'Beans Ready to Pick'

With the recent wet weather, the runner beans & climbing french beans have continued to make good progress up their wigwams.

The beans must now be nearly 10' tall

Here's another view of them:

Now they've started producing pods, so already a handful of a size worth eating.

French & runner bean pods, in the background are visible the purple pods of 'Cosse Violette', a climing french bean

As you can see above, we've finally started labelling the plants. When we're there, passers-by often ask the names of the plants, particularly for Phacelia tanacetifolia.

The phacelia is still attractive, even in seed; but less spectacular than it once was:

Phacelia tanacetifolia seedheads

We spent the work session removing the dying phacelia plants:

Once we'd removed the phacelia, we spread some well-rotted manure over the bare soil:

We then worked the manure into the soil & sowed seed of oriental vegetables 'Choy Sum', dill & others.

Here are some more general views of the Annecy Gardens.

Sunflowers (background), 'Anna Swartz Hubbard' squash (midground), Tagetes 'Linnaeus' (foreground)

Tomato 'Jaune Flamme' ~ if the warm weather continues, these fruit should be ripe in a couple of weeks

Sweetpeas on the railings, then 'Really Red Deer Tongue' lettuce (front left), Tagetes 'Linnaeus' (front right)

Many thanks to Geoff du Feu for his superior quality photographs.

In the heatwave

The lettuces are bolting & the climbing french beans are looking rather sorry for themselves, but quite a number of plants are thriving in the heat at the Annecy Gardens.

One herb that particularly enjoys these conditions is sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum. Last year, it entirely failed in the Gardens, but this year it's looking good.

Sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum

The sunflowers are also producing masses of heads, the bumblebees are very active on them, so there should be plenty of seed.

The maize, variety Zea mays 'Quadricolor', is also growing very rapidly in the heat & the variegation is becoming more pronounced, at least on some plants.

Zea mays 'Quadricolor'

A Californian annual, Gilia achillaeifolia, is also looking pretty & appears unfazed by the heat. The bees like it too.

Gilia achillaeifolia

Also just coming into flower is Verbena bonairiensis. This South American plant is an excellent nectar source for bees & butterflies & is valuable because it continues flowering for a long time into the autumn.

Verbena bonairiensis

Another plant that's very attractive to insects is the herb, hyssop, Hyssopus officinalis. Apart from being used to make an herbal tea, it is not really a culinary herb, but it's well worth growing just for its flowers. Below is pictured the white form, the wild type is blue-flowered & pink-flowered plants are also frequently seen in gardens.

Hyssopus officinalis, white-flowered

There are also flowers on some of the potatoes; while you're supposed to harvest first-early potatoes soon after the flowers have faded, the tubers on the variety 'Congo', pictured below, do not form until September or October.

Solanum tuberosum 'Congo' flowers

Because of the heat & dryness, we spent much of the work session watering.

First early potatoes

The first early potatoes that we planted at the beginning of May are now ready for digging. The dry weather means that they won't grow any more. The crop is modest, but greater than I was expecting from the wizened & flabby state of the seed potatoes when we planted them.

'Sharpe's Express' first early potatoes

The hot weather has favoured plants of tropical origin, such as tomatoes & the first fruits are setting on some of the Annecy Gardens specimens.

First fruits setting on tomato

The courgette plants are also loving the heat.

Quite a number of the annual flowers at the Gardens have just started blooming. The sweet peas, Lathyrus odoratus, are lovely & we were able to pick a bunch. Picking sweet peas causes them to bloom for longer.

Also flowering:

Linaria 'Licilia Azure', but quite definitely purple

Linum grandiflorum 'Rubrum', the scarlet flax

Helianthus annuus 'Earthwalker' ~ this plant is self-sown & the self-sown sunflowers are way ahead of those we nurtured in greenhouses

Some of the perennials are flowering too. The bees love the flowers on marjoram, Origanum marjorana.

The continuing hot, dry weather meant that we spent most of the work session on Monday watering ~ the plants certainly appreciated this.

The phacelia is finally going over & we're making plans to remove it & are deciding what to plant in its place.

Phacelia tanacetifolia is coming to the end of its flowering

Sowing chicory, this is a good time to sow this as it will grow on through the autumn

While we work hard during our Monday work sessions, we're not so busy that we don't have time to chat.

Our first courgettes

The warm weather means that cucurbits have been making rapid growth & we can report our first courgettes. I'm not sure of the variety.

It'll be a few weeks before any of the squashes produce fruit, they are always a little slower to establish than courgettes.

The climbing french beans & runner beans continue to make good progress up the wigwams.

The first flowers on the beans are already appearing.

Runner bean 'Celebration', the photo does not really show the very pretty salmon colour of the flowers

White flowers on a climbing french bean

The mangetout peas are very nearly ready to start eating, the variety 'Golden Sweet' appears very productive.

'Golden Sweet' mangetout peas, only a few days before they're ready to eat

Many of the self-sown annuals are in full flower.

Calendulas backed by blue phacelia

Borage & calendulas

Pink self-sown cornflower, Centaurea cyanus. The flowers are pretty & attractive to insects, but it'd've been even nicer if this were blue, like the wild type of this species.

Thymus sp, the bees love this

It's not only flowers that are providing colour. An allotment neighbour gave me some seedlings of the Mexican tree spinach, Chenopodium giganteum. It's a most ornamental plant, but apparently the flavour of the leaves is not so fine.

Mexican tree spinach, Chenopodium giganteum

Whilst there are still many bees working the flowers, not all insects are as welcome. Although we are delighted to have butterflies, rather disappointing that the first one we should notice is a cabbage white, Pieris sp.

Caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly, devouring the remaining leaves on a mustard plant.

Venus' looking glass

The intriguingly named Venus' looking glass, Legousia speculum-veneris, has just started flowering. This was formerly a frequent weed of cornfields, but is now virtually extinct as a wild plant in this country. However, it makes a pretty, if unspectacular garden plant, almost worth growing just for its name. We planted it last year from plugs of seedlings sown in the greenhouse & it didn't really thrive, so it's very pleasing that it has self-seeded & the plants are looking much more vigorous ~ it evidently resents being transplanted.

Venus' looking glass, Legousia speculum-veneris

The mangetout peas have just started flowering. These are an old variety, 'Golden Sweet'. The yellow pods should follow in a week or two, but we can enjoy the flowers in the meantime.

Mangetout pea, 'Golden Sweet'

A number of other annuals have begun to flower this week, including marigold, Calendula officinalis. The petals of this make a nice addition to a leafy salad. We sowed two different strains of marigold last year, one dwarf, the other tall, but the seedlings are of varied heights this year.

Calendula officinalis with phacelia behind

Self-sown field poppies, Papaver rhoeas, have also started flowering this week

Unfortunately, we neglected to pinch out the growing tips of the broad beans, so the plants are now infested with blackfly. As the plants are unlikely to produce a crop because of this, we cut them down.

Broad bean infested with blackfly

Also beginning to flower this week are the clary sage plants, Salvia viridis. This is a very long-flowering plant, well-worth growing as it remains pretty for months. The colourful parts of the plant are not the flowers themselves, which are rather unspectacular (if attractive to bees), but rather the bracts which appear above the true flowers. In cultivated strains, these bracts may be either purple, pink or white & all three colours growing together make a harmonious picture.

Salvia viridis, both purple & pink forms self-sown here

The lettuces are coming on nicely, 'Really Red Deer Tongue' is always a striking plant & makes a nice addition to a salad.

Lettuce, 'Really Red Deer Tongue'