Bean Bed Preparation

As you can see from my past postings; I am growing lots of beans again this year. To be successful at growing beans you need to make the most of your space. So I use the 'Munty' frame which is taken from a chap on the Allotment Forum.

First, I've attached 4 vertical posts to the South Side of the bed. Then I dig a trench along the North Side of the bed.


Then the trench gets filled with anything organic; this year as we have so much manure - I've filled it with that.


Then the trench gets backfilled with the original soil. Our soil is clay - with 2 years now of organic being added. The Main ingredients of the organic are newspapers, cardboard, coffee grounds and sawdust [we get the last 2 free from St*rbucks and from our lottie neighbour who gets it from a sawmill for us].

Once the trench is backfilled I can continue making the frame. As I ran out of cable ties today - I'm showing a frame that I made last year for effect.

The beans are planted into the north side, in the trench. They grow up the twine, and over the canes and then carry on up the sloping twine towards the top of the south side frame.

This design means that you don't lose any space under the frame - which is often the case when you grow in wigwams or cross canes. Also, the beans all get sunlight as there is no shading. The frames aren't too tall to block out light from the bed behind - so everyone is a winner!!!

Last day of Feb 2010

Although it is out of focus; here we have a ladybird in the greenhouse today. Good to see


I have often mentioned growing celery ascut and come again, I cut this back about 3 weeks ago and it is starting to grow back, even in the shocking weather we have been having. It looks yellower than it is [must sort out that white balance...but it is a mobile phone pic so I'm not too worried]


These are the seedlings sown since Christmas day; they are put into the greenhouse as soon as they germinate and left to their own devices


These are the ones sown in Jan - same but just a tad smaller


This is the result of my Manure versus Bog Standard Compost Onion Trial. These were all sown on 31 May 2009 and a random handful were pulled and 9 were were put into each pot. One pot was full of a mix of normal compost and well rotted manure and the other just compost. I then just left them to their own devices, they stayed outside all winter until a month ago when they were put into the unheated greenhouse. They have been grown side by side the whole way through.

It is evident that the manure ones have not grown as big or as fat as the normal compost ones. I wasn't expecting that!!! The rest of the sowing was planted out under a long cloche and the second half of that experiment will be unearthed soon.

The Bean Project - Yin Yang

Yin Yang

Bush

Classic double coloured bean.

The Bean Project - Tung

Tung

Climber

The Bean Project - Triomph De Farcy

Triumph/Triomph De Farcy

Bush

Nice colouring

The Bean Project - Ruth Bible

Ruth Bible

Climber

I grew these last year, and they were very prolific - wouldn't give up producing beans!

The Bean Project - Royal Red

Royal Red

Bush

Dark red and nice shape. Will enjoy this one.