Weekend Work: Time to protect young pea plants
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Your support makes all the difference.What to do
Cover fresh sowings of peas with netting and continue to protect young pea plants from rabbits, pigeons, slugs, pea weevils and all the other creatures that like peas as much as we do.
If you choose to sow seed in a dry period, souse the drills well with water before sprinkling the seed along them. Annuals that have been newly planted out will need nursing along. Soak plants in pots before you set them out and once planted, water and feed annuals well and protect them from slugs.
Clip hedges such as Leyland cypress and privet regularly to contain growth and prevent them spreading too wide.
Cover crops of strawberries with netting to protect them from birds. Dead head pansies and violas to prolong the flower display.
Prune choisya, exochorda, kerria and Ribes sanguineum. Take out a third of the stems at ground level.
What to see
It's Open Squares time in London this weekend with 200 community gardens in 22 boroughs opening up to visitors (Sat & Sun, 10am-5pm). Some are long established, like Barnsbury Square in Islington, some like The Skip Garden in King's Cross are less permanent. A single ticket (£10) allows access to all gardens, but not all are open both days. See opensquares.org
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