Nine Bean Rows

Last years' tomato vines in the tunnel have been reduced to crunchy brown leaves with clouds of botritus (the powdery grey fungus spores you get on fruit past its sell-by). Help is on its way for the clear out – and to bring a much needed trailer load of well rotted manure. ‘If you don't have New Zealand flatworms already, you will now'. The need for manure outweighs the vileness of picking out flatworms, which are basically like small anchovies that cannibalise the good earth worms.

The bean rows – and by sheer accident there really were only nine - of last years' runners are still clinging to the bamboo poles. (The photo is tomato vines and a few french beans, the runners were outside of course). I don't actually remember eating a single one as they were a tough, leathery variety, but the flowers are always gorgeous. It looks like there is an inversely proportionate relationship between flower-gorgeousness and runnerbean-edibile-ness.