Beans and poles

The Bean seeds I sowed the other day are mostly coming up strongly now.

I sowed 30 Runner Beans in three pots of 10, namely 20 "Scarlet Emperor" and 10 "Painted Lady". These were the first type of bean to break cover.

Runner Beans

I also have 10 Borlotti "Firetongue" and 10 of my favourite "Cobra" Climbing French Beans, but they are only just beginning to stir, so no pics yet, though I can see that they are definitely germinating. On the other hand I have three other types of bean which are still showing no sign of life at all. They are admittedly old seeds, but I had hoped that at least one or two of them would be viable. The ones in question are "Bridgewater", "Veitch's" and "San Antonio". I'm not giving up yet, because it only needs one plant to produce some pods so that I could refresh my stock!

Before many days have passed, I will need to put up some tall bean-poles. I have some nice 9-foot Hazel poles, which I will use for the Runners, which are usually big and vigorous plants, but I have been looking around for something smaller for the others. I have found that the bamboo canes on offer in most of the places I have visited are very poor - thin, flimsy and grossly overpriced. I was dismayed to see that almost all the canes on sale in my local garden centre were sold in plastic sleeves, despite being marketed as "naturally biodegradeable". I urgently needed some canes for my Broad Beans, so I succumbed and purchased one pack of 10 x 150cm canes, but in retrospect I wish I hadn't!

However, there is good news too. Interacting with fellow members of a local gardening group on Facebook, I have discovered a really interesting local business, run by Mark Howard, specialising in conservation services, hurdle-making and firewood, using renewable local resources (mostly Hazel wood). The best thing is, this business is based only about four miles from where I live! Mark has kindly agreed to provide me with "bespoke" Hazel rods. I have ordered some 6-foot ones for my tomatoes. More on these when I take delivery of them.

I have also been offered free bamboo canes by several members of the aforesaid gardening group, though some of the offers came with conditions, such as "you can come and cut as much as you like in my garden"! I tactfully declined most of the offers but accepted one from a kind young lady who said she had "hundreds" of canes available in her shed. She wasn't wrong! However, in view of my imminent acquisition of the Hazel rods, I only took 15 bamboo canes, mostly ones round about 6 feet long.

Having been cut quite recently they are still green and very flexible, but I'm sure they will firm-up as they dry out, and go on to be a very useful part of my collection of garden equipment.