I use it just to very gently cultivate the top couple of inches of soil, leaving the deeper levels untouched. I don't dig with a spade any more unless I really have to. The worms and microbes do a fab job of maintaining the deep soil structure without any need for my intervention.
So here we are with the basic layout. Forty minutes of swearing later, I had this:
The swearing is no reflection on the product itself, which is excellent. It's just that I was putting it together on my own, and it is definitely easier as a two-person job, just because you need someone to hold one end up at the right height while you put it together. I had to resort to propping it up on the back of the bench. You're also supposed to use a mallet to bang the bits together, but I didn't have one, so I had to make do with a metal claw hammer with a sliver of wood under it, which was suboptimal.
And then it was just a case of adding the jute netting, and getting the building inspectors to come and check it out and make sure I'd done a proper job.
The inspectors agreed that yes, this is absolutely the best cat lavatory they've seen in the garden this year.
And in go the peas!
My Alderman x Salmon Flowered F3 hybrids went in first, and then a couple of weeks later were joined by the red-podded mangetout project, which is now in an F5 and hopefully starting to be properly stabilised (I bloody hope so anyway).
Even though the frame has netting for the peas to climb up, I still put a load of twiggy sticks in there. The main purpose of this is to keep the young plants off the ground, as they tend to flop and that makes them vulnerable to slugs and snails. The twigs hold them up and also give their little tendrils something to grab hold of to help get them started. I put small twigs in among the newly planted plants and then a row of taller sticks down the middle of the bed, which will give them some extra support at a later stage. (It needs to be done now, because it's really hard to add them later without damaging the plants.)
I also added the Thermacrop curtains, which fitted beautifully around the frame and was just long enough to meet in the middle, keeping it all fully enclosed to stop the cats from getting in there.
As you can see, that's going well.
I'm really pleased I invested in these frames though. They are well made and should last years. I've now built the second one (this time with the help of my music partner, Marvin) and that's now been planted up with my F5 purple-podded mangetout peas plus a few satellite projects derived from my red-podded projects. So there's plenty to look forward to.
No comments:
Post a Comment