'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.