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

 

A Bit Of A Squash

 

Winter squash is a big hit with us. Harvest time is approaching and there is the usual mayhem in the cucurbit patch. A forest of leaves but what lies beneath?  While every plant has been labelled at the planting point the vines have travelled the width of the patch and well beyond laying down fruit at random intervals. 

Every plant is labelled at the planting point but has developed fruit after scrambling across its neighbours.  The conditions this year mean that fruit has not set reliably and the slugs have had a field day on a lot of immature fruits resting on the soil.  My strategy of planting parts from a bunk bed at either end of the patch for the vines to scramble up has proved a crop saver as the fruit in the best condition is raised off the ground.

This year I have grown:

Crown Prince

Buttercup

Uchiki Kuri

Marina Di Chioggia

No sign of the last one yet - although it was grown later than the other three. I have started harvesting at risk fruit to season at home in the dry. The Crown Prince is 4.5k so harvesting and transportation from the allotment has to be done a bit at a time.

Crown Prince and Uchiki Kuri

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) 

New Arrivals at Craiglockhart Pond

 

That is definitely five cygnets. One week old. Mum and Dad very attentive.  

Hot X Buntime

 

Easter is upon us and my shed building project is soaking up all my gardening time.  This is the current state of play. I have sown two rows of carrots and one of parsnips. Also a row of asparagus. It will be potatoes next.

My shorter term project is to bake HXB.  

Something Spotted

 This is the earliest I can recall seeing one of these on the loose! (20/02/24)  Given that we had a frost last night it may be regretting it's early emergence.

A productive little corner

Starting the plot tidyup, right in the corner is a clump of Jerusalem Artichoke ready for harvesting. 

The soup lived up to its reputation. Sweet tasting, and active on the lower gut.

 Next door the rhubarb won't be long to first harvest.

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!

Watch The Birdie

 

We love our birds and keep them in food all the year around.  Right now the goldfinches are away, but the blackbirds have returned to their winter quarters.  Because the normally reliable crab apple crop was so poor this year we have supplemented their supply with apples and more recently pears (which they love!).  The sparrows have been muted in the cold snap but there are always pigeons, jackdaws and magpies who swing by to mop up the day's supply.  Another bird that has got wise to the congregation js this sparrowhawk.  Just the other day a pigeon was taken and dismembered in our garden leaving feathers al over the place.  Nature in claw and beak!

Edinburgh Topography

 

A New Years walk along the Fife Coastal Path offered this perspective on our home town of Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth.

To the left is Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano that looks like a recumbent lion. Next to that are "The Salisbury Crags"  This escarpment was quarried for building material for neighbouring  Holyrood Palace in the 1300s. Quarrying continued until .banned by Act of Parliament 1831..

The next feature is Edinburgh Castle, only visible because of the weather conditions, highlighting it in front of the Pentland Hill massing to the right of the picture. The Castle sits atop a volcanic plug.  When the ice sheet moved across this landscape from right to left the volcanic plug persisted and left a ridge a mile long tailing off behind it: the High  Street or Royal Mile, as can be seen from this vantage point.

I have since come across a reverse view I took recently.  In this case Fife is across the water in the distance.  The Royal Mile from Castle to Holyrood is the backbone of Edinburgh Old Town.