Support Structures

May had some wonderful sunny warm weather and as there seemed no risk of frost I managed to get my zucchini and beans planted out of the greenhouse in the third week of May, giving the tender veg an extra week to settle into the Patch. We built a structure with bamboos for the St George runner beans and the Blue Lake french climbing beans and managed to get them settled into the bed which I had been feeding with manure and turning over in preparation for them. 

It was important to stabilise this structure by fixing it to the fence posts at both ends and in the middle as we get high winds up here. You pay for a wonderful view with it being very windy and the windproof netting around the rabbit proof fencing of the Patch has saved all my seedlings this year. Last year when I put the french bean seedlings out they were leafless within a couple of days and I put up the net. Since then protection from the worst of the wind, especially at the very young stage, has been brilliant. It seems that the spring and early summer are particularly windy here!

Here you can see the runner bean plant already leaning into the bamboo poles - I fixed garden string all the way along and it was not long before they were safely attached, winding their way up the string for support. I did not grow runners last year because of the wind and grew dwarf beans which did quite well - but you don't get the amount of beans that I wanted this year. I have grown Blue Lake which is a climbing french bean and is very productive. I don't think you can have too many beans...and the runners freeze beautifully too. 

The next structure to build was the Borlotti bean support. I have put them in a round bag I bought for french beans a couple of years ago and made a wigwam from bamboos with a circle of plastic at the top which keeps them separated and strong. But it was hard to know where to put it. We are building this year and so none of the barn walls would offer support or protection from the wind. We decided to put the bag between two old thick fence posts and build in bamboo poles horizontally as well as vertically to keep it in place. The bag takes a lot of compost and one fine morning I took the big pot of Borlottis and planted them, dividing the roots carefully and planting one by each pole.

Watering them in well,  then attached a piece of rabbit fencing around the bag and scattered a lot of slug pellets in the bag and around the base and hoped for the best. 

I have battled with the slugs and had to bend the chicken wire away from the leaves cos those little blighters can climb everything! Its quite exposed here too, but at the moment the lingua di fuoca seem to be climbing up the supports ok....lets hope for a harvest.

The only wall which is south facing that won't be disturbed by building work is this one and the outdoor tomatoes need it. These are six Ferline which are a blight resistant tomato, three Sungold (they are also in the greenhouse but I can't bear to throw away seedlings!) and three Principe Borghese ( a baby bush tomato which is great for storing and drying).

 As you can see the structure is made secure by wires which run through the blocks of wood and are screwed into the wall enabling the bamboo poles to be attached and stand proud of the wall. It is rock solid - the west winds we have been having (  no gales actually!) have been sending the wind down this alley and the tomatoes have survived. Lets hope that there will be enough sun to ripen the tomatoes on this hot wall and not too much wind when they are heavy laden with fruit!

Gardening is all about planning and support structures are a vital part of successful harvesting. Fingers crossed!