Rob Smith gives beans the perfect start
Get the veg-growing year moving by preparing your ground now
It may still be winter, but at the dawn of a new growing year, it’s time to start thinking about the season ahead and planning where and how you’re going to grow your veg for 2019.
Traditionally this time of year is when you begin preparing the ground for runner beans and climbing French beans by creating bean trenches. On allotments up and down the country you’ll see long trenches around 30cm (1ft) deep with the soil piled high on either side. These are then filled with kitchen peelings and compostable waste because beans are really hungry crops and need all the nutrients they can get.
In the past, this was what you would have seen on my allotment, followed by rows of canes, ready for the plants to scramble up. However, in the new garden I’m growing in raised beds and I can’t afford the space for long rows, so I’ve gone for a bean circle rather than a trench as I’m growing my plants up specially designed bean towers (available from www. agriframes.co.uk).
These towers allow you to grow lots more plants in a relatively small space compared to a regular wigwam made from canes. They’re around 85cm (2¾ft) wide, so the plants still have plenty of space to grow, yet they look more ornamental and are more of a ‘kitchen garden’ look, rather than an allotment structure.
For this reason I’ve dug a pit 30cm (1ft) deep and 90cm (3ft) wide, then started to fill it in the same way as a bean trench. Add any kitchen scraps, but try to avoid too many citrus peelings as this can cause the soil to be a little too acidic for beans. When the hole is full keep adding scraps so they’re mounded around 5-10cm (2-4in) higher than soil level, then cover with the excavated soil to form an earth-covered mound. Don’t worry, the soil will sink once the peelings begin to compost, providing a nutrient-rich environment, perfect for your hungry beans to be planted into later in the season.