"Bean" a habit for so long

Still into February and I'm starting to sow more and more. Now, I'm a great fan of beans: broad, runner, French, kidney etc and this week I've started sowing broad beans.

I didn't have much success at the start of last year with my broad beans. Unfortunately fungal diseases and poor yields meant that I didn't gather the usual amount of broad beans that I'm used to, which is about 2kg each year.

One thing that broad beans will need is support. I usually use string and small canes to make supports for them. 

Broad beans
These are such great beans to grow (with exception of last year) because they are usually tough plants that have never needed much assistance from me with growing. They can get chocolate spot, which is a fungus and I've seen this on my plants once. It didn't affect them too much, but if you spot this on your broad beans it usually means that air isn't circulating around the plants very well (this was the case for me as I planted my beans far too close to each other). Aphids can be another problem but I can say that I have never had to treat my broad beans for any problems.

In the case of last year, it may well have been other factors that caused a low yield for me as there were no signs of disease in the plants on my allotment and no signs of pests. It hasn't put me off though and so the varieties I'm growing this year are:

Aquadulce Claudia
Robin Hood
Express
The Sutton

Broad beans are my favourite bean simply because they store so well. Once I've picked them I'll remove the beans from the pods and freeze those that I don't intend to use straight away. This type of bean is very popular in Poland, where my family also grows them in large quantities. They are added to soups or simply boiled as an accompaniment to any main dish. I'm the only one in my household though, that enjoys them so much. I'll boil them and then add them to a frying pan with onions, garlic and diced pancetta. Alternatively, I'll roast them in the oven with salt and/or chilli flakes. Having said that my roasting technique needs improving!

Broad beans in detail

Now that you know a little about broad beans (or fava beans in the States), I want to write a bit more in depth about them. Beans are a member of the legume family. So what are legumes? They are plants that have nitrogen fixing bacteria in root nodules. This is a symbiotic relationship (meaning that the bacteria and the bean live together in harmony). The bacteria is called Rhizobia, which makes the legume plant one that is rich in protein (hence beans being a good source of protein). Once the plant dies, the nitrogen stored in the  root nodules is released back in the soil and this is why experienced gardeners will tell you that legumes are great to grow to increase nutrients in soil.

To grow your own is easy: start off by sowing seeds in ideally in pots - small ones do - and you don't need to soak the beans overnight to do this. They should germinate in just a couple of weeks and will look like this as they start to grow:

Broad beans are fast growers, so make sure that once you see the seeds germinate that you prepare the soil beds that you will eventually move them to as soon as you can.

When you have prepared beds for the plants, broad beans depend on some support. I use a mix of canes and string, which doesn't take up too much time and isn't difficult to do, as you can see below:

One tip is that once you see pods starting to develop you should pinch out the tops. This is done for two reasons: the first is that you will be able to harvest your beans a bit earlier and secondly it's supposed to help with aphid control. As I don't like to use chemicals at all, that's why I pinch out the tops and I can honestly say that I rarely get severe aphid problems. The tops can be coked and eaten, or if you keep poultry it may be worth saving the tops for your chickens and ducks. Over the growing season keep your beans free from competitive weeds (a little gentle hoeing could help), water them but you'll find that you don't need to feed them (remember those Rhizobia bacteria - they will help give your beans the nutrients they need).

I hope that this article is useful - it's not too late to start sowing broad beans but you can always start late in the year like November to get more broad beans in succession for next year!

Let's talk tomatoes

It's February, it's still cold and yet now is the time to start sowing tomato seeds!

As always I start off sowing using heated propagators because you'll find that without the extra warmth you won't get tomato seedlings for a long while. Seeds will come to life when the soil is the right temperature and you can do this a few ways:

Heated Propagators  - these will require electricity to work

Sowing indoors - There are window sill seeds trays in so many shops this year and you could grow from seeds and cuttings in the warmth of your house this time of year.

Heated Beds - I did try to grow seeds in raised beds a couple of years ago, which had lots of fresh poultry manure dug in. The plan was to try and increase the soil temperature from the manure rotting away from below (a Victorian method) but alas this didn't work for me. I'd suggest that you'd need a big greenhouse and lots of manure to try this method.

So this year I'm growing several varieties of tomatoes. This is because I want to maximise my productivity. My children enjoy all different colours of tomatoes (when on holiday in France they loved picking orange, green and black toms off the supermarket shelves) so I want some different colours for salads. I've also chosen some large, fleshy varieties for bottling up for the winter, meaning I'll still be using home grown tomatoes for meals long after the growing season.

Orange, black and green tomatoes with radishes - my kids loved these when we were in France

How to choose the right tomato for you

You might find that when you're looking at buying tomato seeds or plug plants that they come in two categories: determinate and indeterminate but what does this mean?

Determinate: this means that the plant is a bush variety and will stop growing at a certain height, producing several fruit from it's branches. What'll happen is once fruit starts forming the plant will stop growing.

I love growing determinate tomatoes in hanging baskets in the garden, such as cherry varieties, which are great for salads and accompaniments to all sorts of food. Tumbling Tom is a good cherry variety, which I grow both the red and yellow colours.

Indeterminate: these are the tomato plants that will grow for as long as the weather allows them. I grow indeterminate tomatoes in my polytunnel, using string to support them. Usually, the varieties of indeterminate toms that I like to grow are larger fruit such as the fleshy Marmande and some plum tomatoes. One indeterminate that has always been a success for me is Money Maker.

Indeterminate tomatoes will need support while they grow. Canes (as seen above) are a simple, reliable method. 

When choosing which tomato plant you want to grow have a think about what you want. Do you want a salad crop? Are you into small tomatoes or do you prefer the large fruits that have less seeds? What space do you have for growing tomatoes? Limited spaces usually mean that small determinate plants would be better but then maybe you feel you can train an indeterminate like the big commercial growers do, making plants grow in circles.

Fancy growing tomatoes like a commercial grower? They use indeterminate varieties that are grown under glass, circling around long lines, producing tonnes of fruit every year. The crates pictured above are just some picked from one line. 

Once you've decided what you want to eat, go get those seeds and sow them! You don't have to start early as I have, especially if you don't want the added cost of using heated propagators. You can sow your seeds under glass or on a window sill in March and still enjoy tasty fruits over the summer.

A hard slog on the allotment

   Well, my back and knees ache but then I have been digging on my allotment this past week! It's never easy and each year it seems to get just that little bit harder as I get just that little bit older. Thankfully I had my husband helping out. He isn't really a fan of gardening but he does like anything mechanical so naturally he helped out by using the rotavator while I worked planting the last of my broad beans on the plot.

   So, what's better? Digging or rotavating? I think it's down to what works best for the individual and their needs. Here's a list of pros and cons:

Digging:

• You can choose to do a double dig or single dig or just aim to simply turn the soil.
• Weeds can be removed in whole pieces (the areas where I dig more thoroughly tend to have less weeds each year as I don't leave any roots in the soil).
• You can incorporate manure or compost into your soil when digging.
• But you can ache after the hard work.
• It can take up a lot of time too.

Rotavating:

• It's quick and therefore covers a lot of ground in very little time.
• It breaks the soil up quite well.
• But it's not a cheap machine to buy and you might need to hire one (unless you know someone that has a rotavator).
• Annoyingly, weeds can get broken up and growing again, and I've had bindweed being dispersed further by the rotavator just spreading the weed's roots everywhere.

It really didn't take too long (apart from running out of petrol at one point).

   The broad beans had to go out. I thought that I could wait a little longer with the last of them but they were fast outgrowing their pots as the weather's become warmer and I was also running out of space and as we're moving in to April very soon, I needed that space for more sowings.

   The one thing that I find a hurdle on the allotment is the windy weather. Being so exposed I'm always on the lookout for plants that can take being battered by the elements. The first planting of broad beans was looking worn out already so I bought some small bamboo sticks and twine to create supports. I'm pleased to say that they are working! I'm not the neatest of gardeners so my lines of beans are so far wonky. But what are looks on an allotment where practicality overcomes aesthetics? I'm just happy that I have many beans growing but the danger of losing them is not yet over. There are signs of deer nearby and even though it'a warm right now, there could be frost. Did I ever say that gardening was easy? Strangely, despite the potential set backs, I still really enjoy gardening.

   So, what did I finish with this week? The broad beans are now all in at the allotment. Carefully supported by just tying twine to bamboo sticks either side of the plants seems to be doing the trick. The original frost cover for the peas was in tatters so I had to use some more bamboo sticks and twine to create a lower support and then fixed another cover on top for now (while the peas are still quite small). The lower frost cover shouldn't be damaged by the wind. I also managed to get some onion sets in although I'm behind with planting garlic, which I'm really cross with myself for.

 

 All ready for planting. The bamboo sticks were £1 for 50 from Poundland,

 The new cover for the peas and my broad beans with some support.

   A closer look at the support. In the background you can see the old pea cover, not looking its best.

   Back at home I've been working a bit in the polytunnel. As there's protection from any potential frost, I've planted out my early tomatoes into the second raised bed, where I had buried some fresh duck manure back in November. Just to be on the safe side, I've covered the smaller tomatoes with plastic bottles, which should keep them safe from any pests as well. I first used plastic bottles when I started growing sweetcorn as they were a good way of protecting the young plants very much like any other cloche would. So, much to my husband's dislike I've been stashing away plastic bottles among other 'useful' items for my garden work. 

   As for any other seeds, I've sown more beans (not broad this time). The dwarf French bean amethyst and a dwarf borlotti bean, saluggia. I tried growing borlottis last year but failed after a frost got to them and I didn't have enough time to sow any more. French beans I love to grow as the kids really enjoy eating them and they never seem to get bored of them. 

 One of my tomatoes, red cherry, without a bottle cloche. Just in the corner is one plant with a cover. These plants are about 15cm tall already.

   So on with more planning. I aim to pot on some flowers that I'm growing and sow far more vegetable seeds. I need to clean out the greenhouse and poly properly and continue digging the plot, should my back allow me to!

   Keep up the hard work as the weather is improving and the nights are drawing out more now. It's just going to get far better from now on! Till next time. 

And finally to the allotment...

   Well, it's been a while but now I can finally say that I have been working hard on the allotment. The weather has been very good until just now (it was far too cold and windy today unfortunately) and I needed that window of opportunity to get some plants out on the plot.

   I decided that as the oldest plants in my polytunnel, the broad beans and some of the peas could do with moving to the great outdoors. The polytunnel was in need of giving up some plants for more space and the plants were in need of more space to grow. A perfect excuse.

   In order to prepare the plot I dug (a simple single dig this time round) the area allotted for beans and peas. Over the winter months I've been preparing by sowing seeds but also by drawing up plans for what I would grow where on the plot, allowing for crop rotation to prevent disease. So on with the digging, using a plank to stand on to avoid compacting the soil. You don't need to use a plank but I find it quite useful, especially when sowing seeds or planting seedlings after you've been digging.

   After digging and removing as much weeds as possible, including vast amounts of bind weed roots, I raked the soil to get the surface as fine as possible. It's not easily done as I must admit I didn't look after my allotment as much as I wanted to last year so the condition of the soil wasn't great to start with. A word of warning - don't be disheartened to see that your efforts may not leave you with amazing dark, rich, crumbly soil that you see on tv gardens. It can take years to work soil to a good condition and you need to understand your soil somewhat to help improve it. I'm promising myself that late this year after the growing season I will add soil improvers as I fear I might not be able to grow as much as I could do next year without doing so.

   Now, I'm not the neatest of gardeners but I am making an effort to plant things in straight lines. This time I've used string and short (three feet long) bamboo canes to mark out straight lines, which will also be used to help support the young plants as the plot is very exposed to the elements - especially wind.

 That's as straight as I'll get it, with some string and bamboo canes.

Broad bean Aquadulce claudia, looking very good and strong enough to be outdoors now. 

 Don't know how but one bean got away from the straight line!

Peas, Kelvedon wonder, patiently waiting their turn to be planted into the soil. 

 In order to prevent the peas from getting frost damage, I made a cover with fleece. Already it's been affected by the strong winds on the plot but is holding firm for now.

   The beans should be able to cope with some frost but the peas probably won't and I'm certainly not going to take the risk of potentially losing all that work and time. I built a cover of fleece, wrapping it around the canes and tying it into position, anchoring it with earth filled pots before pinning the fleece down into the ground to stop it from being blown away. The fleece is light and will let the light through, but it won't let frost through. The only thing now that could cause me problems is the wind. You can see in the photo that the wind is already affecting the fleece. Keeping a look out and doing any makeshift repairs will have to do for now, until the danger of frost has left us.

   I didn't have anything else to put out on the allotment for now as most plants will be tender and could die in frost so I will carry on sowing seeds in the polytunnel. The radish seeds I had sown two weeks ago have started coming up but there's still nothing from the carrot and parsnip seeds. I'll be looking at the seeds I have which I can sow in March and carry on from there but already I feel like time is not on my side! 

   Well, I feel like I've done my bit for this week and I'll leave you with some photos of other plants coming to life in spring. Until next time!

 One of my gooseberry bushes waking up for the year. You can see lots of spider webs on this one.

 A ladybird seeks shelter in my sage bush.

Daffodils in the afternoon sun. Always puts a smile on my face!

Marching on

   I'm short of time this week due to work and another volunteer commitment (not gardening though), which has really frustrated me. I decided that today would be my gardening day despite having to fit in family chores as well.

   I've been working mostly in the polytunnel today, sowing yet more seeds and potting on seedlings that were in need of stretching their roots.

   Firstly, I checked the broad beans and I'm still losing more Bunyards variety to root rot, which is annoying to say the least. Even though the plants are getting bigger two more have succumbed to this fungal infection. They were promptly thrown away to try and prevent more from getting this. I also kept a good look out for pests and found a small handful of aphids (greenfly) on one plant and just like the diseased plants, the aphids were quickly removed!

Can you spot the aphid on the broad bean? Take a close look.

   I also potted on some of my bigger tomato seedlings. These were Red Cherry, Money Maker and Gartenperle. I moved them on from their cells to half litre pots, which should be more than enough room for a few weeks before I transfer these to the raised bed in the poly.

   Remember that hotbed idea...
   ...well, I gave up the old Victorian method and today I've been working on adding more poultry manure by burying it a foot below the top soil. It'll be here that the tomato plants will go, along with a courgette plant and a couple of aubergine plants. You may be wondering why I haven't just transplanted the larger seedling straight into the raised bed but there's a few reasons why I haven't:

1. I want the manure to rot a bit more before putting the plants in.
2. Being a poultry keeper I do, unfortunately, suffer with having rats in the garden occasionally and they have taken to damaging a lot of plants in the past. So I'm keeping the young seedlings out of harm's way until they get much bigger.
3. The poly alone doesn't offer much frost protection should temperatures drop severely, so I have the small pots under some cover within the poly before hardening off first.

   The seeds focused on today were radishes, carrots, parsley root, parsnips and sweetcorn. All but the sweetcorn were sown directly into the second raised bed. The soil in this raised bed is nice and crumbly and not too stony, which should be perfect for root veg. The other thing I want to advise is that for this bed I didn't add any fresh compost or fertilizer prior to sowing. Too much fertilizer will cause carrots to fork, which can be awkward when preparing in the kitchen. The soil I have was already rich in nutrients as I treated it a while ago. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't add nutrients for your growing carrots - just don't use too much.

 The soil in this raised bed was raked over carefully to produce a nice even surface.

 Even an indoor raised bed will have plenty of like in it.

 After raking I created small trenches for the rows of seeds to be sown into.

 These were the varieties sown in that bed, all with prepared labels.

Sowing small seed thinly isn't the easiest of tasks so once these will (hopefully) start growing, they may need to be thinned out.

   The sweetcorn variety I had sown today was Incredible, which is an F1 variety. So what are F1's? The F stands for Filial and is basically the first offspring of cross breeding or creating a hybrid. You'll find that F1's tend to be more expensive than other seeds and this is usually because that selective breeding will give you seeds that produce more and might be better disease resistant.

   Next week I'm going to try and work on the allotment some more, especially as subs are due! The plot will need weeding and digging over and I will start planning what goes where by drawing out some plans.

Until now, keep gardening!    

After Doris

   A couple of days ago my son came home from school and told me that his friend had mentioned to him that our shed had been blown over on our allotment during storm Doris. His friend lives in a flat overlooking the plots and I was grateful for the notification but a little nervous as I wasn't sure what was awaiting us. Being the sort of person who usually thinks the worst, I imagined the shed in pieces and all my gardening belongings strewn over everybody else's plots!

   All wasn't that bad. Here's what it really looked like:

Don't worry - the shed fully recovered from its little mishap!

  

    I was relieved when my husband and I lifted the shed back up carefully and found that apart from a few (probably) surprised spiders, the shed and all its goods were fine. 

   So, now to being totally honest and admitting that my two plots look absolutely awful at the moment. I'm not the only one but with two plots (one being 5 pole, the other 10 pole) it's not going to be easy work. Needless to say, the soil was quite easy to dig even after all the rain and I had the whole family chipping in to get it all started. I think this will be an interesting year on my plot, with a lot of developing ideas and new crops. 

 Even though it wasn't easy, my son enjoyed a bit of digging. In front of him is box hedging that I hope will grow well and create a nice area for herbs and edible flowers.

My daughter getting stuck in with removing last year's sweetcorn plants. She's specifically requested lots more sweetcorn for this year.

   Meanwhile, in the polytunnel...

   Things have been growing well, despite losing some broad beans earlier to root rot. I now have more broad beans germinating, adding to the season's length. This time I sowed a different variety: Masterpiece green longpod. I have grown these before and they have been reliable in the past so fingers crossed.

   Seedlings are popping up all over the place in the polytunnel, which is very pleasing to the eye. Peas and broad beans are growing on, needing repotting if I don't plant them out on the allotment very soon. I could do this but I would need to protect them from frost as they won't be hardy. Frosts can still occur this time of year right up to May. I made the mistake of planting out runner beans in late April last year without protection and lost the lot. What was hard to comprehend was that there wasn't a frost forecast that particular evening, nor did many other allotment holders suffer this bout of cold. Only two plots were affected and with mine losing the runner beans I had no spare plants. I shan't be making that mistake again.

 The heated propagators have been switched off as things are warming up naturally now, but I still keep the covers on. These are a selection of tomatoes and aubergines.

 Masterpiece green longpod doing its thing.

The Aquadulce broad beans are fast outgrowing their pots. Here you can see the roots poking through the bottom of the pot. If I don't get a plot ready then I will have to repot these to keep them growing on until I have a space prepared for them on the allotment.

   So here's a list of what I'm doing now to prepare for the growing year:

1. Prepping the allotment: by digging and adding nutrients to the soil (for me this is using well rotted chicken manure from my own feathered kin at home).
2. Switching off heated propagators. Temperatures are rising now and so I will let nature play its part instead as we look ahead to March.
3. Potting on seedlings. When these start getting too big for their seed tray cells they need to be moved on. 

   There's not much more I need or want to do as this will be enough work for now. During March I will start sowing more seeds and so will my children as the allotment chairwoman has asked if they could grow some flowers to decorate the allotment shop with over summer.

   So, prepare yourself for any mishaps like storm Doris causing some damage, also start looking at what you want to grow that will need to be sown in March. There's lots of different things that can be started off in March so take your time to choose what you would enjoy growing and eating. Finally, be ready for pests. Having spoken to a fellow allotment holder today, he told me that he had some early broad beans which he was hardening off, only to be eaten by a grey squirrel one afternoon. It's a constant battle but I enjoy it!

   Keep gardening! 

A romantic walk

   Seeing as it's Valentine's Day I spent much of today with the family on a "romantic walk" at our local nature reserve. Despite it being half term it was a very peaceful walk and there were lots of opportunities to spot some wonderful natural sights.

   It was bright and sunny this morning and dry, so the conditions were ideal. I armed myself with my camera, hoping to photograph some snowdrops and various wildlife. That's exactly what I managed to do. The children also took photos on our mobile phones, which was very encouraging. I can't tell you how pleased I am that they are interested in wildlife.

   The snowdrops were beautiful. The ones in my garden are yet to flower so to see these on the reserve in bloom were lovely.

Just a small sample of the hundreds of snowdrops adorning the reserve floor. 

   Most snowdrops were found in remote places, away from the most used public paths so we had to do a bit of walking to find them but when we did there were plenty to see. 

   There were also many birds, which I also caught on camera. Unfortunately, some of the smaller birds were hard to see but I could hear them! When I did find an opportunity to take a picture most little birds were quick to fly away, but here's what I did take:

 The robin was certainly not shy of the camera and followed us for a bit. 

 The lovely rosy colour of the male chaffinch. This bird was difficult to photograph as he would not keep still.

 This chaffinch took to the air as I snapped away and I'm happy to have caught a picture of it in flight.

 Now more commonly seen at the reserve, an egret. This bird was keen to keep its distance from me, so I couldn't get any closer. A duck photobombed this picture too!

 There's plenty of moorhens here on the reserve. 

Not an escaped pet but a ring-necked parakeet, now naturalised in the UK. I used to see plenty of these in London but for the past four years they've moved in to this area. Although a noisy bird, there's not many here at the moment to cause too much disturbance. This one stayed still for a long time, while its partner was on the move in the same tree. I only spotted about four in total.

   Apart from the birds, there was more to see. The reserve is full of life and I hope that over the years it is loved by everyone as it is now. However, sometimes when I walk there I see rubbish such as food wrappers and drinks cans and bottles. It spoils it for those of us that enjoy the outdoors. Yes, there are picnic tables but there are also bins. Rather disturbingly, I also spotted a spillage in the springs. A nearby discarded milk drink bottle may have given away what it was but it's still not very nice to see. Please, please, please tidy up after yourselves! It's not just people that get affected by rubbish. To finish off today here are some more photos of the reserve that I took:

 A nest revealed by the winter.

 Reeds and a clear blue sky.

 A lovely Hart's Tongue Fern. Here you can clearly see the sori, where spores are made (the straight, brown lines on the undersides of the leaves).

 My husband spotted these snails.

The simple beauty of moss on a fallen tree. 

 Fungi on a tree.

 The offending spillage. Not a nice sight but I wanted to highlight this. It doesn't take much to spoil nature, so please throw your rubbish away properly.

The rushing river. I couldn't see the local kingfisher today. Maybe another time.

   So, why would I feature this on a grow your own blog? Well, there are bore holes on this reserve, where spring water comes from. Watercress was a staple food once and this was harvested here owing to the clean spring water (a needed condition for watercress). Not in use for this any longer but a good reminder of how humans used nature for growing food.  

   I hope that you have all had a lovely Valentine's Day so far.