Admitting Defeat ... At Least With The Beans

Well, I've finally give up on the idea of growing my own beans from seed and last weekend I bought a selection of plants to replace the failures, my 'Last Man Standing' finally got munched in the week. It was either that or miss out having anything this year.

Due to the restricted space within the one foot squares - it makes for a bit of a squeeze when planting. This is something to consider when creating your SFG in the first place and when planting it up. You need to be able to get to each of the squares fairly easily, so need access from all sides. Either that or practice your flexibility and balance by stretching across from one side to the other or standing on the edge boards.

It's now planted up with Runner beans and French beans I got from the Springwatch Event last weekend. It's a bit blustery out there, so they'll need a little persuasion to climb up the poles as they get started but once that's done, they should be off and climbing. I've got all of three beetroot seedlings and just three tiny carrot seedlings, oh and I think there's one Ruby Chard emerging.

I don't know whether it's just not been a good year for seeds, with a mix of sun, rain, wind and cold or if I'm just not good at seeds! I also realised that the purple sprouting broccoli haven't emerged either. Probably too late in the year to plant more of them now. I think I'll definitely start seeds off in pots first next time.

There are a few hopeful looking plants coming up in the salad trough, in the sections where I planted salad, rocket and spinach. Time for the next lot to go in to keep the succession going - not that there seems to be much for them to succeed.

There are two lovely new flowers on the larger of the courgette plants and lots of small courgettes coming through pretty quickly, so I'll be keeping an eye out for those pesky snails

I've had to move the tomato plants around. The Ailsa Craig was looking very sad so I've replanted it in a separate pot and replaced it with one of the rapidly growing seedlings of unknown variety. The two of them are looking far healthier than the one's I bought at the garden centre.

More snails collected and dispatched to the park.