I was going to call this post 'Things That I'll do Differently Next Year', however if I was to do that, every second post would have the same title!
I only nipped to the Hill this evening to pick a lettuce, but saw that the peas needed some attention – not only did some of them need encouraging up the strings properly, but some of the strings were going slack and wafting around.
A closer inspection revealed that some of the strings have snapped at the soil – & although I initially thought that it was the pigeons to blame pecking the string, I now think that it's the dampness of the soil rotting through the sisal.
I've thought of two things that I might try next year – I could use netting from the top of the frame fixed with either pegs or a cane trapping the bottom edge by the soil; or I could peg down string in the same fashion as this year, but use non-rot twine instead of sisal.
Plenty of time to mull this one over.
I use twine Hazel. It does mean that you have untangling problems at the end though. I've also found that the compostable stuff gets shredded a little at a time by birds who fancy a cosy nest lining!
ReplyDeleteHow frustrating, hopefully you have found this early enough that an alternative can be put in place before the peas grow much bigger?
ReplyDeleteLive & learn, eh?
ReplyDeleteI'm still thinking about this for this year - whether to try to replace/suppliment the sisal with the peas in situ - which sounds difficult, OR to firefight & do running repairs through the summer.
Not a great choice, frankly.