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Hello me dearios!
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That’s insurance against slugs / blight etc reducing the yield 
plus they taste so good compared to shop bought.
I find spuds do a great job in ‘clearing up the ground’ - all that digging etc leaves you with a fine weed-free seed bed the following year for brassica’s etc.
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And I’ll see what we can plant there next month once the spuds come out 
I’m sure you’ve got some plans, but may I suggest sowing some winter squashes in pots inside (quickly moving to a warm spot outside as soon as germination occurs). Butternut, Uchiki Kuri, Crown Prince - all good and tasty autumn food. Or another favourite, dwarf French beans. Easy to grow, productive, no training up canes and expensive to buy.
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Ooh, I like a bit of squash, might look into that 
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Brilliant ! I was wondering what to put in the ground once my broad beans are finished. Winter squash sound just right.
nb: Broad beans are flowering right now, so I reckon the ground will be clear in a month or so. Karmazyn variety as suggested by @MikeFranklin - growing well, they seem to have a LOT of flowers, but have suffered from ‘something’ and have numerous small holes in the leaves ?
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That looks like a fungus …bbs often get little notches eaten out of the edges too
Yes that one is a fungus. And if it doesn’t look like that then I’d expect some caterpillar like critters and if they haven’t already stripped the plants then they’re probably not going to be a problem.
Also watch out for blackfly a little later in the season. Once the first pods start to form from the bottom flowers think about pinching out the growing tips to discourage the blackfly and redirect the plant’s energy to the seeds rather than further growth.
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Anyone recommend a veg plug plant seller the one I used to use stopped selling
I get this every year. I sometimes spray pyrethrin based spray. It can stunt or even kill some plants, but in most cases they come through it and as they grow the problem disappears.
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I mostly buy seed from Fothergills but they do young plants as well. Not sure they’re necessarily any better than anyone else, but I tend to get from them as they’ve always been very helpful when I have asked them for recommendations for my cold climate.
And now the other one has started to bloom too! I’m pathetically pleased!
For anyone with doubts about their screens, they are not the same colour.
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For plug plants: Dobies. (not to be confused with the truly awful Garden centres of the same name) - BUT you might have missed the season for plug-plant veg?
I bought their salad collection earlier in the year and the results have been outstanding, 12 plants each of 9 varieties (plus some strawberries) . Had the first ‘cut’ yesterday. Plugs are in mineral wool, then loose in a sort of cardboard envelope so they cannot get damaged - no plastics. I had literally zero fails, all romped away when planted.
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That could be it - I’ll add a photo.
A few weeks ago I sowed half a packet of peas in the ground - and half in guttering in the greenhouse. All the ground sown peas failed, fortunately the guttering system is great and they get planted out today.
The slugs have absolutely killed the marigolds - which were there to ward off whitefly etc.
My broad beans were grown indoors in root-trainers until around 4" high, then planted out. As you can see the early leafs have been thoroughly damaged by something?
Yes - I’ll do that, prob in a fortnight or so. I’ve found the pinched out tops (providing they are blackfly free) are great stir-fried, a touch stringy and very ‘broad beany’
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We moved here two years ago, the garden was completely overgrown and many rare and original plants had to be ditched as they had grown into one another including some rare conifers, all planted by the original owners, the more that was cleared the more that was discarded.
One area when cleared revealed several Rhododendrons, they grow well in certain parts of Norfolk, some were so mishapen in their quest to get to light they were beyond saving, but a few were salvageable, the pink one below was moved to this new site and has rewarded me with this amazing display, and the Weigela was 12 ft tall and had to be cut to nearly ground level, but was worth saving, the first year and this very pink display was the reward.
To illustrate just how much was removed, my neighbour owns the field at the back of me and has a dumper truck, he has taken around fifty loads to his fire area over time, and we are not finished yet.
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Wow - that is some weigela you’ve got there - an absolute beauty :~}
The RHS said 2023 would be a good year for blossom - and it certainly seems to be ! fabulous azalia or rhododendron.
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