Brassica cage refurb.

Beginning as a miserable and wet day and ending boring and overcast…

That aside, completed in the garden today was the task of butterfly proofing the brassica cage to almost air-tight standard. Yes, the long awaited debris net arrived today via FedEx.

As I had been reliably informed, the netting I was previously using (10mm general garden netting) was not up to standard as it could in fact be easily breached by today’s evermore cunning cabbage white butterfly, I deemed the scaffolding netting a necessary purchase.

Anyway, the brassica patch cage was transformed from this:

to this…

As I imagine a refund on the netting would be out of the question, it is now being used to support the peas and beans. I have a bit left over that will be used to protect the soft fruit plants aswell.

Also, as I now own a rather large amount of netting, another cage was added. This one is over the patch where the potatoes were going to be. Since the aminopyralid realisation I am just growing crops that tolerate the herbicide in the various affected areas to make best use of the available space. My brassicas this year are brussels sprouts, cabbage and swede.

An inspired greenhouse viewing area, a slight bi-product to be honest but a great feature nonetheless:

Further jobs today included putting the runner beans into the ground and the companion sweet peas. Hoping theres no more frost.

On the lookout for comfrey…

I have come across a plant on allotment.org.uk called comfrey (never heard of it before). It is recommended every gardener grows a bed of it: its apparently very much under-rated. It sounds increddibly useful and I think I might try and track some down. Briefly, its allotment benefits include:

• acting as a compost activator, enriching the matter and speeding up the process
• as a chicken feed (not that I have any chickens)
• as a potato fertiliser (from the leaves)
• as a mulch and as a liquid feed for tomatoes, runner and dwarf beans

The article I read can be found here. Meanwhile, today, outdoor cucumber plants and celery have found their way to my greenhouse. I am going to begin hardening the runner beans off over the next couple of days. Actually, half are getting hardened off and half are getting potted on and placed back in the coldframe for another couple of weeks incase there is any failure. I anticipate getting the fleece out once or twice in the next month as I know its probably too early to be completely sure there are going to be no more frosts but the plants are very potbound!