Beantastic!

Back on 1 April, I posted asking for suggestions where I could plant my broad bean and pea seedlings that were originally intended for my allotment but now had to go into my garden.

One of my readers, Sue, came up with a brilliant suggestion - get hold of some growbags, hold them up by their middles so they flop down into two halves, cut along half the plastic folded in the middle and, voila, you have two smaller - but deeper - containers made from one bag.  Genius.

So that was what I did, and found a patch of space where they would fit.  I planted them up a few weeks ago, before the rains came, which they enjoyed, and then the sun came, which they enjoyed even more.  Many, many, many flowers have been produced and if the bees have found them then, hopefully, we'll shortly see the start of the bean pods developing.

In fact they've grown so leggy that yesterday I had to dig out some small bamboo canes (some of which I'd grown myself!) and tie them up as they were flopping all over the place. 

This is what they look like now (clicky for embiggening):

This is a variety called 'Masterpiece Green' which grows quite tall, produces lovely flavoured broad beans and, most importantly, seems to be blackfly resistant.  I don't think it's marketed as being so, but I grew them last year and there were hardly any; the ones I'm growing so far this year also seem to be blackfly free and if you've ever grown your own broad beans, you'll know just how disgusting it is handling pods that are covered with the little buggers.  So I highly recommend this particular variety.

Next to the broad beans and not in growbags but just ordinary pots are my sugar snap peas:

I've crammed quite a few plants in each of the three big pots so I don't know how they'll do.  They're just starting to develop flowers so I might get one or two pods off them.

While I'm here, I thought I'd show you my blueberry bushes as well (and, no, that's not a euphemism for anything).  I dug these out of the ground at the allotment and brought them home with me as they weren't especially cheap plants to buy in the first place and I didn't want to leave them there.  I found the biggest pots I had to transport them home and they've just sort of stayed in them but, having said that, they seem to be doing pretty well.  I have three bushes - an early, middle and late variety - and I had a few berries off them last year but it looks like I'll have a lot more this year:

All those white flowers will hopefully turn into berries.  You can just see them starting to develop on this other plant:

All in all, I'm pretty pleased that my beans and peas seem to be coming along, and that the blueberries don't seem any the worse for wear for having been ripped out of their comfy home, stuck in a cramped container and bunged beside a fence and under a tree.  Which was lucky!