"Sue" wrote in message
o.uk...

"Christina Websell" wrote
"Sue" wrote

My runners have done well too, after a slow start.
Purple sprouting broccoli was going great guns... then suddenly some
of them have wilted and lost lower leaves and look very iffy. I
suspect cabbage root fly might have got them.
--
that's bad ;-(

There's always something! Entirely my own fault I think; in the effort
to protect against pigeons and butterflies, collars around the stems were
forgotten about. You live and learn. Only need to survive til 102 and I
could have the know-how to have super broccoli... but be too ancient to
grow any. At least I didn't have floods to contend with like poor Baz.

The runner beans we planted over the trench filled with chicken muck
and newspaper are so far ahead of the ones we didn't it's
unbelievable. Let's call them 1 & 2.
1 (with the trench) has deep green leaves, covering all the canes so
you cannot see the beans unless you search for them. It's cropping
well.
2. Without the trench is well behind. the leaves are yellower and it
does not cover the canes. There are some beans on it to pick but not
many, lots of flowers, so I might pick this one later than 1.
It could be an advantage to get runner beans plants later than others.
It was an experiment.
I knew the ones over the trench would romp away and the other ones
wouldn't do as well.

I'm often planting out runners later than our neighbours and thinking
I'm way behind, but we generally do get a decent crop anyway. So it'd be
worth having some later ones to spread out the picking.
It's not until there are too many strong winds in autumn and they get
bashed about that the plants suffer and then it's all over - but by then
we've had far too many and are secretly glad to see the back of them! I
start mine off in pots now because I found, when I direct planted,
something got into many of the beans before they'd sprouted and they
rotted off.

I always love runner beans. I slice them like my grandmother did and put
them in bags in one portion and freeze, get them out for Christmas Day.
My grandfather used to salt them. It was his gift to us for Christmas, a
jar of salted runner beans each.
Remember the war :-(