Peas and Beans

Absolutely no problem getting my 5 portions of fruit and veg every day! My favourite eating pea is Hurst Greenshaft. Here I find I get plenty of peas in each pod, and they stay tender and sweet even if you can't pick as regularly as you'd like.

And here are my first pickings of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable patch! You might remember that I am growing a selection of veggies which have 'black' in the name. Well, here are the first pickings of my courgette 'Black Beauty'. Buddy adored eating courgettes! Happy memories!

These runner beans 'Salford Black' are nearly ready as well. I've not grown these before, but they have a dark strip on the outside of the bean. When the beans develop and dry they are jet black and beautiful!

These dwarf French beans 'Royalty' are just starting to set. They are very heavy croppers and you can see here they have beautiful purple flowers. There are masses of flowers on these plants. It's going to be a good year!

Now, I tried the 3 Sisters in earnest this year. Three crops which you can plant in the same spot and do not compete with each other, having different growth habits - these are squash, sweet corn and runner beans. Well, I have found that these runner beans don't know where to run! I thought they would find their way up the sweet corn stems, but they have run all over the patch! I had to poke some tall bamboo sticks in the ground this morning to show them where to go! The sweet corn is about 3ft tall, but the runner beans are 5ft already!

These lovely leeks are flowering all over the place! From the same packet of leeks, F1 hybrid Oarsman, have come two different colours of flowers, purple and white. I wonder if The F1 crossing is between these two varieties? Whatever the reason, the bees adore them, and they are flying into my veggie patch just in time to pollinate the pumpkins!