Terry Walton is starting his bean feast!
I’m hoping the bees will be around when the runners are in full flower
The allotment days are full of plot holders beavering away digging, sowing and even weeding already. Happy days are here again (feels like I could burst into song!) and as the work continues, there’s a buzz of excitement in the air as banter echoes across the plots. The only drawback is time passes so quickly when you’re having fun and the hours drift away.
Have you noticed an increase in the number of bumblebees this year? Over the last month, I’ve seen a significant number of these aerodynamically-challenged insects buzzing about. To me, they’re the gardeners’ best asset and they seem to be able to pollinate any plant, no matter how difficult entry is to the pollen sacs. My one hope is they hang around until the runner beans are in full flower, but they’ve enough work to do for the present with my broad beans.
Talking of beans, it’s time my climbers were under way. This year I’m spoilt for choice! The varieties I’m growing are ‘Celebration’, with its lovely pink flowers, and ‘Moonlight’, with white flowers. Next, there’s ‘Firestorm’, with its vivid-red flowers, and to finish off the runner bean family, I’m trying ‘Sunset’ this year, which has peachy- pink flowers and is one of Rob Smith’s heritage varieties. My climbing French bean variety is ‘Cobra’, which has a purple flower. When my bean row is in full growth I’ll need sunglasses to ward off this wild kaleidoscope of colour! Hopefully this vast spectrum will attract the bees, although many of these varieties tend towards self pollination.
They’re all sown in individual freezer bags of moist compost. The beans are mixed in thoroughly. Each bag is labelled with the variety and placed on a warm windowsill. After about 10 days you should notice in the bag small white ‘tails’ appear on the seeds, which indicate the seed has germinated, and they can then be planted into 7½cm (3in) pots of good compost and grown on.
At the back of the greenhouse are two large tubs of early potatoes, planted way back in January. These are growing on well and getting a twice-weekly feed of seaweed extract. I’m waiting for frost-free nights, then these can stand outside the greenhouse door. They look to be on target for some early potatoes at the end of May.