On 17/08/2014 13:22, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Spider wrote:
On 10/08/2014 17:36, 'Mike' wrote:
As just about everybody knows, we only have small gardens and because
the space is at a premium, every little bit is used to some advantage or
other, therefore the veg garden is miniscule compared to those on GW and
has to work for its living so to speak.

Well this year we have grown 'Enorma' and as there are only the two of
us, we can afford to pick early, having said that, when 'found in the
undergrowth of the forest of leaves' and are 'enormous', they are still
tender and sweet.

Yes, we've grown them many times in the past. They are the best
flavoured beans I've tried so far.

Interesting. I tend to grow the traditional varieties, but don't
find runner beans as good as blue French beans, though they crop
better. All my French beans are climbing, not dwarf.



Now we're the opposite! - much prefer runners to any of the French ones
*and* we found that french types cropped better. Pity it's not the
other way round.


Although we're told that runner beans don't need to be part of a crop
rotation system, we found that, eventually, that production failed
almost completely over 3 or 3yrs. Looking at the root zone, we found
the roots smothered with fat bean aphids:~((.

They don't overwinter reliably in Cambridge, anyway.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.



They didn't overwinter with us, either. I was often tempted to lift a
few roots and try and overwinter them for an early start the next
season, but never got round to it. Apparently, it can be done, though.
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay