Week 42 - Bed 3

The unseasonably dry and mild weather that we have had for most of October has allowed the plants in this bed to continue to produce, though not as quickly as they would have in the warmth of the summer.

We have not been in the garden for 3 weeks and the few climbing french beans (or pole beans) that grew have produced a number of beans that are now too large to eat the pods. The Blauhilde variety above has beautiful purple pods, which unfortunately turn green when cooked.

The Eva climbing bean variety above produces a wide flat pod. We are going to leave the handful of beans to mature and harvest them as fresh plump seeds which are still tender and have not begun to dry, referred to as either flageolet or shelling beans.

There are quite a number of runner beans, but unfortunately, they too have grown large enough to become tough. We harvested them anyway in hopes that another crop would develop.

One fo the courgette plants has produced a number of reasonable size fruit. The slower growth of the late season has prevented any of them from turning into enormous marrows. The fruit is edible, though not be as tender as those that grow quickly n the heat of the summer.