Week 52+24 - Bed EX2

Week 52+21 - Bed EX2

Week 52+7 - Bed EX2

The section of the bed in the foreground is missing some garlic and a few onions, probably due to curious or hungry birds pulling them up.

The onions have started to produce the third and fourth leaf.

Week 52+5 - Bed EX2

The onions and garlic have grown slowly but steadily over the winter. Some of the bulbs have been pulled up, probably by birds, leaving gaps in the rows. Even if we had additional bulbs remaining it would be too late to plant these varieties.

The heavy rains over the winter damaged the texture of the soil, creating a hard crust which causes water to run off the bed instead of soaking in. The cracking of the crust can be seen in this (blurry) photo of the young onion plant.

The garlic plants are growing fairly well but are not as large as the onions.

Week 49 - Bed EX2

Three weeks after planting the garlic and onions have started to grow.

Week 46 - Bed EX2 Planting

We cleared all of the dying plants off of this bed to prepare it for planting overwintering onions and garlic.
This bed was originally dug less than 6 months ago as a rough lazy bed by turning over the sod and loosing up the surface without adding any additional fertility. A very quick method of starting a garden, but not the best for the first planting. This time double dug this bed and removed a number of large stones and many smaller ones that had formed a hard pan about 25cm below the surface. This would have prevented the roots from easily reaching deep in the soil and restricted the availability of nutrients and water, reducing the yield and possibly stressing the plant during droughts. The original sod was mostly decomposed, but remnants of the roots still remained.
We mixed in approximately 60L of well rotted horse manure and created a relatively smooth seedbed into which we sowed one long row each of:

• Messidrome Garlic - a large overwintering garlic variety, with regular bulbs that are pink or pink marked.
• Red Onion Sets - overwintering bulb onion (not sure which variety).
• Senshyu Onion Set - a Japanese overwintering variety, semi flat shaped with yellow/brown skins which mature in late June.

Week 40 - Bed EX2

Two nights of significant frost in the past week have put an end to the growth of this bed!

The foliage of the french beans has been seriously damaged and the leaves are becoming dry and crumbly.

The same has happened tot the runner beans. There will be no more growth for eithrer of these crops, but the existing beans seem unaffected and are edible. The situation is not so bad as the cropping of the runner beans has slowed down substantially in the past few weeks.

Most of the pumpkin foliage has died back, but some of it was sheltered by the beans, and may continue to grow. Hopefully the three pumpkins will mature a bit more, though it is unlikely that they will turn completely orange.

The squash plant has suffered more damage as it was out in the open, but no fruit have set on this plant all season anyway, so we pulled it up.

Week 38 - Bed EX2

The plants look healthier now than much of the dust has washed away.

The squash plant continues to grow ...

... but all of the fruit have failed to set.

Beautiful long runner beans blowing in the breeze.

We have been watching this pumpkin grow over the past few weeks ...

... but only noticed the second and third fruit this week, which are the same size as the first but have been hidden by the dense foliage.

The yellow Neckargold Climbing French Beans are small and curved upwards ...

... and the purple Blauhilde variety are larger, more oval in cross section and straighter.

Week 37 - Bed EX2

A huge harvest of runner beans, perhaps 3 times more than we picked last week.

Week 36 - Bed EX2

Part of the bed is so full that is difficult to pass along the path, and the runner beans have almost reached the top of the 'tree' which is almost 240cm high.

The squash is quite a dense but not very big plant, though no fruit seem to have set.

A substantial harvest of runner beans from one week's growth - we had picked everything last week.

The beans are also ready to pick, though in smaller quantities. The dust from the nearby construction site can be seen leaves of this Blauhilde Climbing French Bean, and no doubt is affecting the harvest and health of all of the plants in the area.

Week 35 - Bed EX2

The bed has really filled out, especially at the far end.

An immature fruit from the Blue Ballet squash, that may not have been pollinated ...

... and one Connecticut Field Pumpkin has set and is starting to swell in size.

The runner beans are ready for picking 14 weeks after planting.

There are many purple flowers of the Blauhilde Climbing French Bean and a few small pods are forming.

Week 33 - Bed EX2

The beans are growing well and the pumpkin at the north end of the bed is growing faster than the squash in the foreground.

No fruit has set yet on the pumpkin plant, hopefully this flower was pollinated yesterday.

The french bean flowers are only starting to bud ...

... and the runner beans are in full flower with the first of the pods starting to form.

Week 31 - Bed EX2

This bed is starting to fill out, and in need of some weeding.

Some of the runner beans have reach almost 90cm up the line ...

... the French beans are a bit slower but bushier.

The Blue Ballet Squash is starting to spread out with reasonably small leaves.

The Connecticut Field Pumpkin is growing well beneath the beans ...

... with vines and tendrils starting to stretch out, ...

... and has started to flower. this female flower was open yesterday, hopefully there was a male flower open as well for pollination.

Week 27 - Bed EX2

The squash plants are starting to spread out.

The runner bean plants are starting to climb up the lines.

Week 26 - Bed EX2

Finally tied in some twine for the runner beans to climb up, each line tied to a stick pushed into the ground behind the bean plants up into the 'tree'.

The runner beans are doing fairly well, despite the cool and wet weather, though some of them have been eaten by slugs.

A couple of lengths of twine have also been tied in to complete the 'tipi' for the climbing french beans (pole beans).

The beans are starting to extend upward and will start to wrap around the pole shortly.