Taking on an allotment

A lot can be achieved in a garden, especially when the local handyman can be convinced to 'accidentally' remove your mother's line of prized bushes, leaving a nice bit of land to grow more cosmos than one person really needs and a steady supply of summer beans.

But a garden has its limitations. With the best will in the world, you cannot ram a squash plant in amongst your mother's rose bushes and expect good results. And I know you can grow all sorts of vegetables in containers, but its a lot of watering.

I didn't blog much last year for many reasons, one of which being that there is only so many ways to put tulips in a pot and I felt a little uninspired. That and planting more than a hundred cosmos plants is incredibly time consuming.

This year has seen many changes, including changing jobs and moving house - a very stressful combination I have discovered. The most exciting change by far though (no offence to the boyfriend I have moved in with) is the acquisition of my very first allotment.

With 112.5m of prime Surrey real estate at my disposal the opportunities are endless. This new venture has inspired me to get back to blogging and share my tales from the allotment.

Here it is back in March when I had but a fork and a weed to my name

I have had the plot for a few months now and things are progressing well. I have already learnt a lot, including that my plot's previous tenant had a series thing for horseradish judging by the amount he left behind.

Continuing the spirit of change, this will be my last blog on Basically its Growing. I have made a fresh start here at The Beanyfiend. Join me for surprisingly juicy tales from the allotment, and I'm not talking about the fruit!

Splitting allium bulbs and digging up the lawn

I think a major flaw in a bulb's existence is its need to be dug up some time after being planted.  Its hard enough work getting it in the first time without having to repeat the job.  Luckily I am of the opinion that allium bulbs are worth it, and it doesn't need doing every year thankfully.

You can see where the stem of one of the heads is still sticking out to guide me down, and the new babies this side

Several years ago, probably about five, the mother purchased a couple of allium bulbs and planted them in the garden. Two she planted in completely appropriate locations. One she did not. Right smack bang in the middle of what was to become my vegetable patch in the back garden. For the last four years I have had to plant my vegetables around it, leaving a little boundary round where I think it is every year and eating into valuable planting space. For the last two years I have threatened to dig it up to shift it, but this year I expanded my vegetable patch which moved it from at least being near the edge to literally in the middle. It had to go.

Four healthy sized bulbs where there was once only one

After an exceptionally heavy period of rainfall in September I felt the time was ripe and I started excavation work.  When the mother did her planting she did a sterling job, although it is also where I dump old soil from pots, but either way it was about a foot and a half deep. Achieving a depth of that magnitude in my garden usually requires the help of a pickaxe. And a lot of sweat. Sweat I most certainly did but finally I happened upon the bulb. Im not quite sure when the right time for splitting alliums is, but the stump of the stem was still in place to guide my digging so I wanted to get on with it.

The bulb had been busy making babies beneath the soil. In digging it to find the parameters I discovered it had made three great big extra bulbs ready for splitting. Bulbs need splitting up because they reproduce and then cramp each other out. What was once once allium has produced a couple of heads for the last couple of years so it definitely warranted doing before it got too carried away with itself.

My three bought summer drummer bulbs. Obviously these are dryer as they aren't fresh from the soil

There is something very satisfying about digging up a whole cluster of bulbs, especially when only one went in and after so many years. The photos are not exactly the most visually stimulating but if your a gardener I think you'll agree that such a find is a thrill. Less thrilling is the need to dig holes to replant. I promised the mother I would bury them in my chosen location at the same depth as they had first lovingly been planted. Did I heck! They will have to find their own way down to that kind of depth, but they are at a reasonable level. I have shifted them across to the other side of the vegetable patch to what is slowly becoming my allium section. While this meant losing a little from one edge, it is less space than where it was previously. Obviously I split the bulbs up and interspaced them with my spanish drummer bulbs that I bought at Hampton Court this year. I  comparison the summer drummer bulbs were huge.

The mixture of bulbs in their new holes. Not as deep as they were originally but this will do

With these repositioned I should have a really good display of alliums come next year, and all together on mass as well. Hopefully each individual bulb will produce a flower head. If so my numbers really will be bolstered!

My original vegetable patch, complete with one out-turned pot and a cracking weed at the back

While I am talking about the vegetable patch I thought I would share my expansion efforts. I dug up the surrounding lawn to provide and extra foot or two of space. This was the compromise between my parents and I, as I was super keen to put in for an allotment and the mother said she would rather I dug up the lawn, so I did. Hopefully this extra space will really help the broad bean and pea season as they are always hampered by the cramped conditions.

It may not be much but these extra few inches are precious to me

Frech beans - Blue Lake and the end of the beans

Baby blue lake beans forming nicely

This summer we have been experiencing a bean glut, and the last player in my bean bounty where my climbing french beans. I feel like I have covered much of why the beans were so successful in my runner bean posts, and the story behind the french is no different. They enjoyed the spot and produced a great quantity of beans.  More than we really needed so the freezer is groaning.

I don't remember these being particularly covered in flowers, there were definitely more blooms on the runner beans but this didn't seem to prevent the production of beans, they kept appearing.

Fully formed french beans

One thing that was different about these to the runner beans is boy did they spread!  I found french beans amongst both the runner bean wigwams on either side, not even just on the side facing the frenchies, but right on the other side miles away from where they started out. I ended up picking a real mixture in certain areas, very odd when you suddenly come across a patch of french in what should be exclusively runner bean territory.

The variety Blue Lake that I grew was very tasty, stringless, everything you would want in a bean.  I would definitely grow it again, if I wasn't the type of person who always likes to grow different things every year.  I have already bought some cobra climbing beans ready for next year and no doubt I will branch out into other varieties when I see some offers at some point.

I do love a good whirly-twirly vine

I really like french beans because they are tasty and they are also distinctly easier and quicker to cut up than runner beans.  However everybody else in my family much prefers the runner bean.  Because of this I have eaten the lions share of french beans, which is fine with me.  The mother however turned to me the other day and said we shouldn't bother to grow french beans again.  Last time I looked I wasn't growing them for her exclusive enjoyment! Needless to say I will be ignoring her and growing them again next year.

Some of these beans are a little big but I struggled to keep up with the necessary level of picking

The beans have just finally come to an end and were unceremoniously ripped out the moment I thought it was acceptable. Time waits for no bean as they say! I need the space for all my winter veg which is coming along nicely.  Just like I predicted getting the wigwams apart took ages, I think the mother thought she was constructing a sea-worthy vessel rather than a bit of support for beans.  No wind would ever have taken that apart.

The final bean hedge before I ripped them down

I had already whipped out the first of the runner beans when I discovered you're meant to leave the roots in the ground to let the nitrogen the beans have collected disappate back into the soil.  Woops. I have left the other two in so hopefully this bit of earth will turn into very nice soil at some point.

This is the top of the wigwams after about half an hour of chiselling and hacking
at the vines.  Who needed string round the top to hold it together!  

The front garden is looking a bit sad now my three soldiers of green are gone but you can now see all the gladiolus and annuals all at once, which is still pretty despite the lack of green backdrop.

Winter vegetables - brussel sprouts, perpetual spinach and leeks

It should be a winter of sprouts, kale, leeks and spinach. Hopefully

The winter vegetable is completely new terrain for me.  Last year my growing calendar as far as vegetables are concerned ended abruptly at the beginning of Autumn.  This year, being that I have bed space crying out to be used, I am pushing through and hope to have some kind of edible growing at all points right through until next year's broad beans take over.

I was unprepared for this decision.  With no advance preparation I took to my nearest garden centre to plunder their ready-grown supplies of winter seedlings.  Alas, choice was limited! But I have got a few goodies.

My leeks were a little spindly, but I went with planting anyway

The first is sprouts.  I personally love a good brussel, be that at christmas or any other time, I will eat them willingly.  I think the reason they are so unpopular is people ruin them by going overboard on the boiling.  But we have to get some first.

The seedlings seem to require an inordinate amount of space - like a metre between each one - certainly more than I am prepared to give them in any case.  With that kind of spacing I would have got about four seedlings in the entire space the dwarf beans previously took up, and thats just greedy.  Of course they will grow huge and be elbowing each other out of the way for space, but thats just tough.  I gave them about 60cm between, and thats me being generous.

Leek-holes, holes for leeks.  At the bottom of a trench that keeps trying to collapse to allow me to build up the bleached part

I also purchased perpetual spinach, lots of perpetual spinach.  I like spinach, but theres something about the name perpetual that is faintly unappetising, like its been hanging around a while and get old. Im hoping this isn't the case as the amount I have planted we will be having it on a very frequent basis.
These I have put in my rear veg-bed - freshly extended - which could be a bit shady and damp during the winter, we will have to go see, but hopefully they will do ok.

The un-adulturated leeks in all their original glory

Most interestingly in my book at least, are my new leeks.  Im not the biggest fan myself, but on twitter it certainly has its advocates!  And I just thought why not?! Planting these is bizarre.  The label said dig a hole 8 inches deep, pop in the leek and then just fill with water.  Instructions like that needed further explanation I thought, so I looked up a video.  Turns out the traditional method is to undo most of the leeks' hard work - slicing off both some roots and leaves before popping into the hole.  This makes the roots easier to get in the hole apparently, which is true, but feels so wrong.  The lady in the video was planting leeks the size of fingers, mine are more pencils, or pipe cleaners but I stuffed them in anyway.

The slosh of water just covers the roots in soil and thats enough apparently. Only some of my holes were longer than my leeks and one leek plain vanished when I added water. I had to insert a finger into the muddy hole to try and extract it.  It was unpleasant. But I was successful. The hole means the stem becomes bleached white which is what you want, but as mine are so small I have also dug a trench so the soil ca be built up.  I've had a few issues with backfilling, but so far so good.

Trimmed and ready for action, easy for stuffing in holes.
Apparently they love it!

Added to this is all my kale and a few other bits and pieces I will go into at a later date, so hopefully the winter will be veg-full!  

So much kale - curly, black, eaten and old

My two shop bought kale varieties, looking a little dry I must say

Kale is not a vegetable I have ever had any regard for.  But when I realised I would have a whole bed free all winter I started hunting around for some nice winter vegetables to fill it, and settled amongst other things, on kale.

Kale, as one person on twitter told me, would survive a nuclear winter.  I haven't got plans to live through one of those, but winter hardiness is exactly what I was looking for.  I believe we have only willingly bought kale once from the supermarket, and I can't say I was a fan.  But I haven't let that hold me back and now seem to be growing four different varieties.  I had the audacity to question whether kale was an appetising vegetable on twitter, and was promptly put right!  It seems there are some real defenders of kale out there!  But one mentioned a kale and lentil curry that does sound rather tempting so I will have to remember to have a go at that.

My first batch of Nero di Toscana kale, apparently the world's most
appetising kale to pests

I have sown two varieties myself and bought two.  The two I bought are a black kale and F1 reflex curly kale.  The black one has lovely purple tinged smooth leaves at the moment, but this should change to dark green, very knobbly green leaves.  This seems to be feature of kale; leaves like crinkled old bags.

Reflex will be even more crinkly than the black variety, im looking at the picture on the label and my mind can't help wander to all the nooks and crannies caterpillars will have to hide in. I am quickly discovering that this is the main hitch of growing winter greens: all the caterpillars out to get them.  Not such a problem with the kale at the second, but my cauliflowers? That is another story! But a story for another day.

These shop bought ones are already planted out in my new front bed.  I wanted to plant them in the traditional row style, but my annual flowers and beans haven't finished yet so I have ended up popping them in here and there in my usual haphazard way.  It looks rather charming at the second, but when the annuals are over and gone, the neighbours are going to wonder what the hell I was thinking! Oh well. It should also make harvesting the leaves a bit more of a challenge.  I am trying to keep on top of the weeds to make sure I don't suddenly start munching on them rather the kale!

Ninety nine percent of the stuff in this picture is not kale. The line of the
plants at the far left are a line of kale

I also did some sowing.  I bought just the one kale variety at the Hampton Court flower show - Nero di Toscana, because this was still in the day when the taste of a vegetable was a prerequisite to growing it, and as I have already said, im not sure what kale tastes like.

These seedlings are my biggest issue at the moment.  If I leave them uncovered on the patio something just comes along and mows long the top of them.  Its been a real challenge nursing them through. I suspect pigeons so have them tucked away and covered in fleece to keep the pesky birds off.  This seems to be working, but what I didn't get is the other sat 5 metres away for several weeks and were left immaculate. It makes no sense.  What I didn't account for in all my protection was a falling apple which took a seedling out.  Typical.  What makes it through this tough time will join their fellows in the bed.

At this point I clearly have more than enough kale, but then I came across a really old packet the mother bought and didn't use.  I always love a challenge so I couldn't resist trying to germinate them.  I chucked in a whole lot as they are old anyway.  Of course the seed is still viable and all of it has come up, and now I have an excessive amount. Oh well. Be making lots of that kale and lentil curry wont I! Now I just need to figure out when to start picking the leaves...  

An endless supply of runner beans - Scarlet Empire & White Lady

The Scarlet Empire in full flower, I do enjoy a vegetable that can do pretty as well

I got plenty of blossom off this variety, although there are a fair few plants
in this mass

I come to writing this directly from eating what could not be far short of a pound of runner beans for dinner, which may cloud my opinion a little.  I have taken to eating ludicrous amounts of this vegetable in an attempt to keep up with supply, but there is only so many beans one person wants to eat, and I am well over this level.

I personally like the runner bean flowers coloured rather than white, they
make more of a firey impact

Normally my main complaint with growing vegetables is that the crop tastes great, I just end up slicing one pea in half to ensure everybody gets a piece.  Not with my runner beans, oh no.  From what you can gather from above, I have been inundated.  To say it has been a success would be to undersell.

Yours truly at the beginning of the season getting the mass pick underway, ignore the shoes, they aren't mine.  Im now only picking from about chest height and above

The White Lady variety in flower, managed to snap this bumble making good
his exit

The secret has been where I grew them.  Last year the mother grew runner beans but I only remember having a few meals off of them.  That would be because she only had a few plants planted in about a foot square and they had to climb up the apple tree for support.  Clearly not ideal.  This year she sowed about twenty seedlings of Scarlet Empire, without actually having anywhere to put them, and then she dug up all the bushes in the front garden, and suddenly a prime bean growing spot appeared.  It is open on all sides, with good blow-through and lots of sun.  And the beans have loved it.

Early beans forming.  I swear they look like this one minute and then you
check on them a few days later and you have a foot long green swords

I have already covered my intense session of wigwam making, needless to say they have survived sturdy through intense rain and the odd gusty breeze.  The mother's runners I planted round one wigwam and some White Lady I bought round another.  The Scarlet Empire started flowering first, with lovely bright reddy-orange flowers that sung out and were really pretty.  The White Lady are more of a pale creamy white, still nice but not as impressive.  The Scarlet Empire was completely covered in flowers, and much to my horror does still have flowers on it now because I haven't cut the tops of the plants, naughty me.  The only difference I can tell between the two is that the Scarlet Empire tend to be a slightly darker bean and maybe a bit thicker, and also possibly mature faster.  Its hard to tell because I do not segment my beans on picking, I just chuck them all in a colander together.

More early beans

I do this because picking beans has become my second job.  I come home from work every other day and go straight into the front garden to start picking for a good half hour.  I can't keep up.  It always amazes me that a, the little rotters can grow so fast.  You leave them to get just a smidgeon bigger and come back the next day to find them huge.  And b, that despite going through the plants with a fine tooth comb you come across absolute whoppers that are a bit on the tough side.  And the most annoying part is at the beginning I would be out there picking and a neighbour would wander past and exclaim that they were wondering when I would start picking.  Like im not always picking!

Slightly bigger beans

At the start I was terribly concerned about knocking off the ageing blooms incase this meant that little beans wouldn't form.  Now I actively try and knock off the baby beans.  Thats a joke, I would never turn my nose up at vegetables that have made the effort to grow, but I am reaching my limit.  I probably pick a good half pound of runner and french beans every two days, thats a lot to consume, especially as the mother, a woman who can munch through twenty beans in a single sitting alone, is out of action just having had a tonsillectomy.  So with our ranks dwindling the fridge is stuffed and the freezer is also packed out.  Im hoping some extra room can be found in the freezer so we can save them for a time when I feel less over indulged in beans.

The average pile every two days, thats a lot of bean to munch through

Next year I will be growing runner beans again, after all they are such good value for money, just maybe not so many plants!

PS. What's the deal with the massive spiders on spindly legs that seem to hang around in runner bean bushes?!  I just pulled a few and screamed like a girl.

My takings from one lovely August day, ah the summer, I already miss its bounty

Dwarf beans - productive and tasty, the perfect bean!

A killer on the back but well worth the effort.  Luckily Im young and resilient

I wish dwarf beans had come into my life earlier.  There is nothing not to like; quick to produce, economical on space needs, no wigwam construction required.  Perfect.  Although I will admit that they will do your back in when it comes to picking, but so will the bottom tiers of a wigwam, so thats totally forgivable.

The electric purple flowers, obviously not very big and in-your-face
but nobody is going to say no to a little dot of colour here and there

I would like to say that I saw these beans through from sowing to harvest, but I cheated and bought these as seedlings.  In my defence it was like mid May when the garden space opened up, and always better to cheat and make use of the opportunity than stick to principles and not.  I bought dwarf french beans and the best thing about them, other than the fact that they have produced a veritable hoard of beans, is that the flowers were purple.  A pretty bean is always a bonus in my book.  It was a really nice purple as well, very very pale but quite electric at the same time.  It sung out, one might say, above a sea of green leaves.  The popped into flower around early July, and were out of it and into bean production before I could turn round.

Beans forming on the plant

Im totally sold on french beans, stuff broad beans with their months of development only to find the tiniest beans ever snuggled in those fluffy casings.  Dwarf beans produce and they produce fast.  No sooner had I spotted a few thin beans beginning to form, than a quick rootle in the undergrowth revealed fully formed beans.  How they grow so quick is beyond me, but I like these short turnaround times.  Im all about an investment of time, but lets get some edible results!  They were by far the earliest out of all my french and runner beans this year, and while the others are just getting going I am sadly beginning to near the end of the dwarf crop.

The beans in question

Not only do they produce fast, but they produce a lot.  They require picking every couple of days and my fridge has been stuffed out for a couple of weeks with them now.  We have had several meals off them, and if there wasn't currently four adults living at home, im sure I could have exclusively lived off them for vegetables for several weeks.  Considering how few plants I have, I think this is really impressive.  And very satisfying!  At last a vegetable that has performed just as it should and given bountiful reward.

Nothing better than a good bean pick on a sunny day.  Less so like it was tonight - hammering down with rain

Obviously volume is always welcome, but they also need to taste good as well, and these really do.  We tend to top and tail them, cut them into two centimetre sections and steam them, although they also got thrown into a stirfry the other night as well. Delicious.  Obviously it helps to pick them before they get old and touch, which I try my best at, but try as one might you always come across a huge old fat bean and think, how, how did did I miss you?!  As clear as the nose on my face.

Some of the beans early on, they are good and tasty, and as long as they are picked early enough, tender too

Dwarf beans will definitely be featuring in my garden again next year.  They are just such a handy productive bean.  In fact two varieties for next year are already in my possession.  I bought a packet of purple queen, which is unsurprisingly purple, and ferrari which is your standard fillet type green bean.  I have also seen a strange yellow one which grows in containers which I wouldn't be sad to have in my possession.

We had some in a nice stir-fry, it added a bit of green to the mix, but normally we just steam them

Growing tomatoes : early ripening and a good crop

A rare appearance by yours truly clutching my precious bounty of tomatoes.  Having this many makes me so proud

The time has come for an update on how my numerous tomato plants have been getting on so far this year.  Unlike some of my other vegetable crops (ie broad beans and peas) my tomatoes have done me proud.  They have ripened really early, producing a nice steady stream for the last few weeks that means I haven't eaten a shop bought one for quite a while.

Some lovely medium sized fruits ripening on the vine

I know they have ripened early because the mother's friend said she didn't have a single red tomato on her plants in the greenhouse when I had already started eating mine which had ripened outside on the patio.  I may not have a greenhouse, but my patio gets really nice and hot with the sun baking down, and therefore I don't do too badly with the tomatoes.  Last year was a different story, but that was because I had to shift them into a darkened corner of the patio while the roof was taken off.  This definitely affected the crop, even thought this year has probably been less warm and sunny overall.

I have about 15 plants of differing varieties, all different sizes and shapes and even colour.  Most are from Gardener's Kitchen, a good reliable source of tomato plant in my opinion. I am really enjoying growing heritage varieties and unusual coloured ones.  Somehow a stripey tomato such as tumbling tiger and tigerella are just a little more thrilling than a supersweet 100, however good supersweet may be.  I am a sucker for unusual-ness, and as you can't buy stripey tomatoes in shops, im sold.  Having taken a thousand pictures I will share the varieties I have particularly enjoyed growing in more detail in another post, otherwise this will get very picture heavy!

They may not be traditionally pretty but I find a patio full of tomatoes at various stages of ripening really attractive

Every year I think I will keep detailed notes about how many tomatoes each variety gives and the taste, and I never do.  I think all have pulled their weight, except one, which has decided to just grow one whopper that has kept the whole household fascinated.  The bigger fruited tomatoes obviously produce less quantity but I get a kick out of watching them grow huge, so I don't mind.  Two great big ones I have been watching and waiting for like a hawk split right round the centres just as they ripened because the heavens opened and we had an absolute downpour, saturating them.  Unfortunate, but still edible in my eyes.  Thats tomorrow's lunch!

This shows off some of the different varieties, including a sneaky yellow one, not something I approve of in tomatoes 

Currently I have a whole pot full of tomatoes waiting to be eaten in the kitchen, so things are good at the moment,  However there are not that many new flowers coming on the plants so I am concerned that I will get my crop early and they will be over quick.  The mother says this is a good thing because it means they will have all ripened, but I like getting some green tomatoes at the end.  What will I make my green tomato chutney with if I don't have any?

Perfection

You've got to love it when a tomato plant surprises you.  The other day I was watering one of my pots of sweet peas, a job I do every day, when I spotted some leaves amongst the stems which did not look sweet pea-esque.  There is only a two foot high tomato plant growing up amongst them.  I have never spotted it before, I don't know how, and I literally have no clue as to how it got there.  Clearly I did manage to grow one tomato from seed this year, just not quite in the way I had planned!  I have got to stop throwing seed compost in too pots im potting up, not that I thought I did on this occasion, because then you have a tomato in your peas!

So part one of the tomato season has been a resounding success, hopefully part two will continue in the same vein.

Building wigwams for runner and french beans

I think you will agree, these are three solidly looking wigwams.  I forgot to photograph the wigwams on construction,
so this is a few weeks later, the beans have made rapid progress.  This also demonstrates the closeness of the beans to the neighbours

When one turns the front garden into an impromptu vegetable bed, one also has to construct wigwams.  I have never constructed a wigwam before.  Theoretically I believe the correct practise is to build your wigwam and then plant the beans around, but that would require the canes to be in ones possession when one plants the beans, which I did not have.  This is the problem with trying something new in the garden, it always results in having to invest in more equipment. I have sticks for broad beans, sticks for peas, sticks for sweat peas, but nothing longer.  And I needed a bit of length here.  So off to the garden centre I went, mother in tow.

Unfortunately I hit the garden centre after the locusts had already been through, buying every cane below eight foot and above five. After deciding that eight foot sticks would not fit into my car without some serious alteration on their part, however I attempted to wedge them in, we had to leave for another.  Typically this did not have cane supply problems, with every size imaginable covered.
We settled on seven foot canes as the appropriate length, but even these had to be wedged into the glove compartment on the passenger side, pass right under the mother's ear to be wedged right in the back of the boot. Getting them home was just stage one.  Now I had to set too and lasso them together.  I did not think this would be a difficult task.  I tried my best, but apparently wigwam making is harder than it looks, or at least it is if your making them to the mother's standards.

Being the daughter of the vegetable growing god that was my grandfather, I asked her to take a supervisory role.  Accordingly she vanished and I found her drinking tea and snacking on biscuits indoors, by which point I had one of my wigwams in place and was just going to lasso a whole load of twine around the top.  Despite opting out earlier, she declared I had done it all wrong and my wigwam would not withstand gale force winds.  Why she is expecting such gusts I don't know, we don't live in a terribly windy place.  So I told her if she thought it could be done better, feel free.  So the mother had to take to the soil and start making some reef knots.

I think the mother thinks the bamboo canes are the next Houdini.  Nobody is getting free
from this lassoing

She didn't like this for two reasons.  One, she was in her good skirt.  Two, she had until now believed she could act like a front garden full of beans had been thrust upon her rather than she was taking an active role.  No more.  Also her tea went cold, but that's by the by.  Anyway shes much taller than I and therefore far more suited to wigwam making.  She did a fine job, although complained incessantly.  It will probably take several hours to prize them apart at the end of the season the level of lasso she went into.

She says it suddenly looks like we have instantaneous beans because as they had been in a few weeks they had been putting on a bit of length, albeit along the ground.  While she was up-top in construction, I was coiling the beans up the poles.  I think it looks really pretty, very cottagey garden.  The parents were concerned it would be very vegetable patch, but beans have flowers and a whimsical air.  Not like im out there growing cabbages, not yet anyway.  It must look good because my neighbour told the mother while I was on holiday how much she liked the new front border, saying there was always something new to see.  I just love being proven right.

On the plus side if anybody had a mind to knick the canes, they would end up
giving up.  I dread trying to get them apart.  On a brighter note I love a good bean stalk coil
up a pole, its just so pleasing

So hopefully the wigwams will withstand the British hurricane season, having returned from holiday I can confirm they are all still very much in situ, and hopefully I will get a fine crop.  I am however concerned that passers by may feel inclined to pinch a bean or two on their way past.  I may have to erect signage and tell that neighbour to stop eyeing up my beans.   

Beans in the front garden - french, runner and dwarf

I am back.  The reasoning for a three week absence is I escaped to Cyprus for a ten day break from the stresses of being a journalist and my everyday life.  If I was a more organised person I would have written posts in advance and had them go up automatically while I was away, but I am not that person.  But now I am back, brown as a berry and refreshed and talking about beans.

The mother does not approve of me turning the front garden into a vegetable patch.  Luckily I don't  give two hoots what she thinks so have done so anyway.  You see, the reason I don't grow more vegetables than I already do is a question of space.  I have wedged in a small vegetable bed at the bottom of my back garden by removing shrubs, but there is only space for a small crop of broad beans, sugar snap and peas.  No room at all for more exotic legumes such as french beans or a cheeky line of dwarf.

In my minds eye when I was writing this I had taken lots of lovely pictures.  It turns out
I only took two, and neither are terribly visually interesting.  I dug three enormous holes
to put manure in, the effort that had to be put in does not come across.

I am a big believer in grabbing opportunity by both hands, and if that opportunity is a border of old shrubs, pulling until removed.  The shrubs did need to go.  Looking like a row of unkempt teeth, what had been a delightfully ordered set of various bushes had grown and morphed into quite frankly what can only be described as a monstrosity.  Several years I have tried to convince the parents to let the bushes go, and only when the tall end one started to die and one in the middle sagged onto the lawn did they finally relent.

Being ever keen to save things the mother chopped down the euonymus and berberis in the hope they would re-sprout.  Then they called in a professional gardener to pull out the stumps of the other two.  Only said professional gardener got a little carried away and pulled out the whole lot.  I practically died of amusement when I came home to find a barren front border devoid of any plant-life.  This quickly moved to salivating over what could be put there instead.

Luckily the mother saw this mishap as an opportunity rather than a disaster, an opportunity to start afresh. Admittedly fresh with shrubs was her thought but I had other ideas.  Beans.  To be fair, now is not the time to be planting new shrubs and she has no idea what she wants to put in there so in the mean time I have whipped in several circles of beans.

I had to go shop bought rather than home-grown as I was not expecting this soil windfall and so hadn't prepared.  Instead I bought two packs of the french bean variety Blue Lake.  The garden centre actually had a very limited choice, I was expecting beans of every shape and colour, but no, so I couldn't mix it up a bit.  On another trip to a different one I did stumble across some dwarf beans which are handy because they are vertically challenged members of the bean world and don't require staking.

The mother's runners.  She had a really healthy luscious crop that have grown like weeds since going in.  She knows how to go for numbers, think we will have runners galore

The mother has benefitted as well mind you.  She always likes to grow some runner beans.  Last year she planted them in a small space at the front of a boarder in the back garden and they ended up growing through the apple tree which didn't make picking easy.  Pretty though.  With all this new space she was able to plant out her runners in a nice roomy circle ready for a wigwam.  Picking should be a dream.  It hasn't been without its work though because the entire thing has had to be dug over to remove small roots and copious amounts of horse poo has been shoveled in, although I read afterwards that beans don't like freshly manured grounds, but tough, they've got it now.

So currently there are three circles of climbing beans and three small lines of dwarf beans in the front garden.  I plan to add to this with some broccoli in the near future.  The mother keeps talking about putting bushes back in. but its not happening.  Now I have my hands on this earth im not letting go.  The only problem is its a little exposed to my neighbours and I can not garden in my night frock out there as is my want sometimes.  Better than nothing though.

Vegetable patch update - planting peas and broad bean flowers

The last time I featured my vegetable patch the broad beans were a foot high and starting to really enjoy my manured soil and romp away.  Since then the patch has received a new intake of occupants, some support has been required, and we have flowers!  And where we have flowers we should see beans so its all exciting.

The vegetable patch with two batches of peas in situ

Since putting in my first batch of broad beans my two sowings of peas also reached planting out stage so joined their bean buddies in the bed.  I sowed two types of pea; a sugar snap variety, and just a plain old pea.

I love the flashes of pink and purple at the base of each flower, I think they are
actually rather attractive just as flowers without the promise of impending beans

Last year I bought sugar snap peas ready grown from the garden centre but I didn't find it a terribly effective approach.  For one thing I had far too many plants, forty or more, and by the time I got them in, the roots were in a terrible tangle and I had to give up on fully separating them out and plant them in clumps.  This led to one hell of a knot later on and a real struggle to find the peas to pick.  So this year I have sown my own.  I only had about thirteen plants come up, so while this appears like I will have far less in the way of produce, it should all be far more manageable and I wont find huge old gnarled peas buried in thickets during picking time. 

My sugar snap pea of choice is Jessy, and I have sown two batches, one has already been in the patch a few weeks and the other is now approaching the point of planting out.  I am hoping this will give me a sustained pea season.  The other pea is Kelvedon Wonder and I have just the one batch at the second because space is a little limited.  Really sowing peas and beans from seed is so easy there isn't any excuse not do it, unless you can't get a certain variety of seed.

I particularly like the black spots that are only visible from the front

So I put the first batches of sugar snap and pea in a few weeks ago at the beginning of May, its pretty straightforward, dig hole, stuff in and cover so I wont go into detail.  They have grown on nicely, reaching about a foot tall. Peas are known for needing a little support in life through canes.  Being a little thrifty, last year the mother thought fuchsia sticks would suffice.  They did not.  The whole lot had devolved into an intertwined knot long before I finally got round to buying proper canes and sorting it out.  Not this year, canes already in hand I have already started staking and everything is under control.  My only slight problem with the peas is the writing wore off my labeling sticks and I can't tell the difference between the two types of peas.  Now that they have grown on a little more I think Im right in saying that the proper pea has darker, larger, leathery leaves.  But still not a hundred percent sure.

This variety seems particularly pinky in comparison to the one I grew last year
who knew the veg patch could be so pretty

I hadn't staked the broad beans as they have such thick and robust stems they give you the impression they can withstand life on their own.  And they can, until you get some exceptionally heavy rain like we did this week and then the whole lot come tumbling down like felled trees.  If not attended to quickly the stems fix bent over and they is no hope in getting them back upright, so I was out there this weekend getting the stakes in.  Its a little less attractive but it does keep everything in order.

The beans have progressed well since the top photo - the promise of beans
draws ever nearer 

The most exciting development so far is the first batch of broad beans have burst into flower.  I know the point of beans is to grow them for their produce, but I really like the flowers.  I think the colouring, white with a tinge of pink and purple and a great big black dot, is really attractive and more than worthy in their own right as flowers.  Of course I am still hoping they will turn into beans, but I am enjoying this stage.  I am making sure to give them plenty of water as Im now aware that beans are fond of a good drink.

Organised and freshly-staked beans, with a sneaky clematis in the back

So that's where I am up to at the moment, flowers, happy peas and I popped my second batch of broad beans in the other week as well.  I haven't seen any bees buzzing around the beans but hopefully they are doing their job behind my back and I am well on my way to a solid batch of broad beans.