Week 27 - Bed PC8

The mix of plants in this plot has not worked well this season. The drought conditions in April followed by the very late frost in May have caused problems. When preparing this bed we removed the sod instead of digging it in to the soil, and this removed much of the nutrients from the bed - and we did not add any compost, manure or other fertilisers. We also did not break up the lay of stones under topsoil, which likely has acted as a 'hard pan' which wold reduce the ability of the roots to penetrate deeper into the soil in search of nutrients and moisture. So the poor weather conditions were compounded by the less than ideal bed preparations.

The potatoes are still struggling and the broad beans are suffering (to the left of the photo), but a few peas plants are producing plump pods.