Sunday 1 April 2012

Bamboo and peas

We established a climbing construction in our vegetable bed. It is very easy to make: take two bamboo (or other) canes, put them in the ground, cross them, bind a stick between them and tie it with a piece of rope to make it more solid. It already looks quite allotment-ish now. The only thing to check is the height and the distance between the sticks. We planted peas near them which grow around 1.5 meters high, so the bamboo canes should be long enough. Last year we planted string beans near the same sticks: they were too short, and strangled the other plants and tried to reach the gutters of the house (which was two meters away).
An appropriate distance between the sticks does not only serve the breadth development of the plant, but is also to be able to work the ground underneath. There, we have sown radishes and carrots (peas and carrots, classic combination isn't it?). Before the peas will block most of the sunlight, the radishes are already harvested by us. The thin stems of the peas and an extra distance between the sticks hopefully will let some sunbeams through for the cultivation of more vegetables. Another way is to let the peas climb against a vertical rack, fence or cords.

The peas are coming up already. Interesting fact: it is the only plant that already develops leafs underneath the ground before it shows itself to the sun. The plant also makes pretty flowers, so we are looking forward to a rich, wildly overgrown climbing construction.

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