09-07-2005, 12:12 PM
|
|
|
The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:
/never has-beans/
anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?
No, the Wicked Witch of the West was in Scotland and has now returned
to the USA to plot more evil. While he has left his British familiar
here, the latter seems to have no powers of his own (for either good
or evil).
That's the Wicked Warlock, Shirley?
In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile activity,
as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is as likely
to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get it to
work.
The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.
My early ones have been a disaster, and I didn't sow them THAT early.
The problem has been the utterly miserable spring, which both caused
a lot to rot after germination and before developing a stem and caused
very poor setting (lack of bees). In fact, I have seen almost no bees
this year, and most of those have been honey bees (and it is the bumble
bees that pollinate broad beans). This will be due to the very long,
wet, warm winter - with no change when it came to 'spring'.
ATM I'm harvesting carrier bags of escaped fodder beans, a slightly
smaller relative, and they have done extremely well in the verge
alongside last year's field.
If we get a few more winters/springs this bad, it is going to cause
ecological chaos. In 30 years of gardening here, I have never seen a
year where there have been insignificant numbers of both honey bees
and bumble bees right up until July.
Plenty of bumble bees here in this bit of Norfolk, and from the earliest
times too. However, I haven't seen a honey bee here for several years.
--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/
|