Full of beans

I have been wondering about the right time to harvest my beans. My usual first reference (Pears Encyclopedia of Gardening: Fruit and Vegetables, Roy Genders (ed.)) is not much help on this matter, only giving a reference to haricot beans: "These are grown chiefly for their beans, which should be dried, first by allowing the pods to hang until the weather loses its summer look [...]". This would have been mid-July then (mind you, this is also the book that attributes the decline of growing jerusalem artichokes to the shortage of kitchen staff willing to clean them). I decided to harvest some and see what they look like, the rest I will leave on to ripen a bit more. Also gathered more tomatoes and raspberries.



A slightly puzzling development on the patty pan front - some are looking like patty pans, some of them have the ridges of a patty pan but are more round and green like a zucchini. I think, since they are open-pollinated, I am getting a cross-breed.



Flowers in the garden are providing plenty of pleasure. The solanum 'Alba' is so pretty along the fence and in the back of the garden the cyclamen are popping through the woodruff. If the sun is out, it's a lovely time of year.

my spider sense

Life is hard this time of year for an arachnophobe like me...lots of webs built exactly where I want to wander and water. I am gingerly picking off the tomatoes, avoiding the giant spider that lurks there. A careful sideways approach to the waterhose reel because another spider has used it as an anchor for a thread. I am trying to ignore the one dangling over my head as I step out the kitchen door. I don't even think about dashing out to get some herbs after dark anymore, instead I plan a minor expedition involving a stick to knock down the webs and a torch. I guess they are very useful...but I just don't like 'em.


A few rays of sun are still about. Raspberries doing very well and I am even getting a little Serrano pepper. My bean experiment is nearing the end, there is a substantial amount of dark purple pods which, I hope, will contain black beans.

The Thompson and Morgan catalogue has arrived and I have leaved through it a bit. Disappointing selection of cucumbers but interesting beans. Need to sit down soon and make a list.

it's nearly autumn...

Time marches on but my camera doesn't (it keeps running out of batteries). So just imagine a picture of a bountiful harvest, including raspberries, patty pan squash, cucumber and a few tomatoes. In fact, probably your imagination is better than the picture would have been...

The bean pods are turning a deep purple and the beans inside them are now a near-black. Maybe I can recreate a vaguely authentic Mexican dish with them. I used some of the beetroot tops fresh and they tasted more like spinach, very delicious. Too much in one go, so I processed the rest by cutting them up and putting them in the freezer.

More patty pan to come (the other bush now finally has female flowers) and lots more tomatoes hanging on the bushes (I think most of them will ripen on the window sill in the end). Although the garden is still producing, there is the definite nip of autumn in the air. Hoping for a few more nice, sunny days.

finally...another harvest

Finally - some ripe tomatoes (plum, yellow and cherry) and some patty pan squash! I even found some more raspberries.


I pulled a few more white beetroot -- not sure how good they are going to be -- and a cucumber.

Not too thrilled with all of it and intend to make some changes next year:

• Grow fewer tomatoes, get them in earlier and in a sunnier spot.
• Patty pan is fine but grows too big and two out of the three I planted only produced male flowers. Maybe see if I can get a variety that is smaller.
• Dwarf zucchini - give up on them, grow proper ones.
• Don't grow white beetroot, grow leaf beet instead.
• The cucumbers have too many seeds and are too spiny for my liking. Look for a different kind.
• The beans are too stringy to eat as green beans. I'll harvest them later but I think I'll switch back to runner beans "Painted Lady".

tree clearing

First the horrific Leylandii to the right was cut down (yay!). Just now I got a letter through the door informing me that the back-to-back neighbours are going to remove the huge sycamore tree over the next few months (and they were kind enough to worry about my particular veggie plot). Hurrah!!! More light, more rain, more veggies. A bit of a shame about the tree but maybe they'll plant something lovely in its stead.

Fecundity

After three weeks away the garden has exploded, or at least it seems that way after a bit of an absence.

The patty pan squash in particular is growing like mad, although it mainly produces male flowers at the moment. The back one has some fruit set but they are still small. It's nearly suffocating the dwarf zucchini, it's absolutely ginormous -- I wished they didn't take up so much room. The tomatoes have set masses of trusses and are doing their ripening as fast as they can in English weather. The raspberries have set fruit -- again! -- great stuff for the first year.

A few cucumbers have appeared with the promise of a few more. Perfect amount, in fact. Trellising them has also worked out pretty well.

Lifted the potatoes which were a bit of a disappointment - the slugs did their damage to the leaves too early. I may be better off buying them instead of growing them myself. Beans are doing great on the other hand - lots to be harvested over the coming weeks.

Need to harvest more lettuce and white beetroot before they bolt. All in all, a wonderful experiment to see what grows well and what doesn't -- and where the best places are to plant things.

A day of sunshine and thundery showers

For Sharon.