Full Of Beans

 

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Greek Gigante Soup Beans

Barlotti Beans

Runner Bean

In full flush 9th August 

Starting out June 1st

Greek Gigantes podded

This year I have had a bit of a go at climbing beans. I always grow runner beans. Barlotti beans have become a fixture too, grown for drying in the pod and storing until needed in the following 12 months. 

Two novelties this year have been Greek Giant Soup Beans (or just Greek Gigantes beans) and Cherokee Trail of Tears.  The Greek beans are white butter beans and traditionally used in a baked bean dish called Gigantes Plaki. The pods are shorter and wider than runner beans and seemed to be vary widely in the number of beans per pod.  Despite my early fears about poor yield they delivered a good crop.  The taste and texture were ample reward for the effort and we recently enjoyed our first (of many) Plakis so much that we have committed to grow them again, using our home saved seeds.

Cherokee Trail of Tears will have to wait for another post because they haven't been podded yet

 

Biblical Beans

 

Forget the Holy Trinity planting scheme (Sweetcorn/Climbing Beans/Squash) I'm going for the 4 Apostles - hopefully not the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

For the record the 4 wigwams are Greek Soup Giant Beans, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Barlotti Tongues of Fire and a mixture of Runner beans (Scarlet Emperor, White Lady, Painted Lady) 

All Time Low

This is definitely one for the record. 

 Whether you take the view from one end ...

...or the other

The plot is looking very barren just now.  But I need this for comparison purposes later in the year.

The fruit cage has the nets removed to guard against snow damage

and last year's pumpkin and bean patch is looking particularly sad.

On the plus side there is not much weed growth yet!  Time for a mulch and a fabric mulch!

Also there are some brassicas still hanging on.  The Purple sprouting broccoli will be another month until it gets into production mode!

Back home the marmalade making has been completed for another year!

Composting Weeds

Warning = if you are into "No Dig" you won't like this. It is next year's cucurbits and legumes patch in my 5 way rotation. As the season progresses all my allotment weeds get stuffed into black lined bags previously used for manure or proprietary compost mixes. The bags are piled up and left to languish in the sun wherever is out of the way, until now. Yard by square yard I dig a pit, tip in a couple of foul smelling bags and then fill it in from the next square yard. This last year I collected twenty bags of weedy material. I call this fertility recycling. The runner beans, courgettes, squashes and peas seem to like it. Even the pernicious weed remnants underneath seem to get the message that they are the providers of nutrition, no longer the beneficiaries.

I do "high fibre" composting in a plastic dalek at home with the help of brandling worms. Here kitchen waste is generated and so are supplies of paper and cardboard so that the lasagne layering required to keep the greens and browns in balance are to hand. As the allotment is several miles across town the "stuff it in a light excluding bag" method seems to be more practicable. Weeds are excluded from my home compost which I use for mixing my own seed mixes and mulches. I find this a happy arrangement.

Sweet Dumplings and Drying Beans

 With the cold wind blowing it is time to enjoy some of the summer's stored treats: Sweet Dumplings squash.  One of these is just the right size for a person...

...once stuffed and baked.

The kitchen pulley is serving its purpose as a drier of beans.  These net bags are suitably positioned so that if you don't watch out you bump into them on entering and leaving.  This, together with the occasional rummage ensures good air circulation.  As the Barlotti bean pods dry they start shedding beans - a sure sign that they are ready for podding!

Picking Up At The Plot

 I have been indulging my newfound interest in flowering plants and particularly wildflowers recently. Despite appearances I have been keeping up with the production of edibles too.  To bring the record up to date, here is a statement of the current state of play.

I went for alliums in a bigger way this year growing autumn and spring planted garlic as well as shallots and onions from seed. These were sown indoors in February .  The garlic has emerged and shallot and onion have been planted out on site yesterday and today. 

Broad beans sown in cells and planted out a month ago are now sitting pretty at the plot. 

Peas on the other hand have refused to be cajoled into germinating early. As a last resort I have started them sprouting in a jam jar in the kitchen and only "sown" them in cells after germination and exporting them to the greenhouse and then the plot.

Still on legumes I have sown 5 varieties of Dwarf French Bean into deep cells in the hope that the improved night temperatures will help them get started.

The greenhouse has been stuffed full each night with the paraffin heater lit on any night when the threat of frost is flagged up by the weatherman.  The main beneficiaries are flowers: Cosmos, Marigold, Lobelia, but also tomato, cucumber and pepper 

Tomatoes and Cucumber

Pepper Hungarian Hot Wax

I have attempted direct sowing at the allotment but tend to hedge my bets by using up remnant seed supplies (open packets from last year or out of date ones).  This way I don't get upset when they fail - although failure is also more likely as a result!  Parsnip, carrot, Swish chard have been experimented with in this way - and have all been resown recently..

Good Friday is a traditional potato planting day.  Easter Saturday and Sunday saw me getting all but the maincrop Rooster in. 

Potatoes in waiting

The patch allocated to potatoes in my rotational plan still had "spring" cabbages at one end and leeks at the other.  Now that's what I call bad planning! The leeks are going into the cookpot.

The ground for runner beans, celery and celeriac has been thoroughly prepped with plenty of buried organic matter.  The celery and celeriac have been growing on at home

Celery and Celeriac  - Can you tell which is which?

 but the runner beans have yet to be sown.  The courgettes squashes and sweetcorn haven't been sown either yet, but I have recently prepared a bed for them too.  My method is to bag all my weeds and trimmings in old black lined compost bags and leave them for a year or two to rot down in the hope that after another year buried underground any weed seeds will not be viable.  This keeps all the nutrients recycled on the site - all except the edible part of any crops.  

Weed suppression is something I take very seriously.  The best method is to have a crop growing but failing that deployment of weed suppressant fabric in the early part of the growing season saves hours of repetitive weeding.  As the sowing season progresses so the aesthetically unpleasing fabric gets rolled back. 

Brassicas tend to be at their best late in the growing year. None more so than purple sprouting broccoli which is currently in full production mode. 

 One again my lack of planning means the row of PSB plants is right in the middle of this year's carrot patch (under the fine mesh).  The PSB needs nets to keep the pigeons off while the carrots need fine netting to keep the carrot root fly off. so it is a bit of a logistic nightmare to cater for them both simultaneously.  As the early carrot sowing show no sign of germination yet perhaps there is no imminent prospect of running out of space just yet - the main crop carrots can wait until the PSB harvesting season is over.

This years brassicas and leeks are coming on at home in readiness for planting out. It iis going to be busy for the next month or two!

Early season brassicas

Leeks

 

4 Seasons Square Foot Beds - Autumn

4 Seasons Bed today 9/9/20

Now that it is  Meteorological Autumn it is time to see how the crops in the Autumn bed are faring.  Under the 4 seasons scheme all crops should be ready for harvesting before the month is out.  There are some successes and some failures. Lets take a look:

AUTUMN

The autumn planting scheme was:

Beetroot			Tomato			Carrot
Fennel			Pepper (Cyklon)			Celeriac
Leeks (Jolant)			Dwarf French Beans			Kohlrabi

Here are pictures of each square in turn with notes:

Leeks

Although an early variety (Jolant) these leeks are lagging behind and will need to be left for another month or two before harvesting.  They could probably do with a bit of liquid feed.  Leeks feature in Autumn, Winter and Spring beds.  An earlier start is required for the Autumn ones.

Dwarf French Beans

Rammed full of greenery there has been a reasonable crop.  Not sure that this variety is the best.  A yellow or purple variety would help as the beans got "lost" behind the greenery.

Kohlrabi

 A good choice but early growth was pecked to death by pigeons.  Netting now in place and resowing has worked.  Next year protection will be in place from the start.

Fennel

Peaked too early so the three remaining  stems have bolted.  Abundant feathery leaves.  One stunning bulb was harvested in July by an unknown agency.  5 plants in a square foot was too many so the perpetrator probably did us a favour by thinning the crop! 

Red Pepper Cyklon

 A bit ambitious growing this outdoors in Scotland.  Healthy green leaves, some flowers, but not any significant fruit.  Squeezed in the middle it was not a fair contest. Verdict  Not an appropriate choice for this location. Grow indoors in future.

Celeriac

 Celeriac has been a bugbear for me in the past but I was encouraged by the results in the school garden last year.  A single plant in this square. There is a picture of the root development below.  Could do with a liquid feed.  Also growing this in Winter with similar results.

Carrots - Missing!

 Carrot are a bad choice for the school garden.  Even with fleece the badger seeks them out and totally wipes them out.  The two carrot square feet (Autumn and Winter) hove both been deeply excavated!

Tomato Totem

With more time for ripening this is an ideal variety for square foot growing.  Some support helps:.  A totem pole(?) Otherwise they keep themselves to themselves.

Beetroot 

Old reliable beetroot has been happily growing overcrowded and uncared for it delivers without getting too big to crowd out its neighbours.  Recommended for square foot gardening.

Beetroot Roots

Tomato Fruit

Celeriac Root

Hope you enjoyed this review.

Just for the record here are the other three seasons beds

Winter - bursting with growth

Spring - Some longterm residents some fillers

Summer - Strawberry greenery and some hangers on.

In the Summertime - 4 Seasons in One

The summer solstice has arrived and it is time to review the four seasons square foot beds: 

Summer

Swiss Chard			Garlic			Onions
Parsley			Pea Jaguar			Strawberry
Radish			Leaf Beet			Elephant Garlic

These items should be ready for harvesting in a week's time. All except the radish which seedlings the birds demolished!

Allotment Tour 27/5/20

 Here is the current state of play in my warts and all circuit of the plot:

Rhubarb is at one end (together with a globe artichoke).  The bare patch before the blueberry pen and strawberries is my aspiring asparagus patch.

...beyond which is the potato patch...

...then peas and beans (with their scrap heap supports) ...

...climbing beans and cucurbits (currently finding their feet under netting). The cages are protecting celeriac. ...

Beyond that is currently a sight for sore eyes - soon to house sweetcorn and my brassica patch.

That takes you from end to end on one side.  Heading back along the other side in the reverse direction you start with the fruit cage.  This is three bays (Berries/Raspberries/Strawberries)...

...but the last (former strawberry bay) now has been given over to new salad sowings...

We are big on carrots - but so is the carrot root fly so they have to be covered .

Bringing up the rear are the alliums.  Onions to the left, garlic and elephant garlic to the right.

That gets you back to the shed!

Thank you for visiting my site!