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My OH prepared a raised bean bed for me this weekend ;D Since we have heavy clay soil, he added lots of additional top soil (from an area of the garden where we've just built a patio) and also worked in loads of gritty sand. The problem is that the garden compost I was hoping of spreading over the site is still far from ready!! argh!!! I read somewhere that leaf mould could be a valuable alternative - I have 2 bags that have been rotting away from last autumn's leaves, but don't know whether this would be ready to use yet? I wanted to incorporate something and then cover up the site for another 2 - 2 1/2 weeks with black plastic sheeting in order to warm the soil up. The beans are getting ready indoors in 3 " pots and I'll be hardening them off shortly.  Any idea whether the leaf mould could/would be ready  at this stage? Given I live in the city, the only alternative at this stage would be to buy a bag of dried cow manure and do it that way. But I would prefer using an alternative if possible. Many thanks for any/all suggestions/advice!  :D 

Why bother with any of these things? The beans will take nitrogen from the air as they need it- you dont have to provide any- personally id just cover the plot until i plant out

Beans need food yes but also you need to conserve moisture in the soil for them.
Hugh did a great piece on a runner bean trench where you can grow them each year and just top up with the compost bin. I will see if I can find it.

HI
Does that mean you can grow your runnerbeans in the same place each year? as long as you make a lovely bean friendly bed, that would be great if you could as have only one area really suitable for runners.
Katy

I cannot find it on site.
Perhaps Tim will have it.
But from memory you dig a deep trench line it with shoddy ( a wool by product from the fleece of sheep me thinks) wollen jumpers to hold moisture then top with compost / manure fill in and use pelleted fert or Blood fish and bonemeal on top I think it was layers of soil inbetween.
Trench ready each year just do a top dress. Might have had newspapers in as well.
Where is Tim when I need him?
Will see if I printed it off computer problems and I dont think I saved it to disc before machine got wiped clean. Sorry.

Found most of it.
Try this:
If you really fancy double digging (it`s the quickest way to a bad back later on) by all means do as Gavin suggests, but incorporate as much compostable matter (soft weeds, scrunched up newspapers, cardboard, leaves etc.) as you can into the bottom spit and manure and compost into the top, then never bother to double dig again - it just isn`t necessary for most vegetables.

The exception is runner beans. Make a permanent site for these (don`t rotate it), dig a trench 2 or more feet deep, then backfill, mixing in all your old woollen garments (slow release nitrogen), compost, leaves, newspapers etc. and plenty of bonemeal and allow it to settle over winter. Keep on using this site every year and it will get better and better every year.
Very definitely, and as soon as possible.  After all the Runners are (space for space) the most productive crop on the plot and well worth the effort.  If you don`t want to sacrifice your old woolly jumpers try and do as I did.  Get hold of a couple of old woollen flock mattresses and tip the contents into the bottom of the trench.  The old Yorkshire show growers used to use wool shoddy, but I haven`t seen any of that for years.

And if you want a really fantastic bean for quality and crop size try Flare from Marshalls - it`s new this year and it`s the best I`ve ever grown - I`m picking over 10 lbs a week from a 16ft single row

there is absolutely NO necessity for rotating his runner beans, and indeed that a permanent bean trench will not only improve with age, but will result in his runner beans improving year by year.

What do you thing of this?

I have considered a single trench for runner beans - I once saw one on TV that was lined with weed liner filled with compost and used as a compost heap, the beans were planted on that and then dug in and the compost produced used on the rest of the plot the following year.  But I have decided to keep it in my rotatation to increase the length of time that the crops that do matter being kept off the same ground and becuase it acts as a green manure before brassicas go in.

Quote from: teresa on May 23, 2005, 22:38:35
Found most of it.
Try this:
If you really fancy double digging (it`s the quickest way to a bad back later on) by all means do as Gavin suggests, but incorporate as much compostable matter (soft weeds, scrunched up newspapers, cardboard, leaves etc.) as you can into the bottom spit and manure and compost into the top, then never bother to double dig again - it just isn`t necessary for most vegetables.

The exception is runner beans. Make a permanent site for these (don`t rotate it), dig a trench 2 or more feet deep, then backfill, mixing in all your old woollen garments (slow release nitrogen), compost, leaves, newspapers etc. and plenty of bonemeal and allow it to settle over winter. Keep on using this site every year and it will get better and better every year.
Very definitely, and as soon as possible.  After all the Runners are (space for space) the most productive crop on the plot and well worth the effort.  If you don`t want to sacrifice your old woolly jumpers try and do as I did.  Get hold of a couple of old woollen flock mattresses and tip the contents into the bottom of the trench.  The old Yorkshire show growers used to use wool shoddy, but I haven`t seen any of that for years.

And if you want a really fantastic bean for quality and crop size try Flare from Marshalls - it`s new this year and it`s the best I`ve ever grown - I`m picking over 10 lbs a week from a 16ft single row

there is absolutely NO necessity for rotating his runner beans, and indeed that a permanent bean trench will not only improve with age, but will result in his runner beans improving year by year.

What do you thing of this?

thanks alot Teresa!!  :) very helpful indeed! I will be using this method in the fall for next year's crop of runners. In the meantime, I'm wondering what sort of 'quick fix' I can give the bean bed for this year's crops... given I'm working with clay with loads (perhaps too much??  ??? sand worked into it), the consistency doesn't look right now, and I feel as if I should be adding something that will retain more moisture in the soil... perhaps from what Redclanger has said, it would seem possible to incorporate the autmun leaf mould now, without any negative consequences to the crop as it decomposes...

any thoughts?  ???

Hi Rox.

I have clay at home we dug in sand and peat to help break it up and retain moisture.
So any compost you have home made or bought  dig in where the plants are to go. You can add some growmore or blood fish and bone meal to feed as extra.
You can always retain moisture by covering the soil with grass clippings and watering daily in the evenings.
just a few ideas hope they help

I put kitchen waste in a trench last autumn for my runners this season. Whilst digging the patch where runners were last year, I found one of the roots of it. Had I have kept the root thingywhatsit of the runner beans nice and cosy, it could have resprouted and given me a nice runner bean plant.

Thanks Teresa
Katy

I'm saving my tea bags, fruit, cabbage leaves, banana skins,  all my household kitchen waste, loo rolls etc and will be chucking that in my bean bed.  I also have some manure to chuck in (this year's).  The material helps feed the plants and retains moisture so hopefully my beans will be fine.  I grew them in the border at home last year with my flowers and herbs etc and I didn't do any soil preparation but they were fine but I had to water them more often but at home that's not as big a chore as it can be on the lotty

Speaking of bean beds this is mine.  I asked my OH to buy 7 canes and arrange them in a tee pee.  This is what he came up with!  A veritable mansion  ;D

Oh Wardy,
That is so beautiful he must like beans to build such a beautiful bean house. Can we all borrow him.
Now not as glamerous some years ago saw a program which used iron poles two each end of a bean trench crossed at the top and a pole from one cross to the other if you get my meaning.
The canes were then tied to the top pole along the top one. More stable and a perment fixture?

I had something like that in mind but look what I got  ;D   It's moveable too so I think I might cover it in plastic and call it a greenhouse when the beans are finished  :)

Oh Wardy beans go on forever ha ha what you want to do is grow some sweet peas up it with the beans.
This idea came from this board last year first it atracts the bee's and insects to pol the beans and secondly looks pretty and you can cut them for the house to incress the flowers.
Then have a chair and table inside and sit and admire with a cuppa oh the joy of gardening. hee hee

Therasa   It just so happens I have some sweetpeas I grew from seed earlier.  They are in a massive tangle in my little glass thingy grown in toilet rools.  They'll look great up me bean pergola  ;D

I must say I like the idea of a permanent bean bed, as the structure needs to be firm. Would the wool of sheep be ok as my daughter has 2 pet sheep and I could go up there with a pair of scissors. ;D

Rosemary

Oh that sounds perfect they must need their coats cut soon.
Just make sure you give them a bath first sounds daft I know but if the wool is clean ( a lot of lanion? in it ) makes it difficult to cut.
A electric clippers would be easier.
As its a natual fiber is will rot in time but retain moisture in the soil.
Their poo is good in water for feeding carnations and other plants.
bit off the subject I know.

Cheers Teresa
Rosemary