For Autumn sown crops I prefer to sow into small pots and plant out the seedlings to ensure gap-free rows.
Plant 2 inches (5cm) deep in drills about 3 inches (8cm) apart and put a few beans in between the rows to use later if necessary. I have 3 rows in a 4 foot (1.2m) wide bed.
It is very tempting to leave any of the extra ones in place, but dont bother, it makes staking and hoeing difficult and in any case you will have plenty of beans.
It pays to give them some sort of support especially if, like me, you have raised beds,as the wind will blow them over the paths.
Wait until you can feel the beans in the fleshy pods, but do not let them get too big as the skin around the bean itself gets rather hard and the flavour gets quite coarse.
Thirty pots planted with beans in 3 inch pots one in each.
Twenty beans have germinated and are looking good.
Ready for planting out into polythene covered beds.
and most of the plants are growing well.
The plants are tall enough to add a layer of frame.
Flowering and waiting for bees
Pods formed, first beans picked on 25th May.
Pea and bean weevils attack the plants when they are quite small leaving the the typical serrations around the leaves.
The infestation is not usually serious, although the grubs will eat the roots, thus reducing yield.
I puff a little organic derris dust around the bases after germination and again after a further four weeks.
Everyone knows that a fox will kill more chickens than it needs or wants to eat, and being of reasonable intelligence it is assumed by humans that it does it because it enjoys it.
The pigeon has a significantly smaller brain and if you run your mouse over the picture you will see that it obviously is on a par with a fox!
Why did it not eat the three bits it had pecked off?
The first sign of attack is often the presence of ants, scurrying up and down the stems. Close inspection will show small groups of tiny blackflies, which, over the next few days multiply and grow rapidly.
After a while the growth at the tops of the plants becomes stunted and the leaves, stems and even the beans become covered making pulling them an unpleasant business.
The best way to control the attack is to snip the tops off the plants as the aphids appear.
Spraying with a hose will blast them off, and of course for the non-organic an insecticide will work.
The roots of beans and peas have nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots and these can be seen in the photo.
I rub them off with my hands and allow them to fall onto the bed, they are subsequently dug in to provide nitrogen for the next crop.
Early crops are cleared by the end of June and the bed can be used for green vegetables including summer crops and brassicas.
Double cropping is possible in probably half the beds and provided that the soil is well manured and a crop rotation policy is adopted, the yeild fronm a given amount of land is increased considerably.