I decided to limit my total beans to one bed still, because the dwarf beans I grew last year were so prolific we had more than enough. I made two wigwams with 8 foot canes at each end of the bed for the runner beans and planted two rows of dwarf beans in between.
I started the runner beans from seed at home and planted them out in May, they are Scarlet Emperor. The dwarf beans were sowed directly into the bed. I'm growing two varieties of dwarf beans, Tasman (left over from last year) and Royal Burgundy.
I bought the Royal Burgundy seeds whilst on holiday in Canada, but you can get them in the UK. They have lovely purple flowers and pods, although much to my son's disappointment the pods turn green when cooked. We haven't noticed a difference in taste between the green and purple beans and both varieties are producing lots of pods, so the difference is really cosmetic. I would still grow them again just because they are interesting and I like the purple flowers.
Because of the glut of beans last year I have tried to stagger their planting a bit. I planted a few seeds at a time at 2-3 week intervals. So far this seems to have worked since I've started picking from the first batch planted while the rest are in flower.
The runner beans have also started cropping and have lots of flowers, so it looks like we'll be eating plenty of those too.
I'm trying some other new crops and different varieties this year, with varying degrees of success. The new crops include raspberries, squashes, peas, parsnips and beetroot. I'll be telling you about my trials and tribulations with those in future posts.
