“Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear”. This is an old saying from an Aesop’s fable about the city mouse and country mouse. Beans are classed as poor food, not for the wealthy. And the phrase means it is better to be poor and live in peace than to be trapped in a world of wealth in fear.
Well poor food or not…I LOVE BEANS! And mybeans have all germinated after planting them out two weeks ago!
I have five varities of beans in total but have only planted out the climbing ones at this stage:
- Yates Climbing Beans - Purple King
- Yates Climbing Beans - Scarlet Runner
- Climbing Butter (another brand...because I couldn't find a Yates equivalent which is very sad as I only use Yates seeds)
It’s the first time I’ve grown these varieties and they’ll look gorgeous growing on the archway I made for them a couple of weeks ago with all their lovely flowers and due to the fact that each have different coloured pods (purple, green & yellow).
The instructions on the packets stated that you achieve the best results when the soil temperature is consistently above 20 degrees Celsius. Well, I’m pretty sure that that’s what we’ve got as ALL the seeds have germinated! It is simply gorgeous here in Wellington and we’ve got a whole five days of sunshine in a row forecasted!
I also have two dwarf varieties of beans to plant out, but they’ll go in once the broad beanshave finished as we are pretty tight for space now. They are:
- Yates Dwarf Beans - Tendergreen
- Yates Dwarf Beans - Borlotti
This will be my third year growing the Tendergreen variety and they are definitely one of my favourites as they don’t require any staking or support. It will be my second year growing the Borlotti variety which I grow for some Italian dishes and I dry the seeds and use them all year round in a few dishes. Beans are such a versatile vegetable and can be frozen really easily and used through the winter months too! Next year I want to try french beans, but for the moment, I think I’ll just stick with these five varieties….
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