Week 42 - Bed 4

The peas have finally finished producing. The few bods that remain are covered with mould and the peas are starchy and inedible raw.

The dry vines and leaves form quite an attractive autumn screen.

Week 39 - Bed 4

The peas plants continue to turn brown, but the tops are still producing young peas.

This is the harvest from this week, not enough for dinner, and despite the mold most of these pods contain delicately sweet peas that are delicious raw, and best eaten right in the garden!

Week 38 - Bed 4

Although the bottom half of most of the pea plants have dried and turned brown, the tops are still green and producing a steady crop of delicious peas.

Since last week a few of the plants have produced more flowers and small pods. These plants probably have had all of their older pods removed over the past few weeks and are desperately trying to produce some seed before the end of the season.

Week 37 - Bed 4

The climbing peas are still producing, but are quite uncontrolled and overshadowing the newly planted seedbed in bed 5, so we tied the the trellis back. The beans are basically finished so there is nothing left to overshadow in bed 4.

There are still many young pea pods, but no more flowers.

Week 35 - Bed 4

The climbing peas have grown past the top of the supports (190cm tall).


There are many flowers ...

... and the first peas are ready to eat - 12 weeks after sowing!

The bush beans are also ready, it is a shame that so few plants survived.

This plant continues to be eaten, all of the flower buds are gone.

Week 31 - Bed 4

This bed has become very overshadowed by the abundant growth to the left against the wall. Most of the bush bean plants have failed to survive - possibly slugs that are hiding in the neighboring vegetation.

The bean plants that did survive are starting to flower.

The tall climbing peas are growing well but have not started to flower.

Week 27 - Bed 4

The peas and beans are growing well for the most part, even though the bed becomes overshadowed during the afternoon.

The climbing peas starting to grow beyond the first line of the support frame.

Week 26 - Bed 4 Planting

The dwarf french beans are doing well - at least those that made it out of the ground and escaped being eaten by some unknown creature! We sowed some more seeds 'Hildora' and 'Maxi' varieties to fill in the gaps in the planting. In several places, both of the seeds that were planted came up and one will need to be thinned but we thought we would wait until next week gust in case the mysterious herbivore returns.

The climbing peas are doing well - most of the seeds deem to have germinated and are starting to reach for support.

We constructed a frame out of bamboo canes and used twine to create a rough climbing frame. In reasonable conditions, these peas could grow to over 2m tall!

Week 23 - Bed 4 Planting

This bed was prepared last week as a lazy bed, and in it we planted:

• Table Talk Climbing Peas (one long row along edge of bed) - a variety that can grow up to 2 meters tall on good soil, with large full fat pods of tasty sweet peas which can be eaten fresh or dry.
• Maxi Dwarf French Bean (25% of the bed) - an early variety with medium green pods and good disease resistance.
• Hildora Dwarf French Bean (25% of the bed) - an early maincrop variety with yellow round oval pods of up to 14cm in length.
• Saxa Dwarf French Bean (25% of the bed) - an old variety with early light green round pods, suitable for colder climates.

A frame and netting will need to be constructed to support the peas.