"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"Colin Jacobs" wrote ...
Since taking on my new plot at a new site with a new community of
allotment
holders I asked the question,
How do you grow your runner beans and sweet peas?
do the rows go east to west with the south and north facing aspect on the
plants or North to south with the east and west facing the bean rows.

A big can of worms was opened
What would you! do?

Ours are planted across our plot roughly N to S so that both sides get sun
as it moves round during the day and any plants nearby are not totally
shaded.
It also happens to be the aspect of our plot which has it's longest axis E
to W. :-)


Our plot runs N - S (ish), and it's divided into four beds. In three of the
beds, the rows go across, ie E - W, but the fourth is the potato bed and the
rows go N - S. Natch the bed which is the odd one out changes each year with
the rotation. It arose out of convenience rather than for any other reason.
It suited the quantity of seed potatoes we had in year one to do it that
way. I wouldn't like to claim any advantages for doing it this way, nor have
we found any disadvantages.

Steve