Bean there...

Harriet mentioned last week that we'd put some broad beans in - we'd grown them in the relative safety of my kitchen while the ground was still cold, so they had a bit of a headstart before they went outdoors. 

As we started to sow them we realised we didn't have any seed trays (rookie mistake #1), and were at a bit of a loss what to do until Harriet remembered that she had done something similar with the kids. So, using a glass and some old newspaper, we fashioned some paper containers to plant the beans in.  

They seemed to do surprisingly well and so after only a couple of weeks were absolutely enormous! Well... for seedlings anyway. 

Had to take a bit of a guess on when to plant them out, but Mum's copy of  "the gardening year" said March, so March it was. They were planted alternately in two rows about 20cm apart, and were given cane and string railing to help give them some support as they grow. Planted them with the paper pots attached to give them some extra mulch too.

It was all going so well! Beans big, beans planted out, bean accessories attached, Job done!

Now we just sit back, right?

Apparently not... on the last visit to our plot the poor things seemed to have taken a bit of a bashing, and had withered somewhat; the leaves had serrated edges (nibble marks?) and looked quite limp and grey.    

Think it was most probably due to the shock of being thrown from a nice warm kitchen into the harsh reality of the outdoors without any time to harden up.

Lesson learnt!