Today I will mostly be growing

Today I was mostly planting out my dwarf beans (ferrari and borlotto) and creating the bamboo cane framework to support them in the raised bed.

Bamboo cane support for Dwarf Beans
I cut 4 x 6 foot canes in half and put them in the soil opposite each other in the shape of an X. I put four of these in with enough space to plant a bean to a pole or cane. I then put another 3 foot cane across the tops of all the X shaped canes to stabilize the structure. I then used garden twine to secure the two upright and top horizontal bamboo canes together. (See picture above for more details). I planted one bean to each pole or cane but you can plant 2 to a cane if you want.

Heres what it looks like now:-

Ferrari Dwarf Beans at the back of the plot and Borlotto dwarf beans at the front.

I’m still having some organisation issues with the lack of space in my mini greenhouse. I know its my own fault I have 13 cucumber seedlings potted on and I’m the only one who eats cucumber in my household however I can’t bear to give up any seedlings. Also I have let a few flower seedling trays creep into the greenhouse this year as our garden borders are in desperate need of brightening up. (they have had a distinct lack of attention due to my vegetable plot). So I have a bit of a juggling act on my hands!

This weekend I have planted out the 3 calabrese plants into plot 3.

Potted on 1st batch of february Tomato ‘unknown’ seedlings into larger pots.

Potted on Broccoli (tenderstem) seedlings

Somehow I think I have planted too many Broccoli and Calabrese seeds (this might be adding to my storage issues!):

The weather this week has been more favorable to gardeners with a mix of sunshine and showers. This is the perfect weather for seedlings to put on a spurt of growth and tender plants can be planted out without fear of frosts.

My lovely dwarf beans will be planted out soon on Plot 3. I’m growing varieties Ferrari (same as last year) and a new one - Borlotto. I can’t wait to see the mottled red and white pods on this variety. Then my runner beans won’t be far behind.

Below are some comparison photos of my plots so you can see the progress in just 2 weeks. The first picture is 2 weeks ago on 19.04.08 and 2nd is a current picture of my plots on 03.05.08:-
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These Broad Bean (the sutton) flowers are so stunningly different with black eye’s on white petals. If you have never grown them before, like myself, there is nothing quite like these unique flowers. They certainly brighten up my all green plot.

Whilst the excitement is flowing, I couldn’t help but show a picture of my first pea pods of 2008 which are just forming on my over-wintering peas (douce provence).

After 24 long weeks of growth over the winter season (sown back in November 2007) I can’t wait for the pea to form, there’s nothing quite like the taste of fresh garden peas and they usually don’t make it to the house as I eat them off the pod like sweets.

Yesterday I made sowings of Calabrese, broccoli tenderstem, runner and french beans and summer cabbages in pots and root-trainers for the mini greenhouse. As per my other post I already potted on my cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes and now my mini greenhouse is very full with not much space to spare.

I had a bit of a sort out and cleared out the bottom row which was being used as storage for pots and trays. Whilst I had all the trays out on the table I thought it would be a good idea to do a stock-take to record what trays of vegetables and flowers I have so far, so I might be able to keep track of them all. So here goes:

Here’s what’s in my mini greenhouse on 19.04.08:

Vegetables
All vegetables (apart from peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers) will be transplanted into the raised beds when they have grown on a bit, space has been made in the plots and when the signs of frost have passed.
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The weather was lovely and warm last week with temperatures higher than normal with the thermometers hitting 17 degrees on Friday 4th April 2008, I was happy thinking my seeds will finally get underway with their growing, until today Sunday 6th April where the temperatures dropped off the scale at a frustrating minus 2 degrees centigrade.

Heres a picture of my snowy vegetable plot:

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