Hose-pipe days

Here in the South of England this Spring we have had sustained warm, dry and very windy weather, which makes for very difficult growing conditions. My poor climbing beans have had a very rough start to their lives. I still have the cloches in place to give them a little protection from the wind

I have had to water the beds with the hose-pipe at frequent intervals - about every other day - and even so the soil remains dry and powdery on the surface. The leaves of these beans seem to me to be much smaller than normal. I think they are just surviving, not thriving.

I have been very careful to water the Broad Beans, since their pods are just beginning to set. If they get too little moisture at this point, the flowers will just drop off and the pods will not form.

Aren't the stems of Broad Beans unusual? They are square in cross-section, whereas most plants have cylindrical stems. I'm already beginning to think about eating Broad Beans. My favourite way is this: cooked Broad Beans with bacon lardons and feta cheese, served as an accompaniment to pork chops. Or perhaps "Bissara" a Moroccan Broad Bean puree, served with a squeeze of lemon juice and fingers of toasted pitta bread. Or beans in a white sauce flavoured with Savory. Yummmm!

Maybe it's because of the dry conditions, but the potatoes are covered in aphids now. Normally I would not expect aphids to go for potatoes. They normally go for juicier targets.

The Physalis plants have got their first fruits, even though they are currently still small.

The colour of the foliage of these plants is really spectacular - almost lime-green - and the stems are purple, or at least edged in purple. So, what do you do with the physalis fruits? Eat them raw? Make them into jam?

The "Maskotka" bush tomatoes in the big tub have produced a large number of flowers already. Hopefully most of them will set. If so, I will have a huge harvest!

At least their tub is so vast that it dries out very slowly after watering!

*********************************************************************************

P.S. Since I wrote the above yesterday, we have had several hours of sustained rainfall. Decent, soil-wetting rain, not just drizzle. Part of me says "Oh yuck, what a horrible day", but the gardener in me says "Hooray, thank Goodness for that"... The water-butt will be full again, and the hosepipe can take a rest for a while.