​Planting out Broad Beans

Monday 5th December
My broad beans have been hardening off in a growhouse at home for rather longer than I planned so they have become too tall. However they are growing strongly so worth a try.
I had scraped bare of horse litter a strip next to my winter peas so after cultivating the soil a little I cut 32 holes with my bulb planter, that being the number of cells in the Rootrainer set they were growing in. I arranged the holes in two rows zigzagging them so there was about 8 inches between them. Having watered them well just before starting, the plants came out of the cells very easily. When I had formed them in I watered them then scattered slug pellets sparingly along both the row of beans and also the peas next door. I am told farmers aim for 7 pellets per square metre but I find it impossible to achieve that so use about 5 times that. I have seen them used much more liberally but that is a waste, as well as a danger to other animals.
Last year I lost two thirds of my plants to mice digging them up to eat the remains of the seeds so, once again, I used my trusty paraffin bottle, giving the peas a last sprinkle as well. Then I realised that I had a ready supply of beech twigs that had been mixed in with the leaves so used them to support the flopping lanky plants. Then they were ready to have the net tunnel over them to protect them from wind and extreme weather. Pigeons rarely attack broad beans. They didn't look too bad in the photo.

​By then it was too dark to fix the large mesh onto the side of the brassica tunnel. Instead I removed the fleece covering my parsnips and carrots now there is no chance of carrot fly attack. While doing so I was disconcerted to find all my Swedes which were very small but, for the first time for me, big enough to use had been eaten away, probably by rats given the size of the bits that had been bitten off.
Finally, as I still had no way of storing the leaves in my neighbour's builder's bags, I moved them aside and laid a strip of carpet to leave them on so they don't get mired into the mud.
Once again I left in the gathering gloom, the sun having set some time before. Somebody had left the gate open but I shut it behind me anyway.