Bean poles

So I spent most of today dodging ice cold rain showers. And I do mean ice. As in hail stones. They made a nice "dink" sound as they bounced off the green house whilst I was nice and warm inside drinking my coffee.

It's kind of my tradition now that I always have a coffee when I get to the allotment. My old penny stove heats up a full kettle in about 5 minutes. So it gives me a) time to wake up, b) time to plan what needs doing and c) a chance to reflect on the overall plan of the allotment.

It was during this morning's coffee and the listening to the sound of the hail stones when I realised I had made a mistake. The herb bed I made last week is in the wrong place. The spot where I built it can be flooded. That is not a good option for a long term herb bed. So instead I decided to put a short term crop in there. In this case it will be French beans.

So I raided my stock of bamboo canes to build a little wigwam of canes. Since it is square in shape, then 8 canes is the ideal option. Thats 8 plants to go in there.

Those little dimples you see in the bed are actually little fox paw prints. Guess they like taking the short cut across the bed rather than round it. Hopefully the canes will put them off this option.

But I have 5 spare. So I quickly cleared a small space to put a smaller wigwam for the final 5 along side the artichoke.

Meanwhile inside the nice warm greenhouse. The seeds have taken off like a shot. Yesterday the wife spent a while re-potting on the marrows into separate pots. These will eventually find their way into the new mound. Or on top of the old mound. Or even into the plant sale. I don't know what I'm going to do with 15 marrow plants. If they go like last years courgettes then it's going to be marrow in one found or another for the rest of the year. But there is a lot of action from the other seeds too.

On the subject of marrow, I still have last year's Giant George hanging around. I think I'm going to have to lookup how to prepare the seeds for planting. But maybe I'll be swamped with a little too much courgettes (again).