Beans

Whenever I'm out and about I can't help but peek into any back gardens I happen upon.  I'm just curious about how many people are actually growing their own veg, what they are growing & how far along they are.  

There's one particular neighbour who grows beans every year, his back garden is completely on show from the pavement (only a wrought iron gate), & he lives just at the end of our road.  So after dinner, whenever the weather is clement, we go for a sneaky look-see in the disguise of walking round the block.  

This particular garden is special as the inhabitants always grow great numbers of beans.  I see the huge numbers hanging heavily from the branches throughout the summer.  So I have been watching his garden with great interest.  When does he put the beans out, how far apart does he space them, does he do anything weird & wonderful to make his beans produce in such prolific numbers.  

Last night on one of our 'walks' I saw that he was starting to plant out his beans.  Therefore now is obviously the right time for me to plant my beans.  As soon as I got up this morning I was outside, hard at work, making sure that the beanpoles were in a suitably stable structure at the back of my veg patch (no pot this year).  My bean seedlings are at a decent size (except the Violetta which will need another couple of weeks), & I have plenty of compost to add in as I plant.  I'm ready to go.  This weekend sees me plant my beans.

The reason for my slightly worrying obsession with the French beans is that I seem to have trouble growing things that are meant to be really easy.  Now this may be because I want to grow everything from seed & things like mint take a couple of years to really get going.  It could be that if I think something is easy to grow I don't pay it enough attention.  Or it could just be that I don't water some things enough.  Whatever the reason this blind spot affected my French beans last year.  I grew 8 plants in a large pot, in direct sunshine & the results were pathetic, there was barely enough for one meal for 2 people.  Never again!  This year I shall watch what my bean blessed neighbour does & I shall copy him.  This year will be the year of the bean!!!