Tuesday 18 June 2013

Staking up broad beans

The last few weeks the weather has been mixed - a few glorious days and then torrential downpours. Result - loads of weeding to be done. The wind and rain started to take its toll on the broad beans which are now looking pretty good.

So I went out with stakes (from last year's fruit and walnut tree pruning) and 50 metres of rope.

I have two banks of beans arranged 3 rows of 10 each (total 60 plants). I place stakes at each corner of each bank and two along each side then wrap the rope, about 18 inches off the ground all the way around the outside then criss-cross diagonals using the stakes along the sides. This gives them support without having to stake each bean plant individually.

The bees were really busy in the bean flowers but didn't bother me.

Criss-cross diagonal ropes keep the beans from being blown or flopping over.
I use sticks from pruning trees - so they're not very straight!


Beans as they were at the end of May.

Broad bean flowers

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