Seasonal Tips for Summer - Peas and Beans

As your crops start to mature in quick succession, keep up with the harvest. Vegetables such as peas, mangetout, and runner beans will be more productive if the crop is picked regularly. Don’t let them get too big and stringy, pick them young and small and eat them fresh for the best flavour.

Protect young vegetable plants from slugs and snails. Use Westland Slug Buster for fast effective control or a barrier of Slug Blocker to prevent these pests from reaching your vulnerable plants.
Keep the bean patch well weeded so that the weeds do not compete with your plants for vital moisture and nutrients.
Keep vegetable plants well watered while they are cropping to ensure that the crops develop and swell properly, this is particularly important for beans.
Use the Instant Planter to grow a late crop of French beans or peas. It has twice the depth of compost of standard growing bags, so it’s perfect for plants with deep roots. The rich layer of finely balanced compost contains everything your plants need to thrive. It includes a wetting agent to make watering easier and a water storing gel, which makes the water you use go much further and also helps retain moisture in the compost to support your plants during hot and dry weather.
If your runner beans aren’t setting very well (forming beans from the flowers), then try spraying the plants at dusk with a fine water spray and really soak the area of soil around the roots. This will also deter red spider mite, a common problem on beans in the summer.

Gardening tips for this Summer:

If you would like to refer back to the Seasonal Tips for April/May click here.

If you would like to refer back to the Seasonal Tips for February/March click here