In message , Lionel
writes
I know it's too early to plant runners but now is the time to think about
how you are going to manage if there's a water shortage later in the year.

I had a wonderful crop last year and two water butts supplied my beans and
two pumpkin plants even though we had little rain.

If you are planning to have, say, 10 runner bean plants make sure you have
10 eight/nine inch plastic flower pots handy at planting time. I grew my
beans in a wigwam and left tying the canes together at the top until after
planting. Cut between the drainage holes of the pots so that you have just
one large hole in each. Plant your bean plants, place a flower pot
upsidedown over each cane and plant then "screw" each pot about an inch into
the soil. You can then get a good idea of how much water actually gets to
the roots. I put about an inch of water in each pot twice a day and giving
a liquid feed was made easy.

Added bonuses were that ants did not seem to be able to get on the plants so
spreading aphis around, ladybirds were not chased off by ants and attacks by
snails were minimised.



That sounds like good advice. I have grown runner beans for many years
but over the last few years we have been plagued by bullfinches pinching
the flowers. They are so damned cheeky! I have two cats but that
doesn't throw their confidence in the least.
--
June Hughes