Help MBE grow his dinner 2011

Sally_A

Referring to djohn2002uk on the previous page; I don't bother with dwarf french beans for a maincrop, but they are good for planting late in the season (Sept/Oct) in the greenhouse when space has been freed up a bit. 4 beans sown to each flower bucket and you could have fresh french beans in November.

All my spare courgettes go inside the 1m x 1m bean wigwams, or inside the runner bean longer frame; in our garden the fruit tends to grow to the south west, and they thrive on the moisture and manure in the bean trench.

I'm doing 4 varieties of climbing french bean this year, Cosse Violette, Cobra, Mrs Fortune and Blue Lake, especially as someone on another forum said I could freeze them freshly picked without blanching etc (I recommend you top and tail them when fresh though) - this worked well for the 2010 harvest and we finished them off a couple of weeks ago.

Am also doing 72 runner beans, half for me and half for Mrs Next-Door.

Just hope I have enough bean poles.

mrbadexample

djohn2002uk wrote: »

That shed makes me green with envy.:sad:

It needs work though - it's just the bare shell inside. I need to get some shelving / workbenches up in there before I fill it so full of junk I can't get in to do it.

mrbadexample

Sally_A wrote: »

Am also doing 72 runner beans, half for me and half for Mrs Next-Door.

72? :eek:

Like your runners, do you?

I grew about 5 last year and was still giving them away. :rotfl:

Lotus-eater

djohn2002uk wrote: »

That shed makes me green with envy.:sad:

I'm so annoyed with Mr BE, my OH took one look at the shed and picture perfect garden and said something sarcastic about why our garden isn't like that.
You do have to fight to get into the door of the shed and can walk from one end of the garden to the other without stepping on the ground

To be fair, I said, if my garden was that size and I had a shed that big, it would be that tidy. "No it wouldn't" came the reply, "you'd soon fill it up with all your junk".
She knows me too well

lolly5648

mrbadexample wrote: »

Ok, job done:

What are you growing in all the blue boxes? I have a couple that size and am not sure what to put in them.

mrbadexample

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I'm so annoyed with Mr BE, my OH took one look at the shed and picture perfect garden and said something sarcastic about why our garden isn't like that.

Ok, just explain that I only photograph the good bits, and not too close-up. I'm sure you don't want to see the enormous weeds fighting through the patio or the old fish tank, or the state of the inside of the greenhouse. :whistle:

The shed's only a year old, so I haven't had time to ram it full of junk yet. Give me time.

Oh yeah, and that "lawn" is about 80% dandelions. Still, they're all green, right?

mrbadexample

lolly5648 wrote: »

What are you growing in all the blue boxes? I have a couple that size and am not sure what to put in them.

Nothing. Yet. That's just excess soil from the newly-dug bed. Very compact soil broken up and aerated = lots left over.

Last year I grew turnips, beetroot, radishes, carrots, parsnips, celery (not very successfully) in tubs (ex-recycling bins). This year I want to get more in the ground, as it's expensive refilling them each year.

I'm going to use the topsoil in a 50:50 mix with compost this year, to see how things get on.

I guess the most successful things in tubs were carrots, parsnips and radishes.

annie123

Lotus-eater wrote: »

You do have to fight to get into the door of the shed and can walk from one end of the garden to the other without stepping on the ground

To be fair, I said, if my garden was that size and I had a shed that big, it would be that tidy. "No it wouldn't" came the reply, "you'd soon fill it up with all your junk".
She knows me too well

Good, pleased I'm not the only one with a garden like that
And my hubby says exactly the same to me too.

djohn2002uk

Sally_A wrote: »

Referring to djohn2002uk on the previous page; I don't bother with dwarf french beans for a maincrop, but they are good for planting late in the season (Sept/Oct) in the greenhouse when space has been freed up a bit. 4 beans sown to each flower bucket and you could have fresh french beans in November.

All my spare courgettes go inside the 1m x 1m bean wigwams, or inside the runner bean longer frame; in our garden the fruit tends to grow to the south west, and they thrive on the moisture and manure in the bean trench.

I'm doing 4 varieties of climbing french bean this year, Cosse Violette, Cobra, Mrs Fortune and Blue Lake, especially as someone on another forum said I could freeze them freshly picked without blanching etc (I recommend you top and tail them when fresh though) - this worked well for the 2010 harvest and we finished them off a couple of weeks ago.

Am also doing 72 runner beans, half for me and half for Mrs Next-Door.

Just hope I have enough bean poles.

I don't bother with them for any crop. Last time I planted any dwarf/french beans was in the 70s when we both liked them but now don't like them at all. Just grow 60-70 runner beans (long as your arm) and while they are producing we eat them 3 or 4 or even 5 times a week. Sometime for a snack just runner beans with HP sauce on....:)

emiff6

djohn2002uk wrote: »

Just grow 60-70 runner beans (long as your arm) and while they are producing we eat them 3 or 4 or even 5 times a week. Sometime for a snack just runner beans with HP sauce on....:)

I'm not the only one then. (But with butter, not HP)