Planting peas and beans on a super hot Saturday

Fabulously hot day today on the allotment, worked on the soil in the long bed which has been under fleece for a couple of weeks.

The soil was a pleasure to work - light, crumbly and warm. A quick dig and removal of a few annual weeds, a rake over and removal of a few stones and it was ready to be planted.

We started with a few sunflowers at the west end, and then created a seed bed for short rows of swede, cauliflower and brocolli. Also, as can be seen in the picture, we planted about 8 mange toutes grown indoors from seed, along with mange toutes seeds set 2 inches apart in a 2 metre-long, 5-inch wide seed drill. Covered the area over the plants with what I think are "twiggy sticks" on the left, plus a little more experimental protection on the right (sticks from a privet hedge removed from overgrown back garden at home).

We also planted some french beans grown from seed indoors in the hot trench created previously. I covered two of the plants with coke bottle cloches - we'll see if this helps them or not! We also set up the Blackwall compost bin, which the council kindly subsidised so it only cost £10.

Didn't put fleece back on any beds or water them very much as it is supposed to rain tomorrow...Had to leave in the end only because it was so sunny I was scared of getting burned - quite amazing!