Perth Hills Gardener: My big achievement over the weekend was to plant out 30 Diggers dwarf (Violet Queen, Butter and Gourmet delight) beans and 30 Diggers climbing (Australian yellow) bean seedlings into the new bean patch in my enclosed vegetable garden. I germinated them all in little peat pots in July, and grew them on in a plastic cold frame, so they didnt get as beaten up in the planting process as their siblings in previous years which started life in pun nets. The dwarf beans have been pushed into holes in the centre of pre-rotted straw bales, and the climbing beans are in deep loam from previously rotted straw bales and manure, freshly limed with a solid climbing frame covered in 4inch mesh above them and peasticks leading each seedling up to the frame. (Photo to come when the rain stops) It was good to get outside in the sun and potter about, and now I can dream about all the beans they will provide for us over summer. My big surprise over the weekend was that my Diggers crimson-flowering broad beans are finally beaning, after a brilliant display of blossom for months that was all show and no beans. This year I am growing my broad beans in a single row against the wall of the garden, cable-tied at 30cm intervals to the meter-high stakes that support each plant. Whitefly from the adjacent brassica have been a bit of a problem. Now there are at least 30 tiny beans from 1-5 cm long. So for September, I hope that beans and bacon, Italian lamb and beans casserole, will be on the menu, yum. Today the winter storms and spring showers are back, watering the new baby plants in their sheltered spot, and they are growing already. How are other people doing with beans, broad, climbing and dwarf? What varieties do you find best?
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 03:35:16 +0000
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