Beans talk Weekend gardening
Edibles
Sow beans. Vigorous growers, they need rich soil, so dig in some compost or well-rotted manure before planting. Dwarf beans should be sown about 5cm deep and 10cm apart. Runner beans need something to climb up, such as a fence or wigwam of bamboo or straight branches. Dig a shallow trench along the side of the bean row which enables watering without wetting the leaves and risking foliar diseases.
Sow sweet corn in blocks or several short rows to aid pollination and minimise wind damage. Sow two seeds in each hole, with holes 15cm apart. Double sowing means the strongest seedling can be kept, the other discarded (or the frugal may like to plant it elsewhere). Always keep soil around sweet corn moist, and weed around it gently as it has shallow roots. Mounding up soil around the base of the stalks will also help protect them from being blown over.
Pine needles around the base of strawberry plants will prevent any fruit rotting on damp soil and the plants like the acid they give to the soil.
Ornamentals
Clip evergreen hedges. Sow annual flowers.
Help your plants by placing them in a spot that suits their natures – hot and dry, cool and shade, hot and damp etc. Seems obvious, but many gardeners persist in trying to grow plants that are manifestly unsuited to the conditions. Reference books, your local library or Google will all provide information.
Take softwood cuttings of tender perennial shrubs such as marguerite daisies, pelargoniums and fuchsia.
Weeding
Keep on top of weeds, which will be romping away in the warmer weather and water. Weeds, if left, may smother plants, get out of control and become difficult to eradicate and/or go to seed thus spreading themselves even more – hence the adage, one year’s seeds, seven years’ weeds.
Best tool I know of for the job is the Japanese niwashi. Rather like a hoe on a short handle, it is excellent around seedlings if you can’t trust yourself with a long-handled hoe – where one slip and you’ve wiped out a plant or two. Having a sharpish blade, the niwashi is also great for chopping down larger and perennial weeds.
Seedling weeds may be left on soil surface to dry and die. Larger ones may be composted. However, if they have seedheads already formed and you are not confident that your composting skills will ensure a hot enough heap to kill them, it may pay to get rid of them another way, such as in the organic recycling bin.
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