Wednesday 20 April 2011

French beans

Every year we have tried to grow something new to us. This year it is dwarf french beans. The consensus seems to be that they are prolific, so you don't need many plants and that they are not hardy so they need protecting from frost. We sowed our first batch today and that may be the only batch we need. We also sowed the next batch of beetroot and some courgettes. All of these are in the greenhouse to germinate to ensure they stay frost-free. We will grow more courgettes than we need because the process of transplanting them from pot to ground doesn't always work. We have sown more french beans than I think we need, just because I don't know how they will perform. Unused plants are easy to give away.

The ground is thoroughly warm and very, very dry. Without rain soon we will have to soak the ground just as preparation for planting.

We took some more asparagus today; it will probably get used at lunch time. The spinach is looking very strong and is responding well to watering. Our strawberries look good, with lots of flowers already. The blackcurrants and gooseberries have lots of flowers and hold the promise of a bumper harvest. The warm weather has brought things on quite quickly, I just need to keep up with watering to swell the fruit.

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