Friday 24th May - Vegetable Garden Update - More Beans

 Today ,the Under Gardener  gave me  helping hand taking apart this wigwam , which I felt wasn't going to be the best way of growing these Ryder's Top O' the Pole Climbing French Beans . I think they'll just get all tangled up at the top with nowhere to go ...the clue is in the name  "Top O' the Pole" ....there needs to be a pole along the top of the frame to give the beans more space ....and it sounds as if these are fast growers !

 I found a few old bamboo canes and tied them in . 
   Beans do prefer hazel sticks / poles . They wind around them and climb better than on slippery bamboo canes  .....but since this is all I could find today they'll just have to do .

All planted up and I,ll sow a few more for spares in the solar shed .( Solar Shed with the big sloping window ) Last year something came along and cut through the stems of my beans , as if with scissors . It was very disheartening after so much work . All the dead bits lying on the ground  ....
    I actually cried ....

So anyway , some you win , some you  lose . That's just the way it is with growing vegetables ...but we pick ourselves up , dust ourselves down and start all over again and don't give up !

 It seems beneficial insects also prefer natural hazel bean poles .
                             Ladybirds eat Greenflies ...hooray !
 

                     Pea flowers ....soon I can add a few fresh peas to our salad .

 Crimson Broad-beans ...sweetly scented and so pretty ..the bees are loving these flowers .

 Birdie ...my grape loving female Blackbird ....reminding me to plant out this last pot of Sweet-pea odoratus "Erewhon"  . Lavender blue and pale pink , with a very beautiful perfume , to go beside my front door . I hope I haven't left it too late .
  I know they do better from an Autumn sowing . I have a couple more packets to try again in the Autumn .
  That's all for now , I have to go check on the greenhouse . Funny weather today, sun goes in and it becomes chilly, sun comes out it becomes too hot . I have sown  the seeds of Morning Glory , Lobelia "Cambridge Blue" , Poppies and  pink Campanulas , so I am keeping a close eye on the temperature in the greenhouse .
       Cheerio for now Debbie x

Monday 20th May 2019

                     Another beautiful morning in the vegetable garden .
                                   ...... and so much to be done !
 I planted out the Montecute Runnerbeans and French beans Coco Sophie .
 Too exhausted after weeding , tying in more canes into the frame and planting in the hot sun to go in and fetch the camera to take pictures ...... sorry .
                       oh ...my ...poor old back  !
                    .....................to be continued tomorrow  ...... but we're nearly there !

Epiphyllum crenatum flower and Vegetable seedlings update .

 I went up to the greenhouse early ,  to open up the windows , it 's going to be another sunny day, still a cold breeze though .
  The flower on the Epiphyllum crenatum is still not fully open . Isn't she lovely ?

                                    Are you getting the fragrance ?

                               So now to see how my beans are doing .

              I,m growing Montecute Runnerbeans from Adam Alexander  .
These were once grown in the kitchen gardens of Montecute House in Somerset .

            Ryder's Top O'the Pole , a climbing French  Bean ......that I am growing  for it's connection with golf and to get my husband interested in growing vegetables  .
    It is a good and tasty old variety of bean that needs to be grown more and seeds shared to keep the variety going . I certainly hope to save the seeds from it and grow it again next year . We'll see how it goes ..or should I say ...grows !
    It is named after Sam Ryder . Samuel Ryder was a Sunday School teacher and gardener , who had a small business selling mail order "Penny Packets " of seeds in the 1890's.     
   Later in life , after an illness he was encouraged that he might take up golf ...the fresh air would do him good . ( I know you 're beginning to fall asleep now aren't you .... lol ! me too ! ) 
   Well , it seems he really got involved with it , as chaps do and in the interest of making something more of the competitive side of golf , and encourage more young  British gentlemen to the sport , it was he who donated the now famous and highly coveted Gold Ryder's Cup in 1927 .
 Anyway ....this is a Climbing French Bean that was bred by his seed company .
 Golf mad husband is now interested and it was his finger that poked these bean seeds into the 3" pots of compost  !
I bought these seeds from "Beans and Herbs" www.beansandherbs.co.uk ....and it looks as if they are all coming up !

 Now this is another very old variety called "Coco Sophie" a flat  Climbing French bean from the late 1700's  . Poldark time !  I wonder did Demelza grow them in her little vegetable garden at Nampara ? Did Demelza even have a vegetable garden ? We certainly never got to see it ! Worth growing and saving the seeds from these ! A real taste from the past . Hopeless romantic me !
    I bought these from The Real Seeds Catalogue www.realseeds.co.uk .  The name Coco Sophie .. sounds more like a luxurious French perfume than a name for  humble French beans .
  On the back of the seed packet it says that this looks like a Runner-bean but really isn't ! It is said to have a unique and wonderful buttery texture when cooked .  It sounds so good !  I cant find any more information about it anywhere , so if you know anything more , please let me know ? Like where it was originally bred and grown ?
  Only a couple of them are breaking the surface..it is definitely slower than the other beans.
 French  Beans in general but especially these Coco Sophie , I have found that they don't like too much watering in the early stages of germination  and need to be warm . They wont stand for any cold . I,ve been covering them over with a piece of fleece at night .
   I did sow them all at the same time ...but it is always such a relief when they begin to come up . I,m keeping a close eye on them !

                                My little Yellow Tree Lupins , so sweet !

 Tomatoes are doing well , I need to top up the compost in their pots and keep them watered .

                                        We will soon have Tomatoes !

 Butternut Squashes and Cucumbers growing fast, to go out next week or the week after ,when they have three or four leaves and the weather is not so breezy .

 Sweetcorn doing well , the under-gardener , golf maniac loves his Sweetcorn ! These will be planted out in a block for wind pollination .

                    Kalettes all grown from seed are just about ready to go out .

 Actually I have grown lots of varieties of Kale...we love them better than Cabbages ....although I have grown a few Cabbages as well this year .

 So much planting out to be done and I,m just not feeling too well today, a bit of a cold coming I think . I watered everything early this morning and now I,m going to rest up .

Busy Busy Busy Bee me !

                                         Veg seedlings ready to plant out !
 So much has been happening this last week or two ... the good news from my hero surgeon at the hospital ....kidney cancer scan looked good and my next scan will be in a years time ... made for a  wonderful Birthday present and I had a lovely birthday and some lovely birthday pressies too . I will show you what I got next time ! :)
 It was Flora Day in Helston on Saturday and also  World Labyrinth Day ...but I didn't do either of these because I was having a wonderful time dancing at Nawarra's Workshop weekend . ...learning lots of different styles of Moroccan dance .
 Somehow my Achilles tendon survived..it has been swollen and I,ve had ultra sound on it and Physio on the following Monday ..I have exercises to do which are to make the tendon get stronger ....seem to be working , although Mike (my physiotherapist ) says the lump might not ever completely go down .
 We,ve had quite a drought this last month , and with rain on the forecast , I really wanted to get out some of my veg seedlings .

I,ve grown a selection of Purple Sprouting  Broccoli , a few varieties of both Cabbages and Kale .

 French Beans  completely failed last year ,never let me down before ..so this year I have started them off in the greenhouse (unheated) I will wait a little bit longer before planting them out though . Also started off Peas and Mangetouts inside this year .

                                              Here are the Runner Beans !

  They really were desperately trying to escape ! So I thought with some beautiful rain on the way, now would be a good time to get them out . Oh ! The Moon phase was right too apparently .

 I decided to grow my Runners in the same place on last years frame..I know it's breaking the rules ! I just didn't think I would have the energy to put up another one after all the dancing , before the rain that evening .
       Goodness me ..I have been praying for rain !
 Sorry everyone ..I thought that Flora Day was going to be on the Monday 8th May ..by tradition it usually is , unless the 8th of May falls on a Sunday and then it takes place on the Saturday ....... so my prayer was answered and it rained ...... not my fault o.k ?

                 Lovely Mangetout peas easy to grow these are a variety called  Norli .

                        Hurst Greenshaft Peas ...and I will get these in and sow more .

     Get them all in before the rain...( my back is aching )....go cut some more pea sticks  ...

These are a couple of last year'sFrench breakfast Radish plants that I left to flower for the bees .
  I must sow some more ..these French Breakfast radishes are really yummy and not too hot on the tongue either !

Happy bees with their legs heavy with pollen . One day I would so like to have a couple of Bee hives and have my own honey . It is all so expensive though ...but I do love to watch the bees . Maybe I'll sow the seeds from these flowers..thankyou bees !

                  Pea sticks pushed in and windmill whirling around to keep the birds off .

I did make a start digging the holes for the French Bean frame though .

 I also planted the PSB (Purple Sprouting Broccoli ) Cabbages and Kale and found the environmesh cloche to put over them all ....to keep the pigeons off . That just leaves the snails and slugs...some sharp grit /sand around them . Start saving crushed eggshells     ..they dont like to creep over that .
 Can anyone tell me of an easy way to clean environmesh ?

 Then water in ..using the very last rain water in the water butt . Actually we have four water butts and should probably fix up a couple more . Fresh energised rain water so much better for my plants than tap water .