Sunday 25 April 2010

How to be mean to beans.


Put bean seedlings into heated propagator overnight to protect from falling temperatures.
Next day have a leaisurely breakfast, it is the weekend afterall. Visit the hairdressers, browse in the shops.
Make the most of the incredibly hot sunny weather and have a nice lunch outside in the sun.
Comment on the heat and how it is far too hot for digging on the allotment. Open the greenhouse door to ventilate it...now (and only now) take the time to remember the beans in the heated propator that is still on, despite the inside temperature of the greenhouse being 30 degrees! Aarrrghh...congratulations you now have cooked plants with very shrivelled leaves; leaves that look like they will never recover.

Feel guilty for being so forgetful and pot said beans up into nice homemade compost, water well and leave in a cool shady place in an attempt to help them recover. They will surely be thankful and you may just rescue them from the brink.

Go for a drink down at the beachside pub, the weather is so glorious it could almost be the Med! Come home,have a BBQ - the first of the year! Always a call for a celebration. Pop open a bottle of wine (or two, or maybe three!). Sit outside chatting and laughing and drinking, watching the stars in the clear sky. Comment on how it's a clear sky but it's been so warm you doubt it will be frosty... remember the greenhouse door needs closing. Comment on how cold it is now as soon as you move away from the heat of the smouldering BBQ. Now (and only now) take the time to remember that the beans you were letting recover from their extreme heat experience are still outside in this cold!

And I like to call myself a gardener?! I am hoping that the healthy root systems on my beans will be my saving grace and that they will ping out some new leaves in a few days....otherwise I may be starting my bean sowing all over again.

16 comments:

  1. Those beans don’t have any luck! I hope they recover, but I would start new seeds, just in case...

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  2. Yes, sow some more. They might look like they have recovered but they might not produce many beans. Very funny by the way!

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  3. Nobody is going to trade their cows for your "magic" beans.

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  4. I dont think I would have had the nerve to admit to all and sundry I killed off the beans!! They grow fast so another sowing would probably be the best as those have been held back so much they would probably develop a vegetarian form of rickets or berri berri!

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  5. I'm just about as forgetful as you. I left my greenhouse door open overnight a few weeks ago, and that was before the weather had warmed up. Luckily everything was ok.

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  6. I'm off to report you to the RSPBeans....its this April weather - cold, hot, rainy, dry, washing in, washing out, plants in, plants out - life is just one "in/out" combo at the moment!!!

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  7. What a thoroughly enjoyable blog post. Seems that you had a fabulous weekend even if the beans are a little worse for wear. Fingers crossed they pull through!

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  8. Hope that they are not has beans Nina. I live in terror of forgetting to close the greenhouse door at this time of year and have been known to get out of bed to go and check :)

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  9. Cook them first, grow them later ...

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  10. I know how you feel, the temperature fluctuates so much at this time of year,especially in the greenhouse, so don't feel bad, we all do it!

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  11. You know, we've all done something like that. I put my native lupines out for 'just a little' sunshine when they were small sprouts. I forgot about them when I became distracted by the 100 other things demanding attention in the garden. I came back to check on them hours later, and they were frizzled to a crisp. Never hurts to plant a few more. The advantage with beans is they do sprout rather quickly.

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  12. Thank you everyone for making me feel not quite so daft or annoyed at myself! The beans aren't looking too bad now considering what they've been through but I am going to heed all your good advice and sow some more just in case! I'd rather have a glut than bean plants with no beans.

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  13. Just saw that you won the photo competition on My Tiny Plot. I was thinking that I recognised the photo and then I realised why. Congratulations!

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  14. I've left you a message on MTP about kiiling beans... Congrats on the seed win! XX

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  15. Hello - there are a couple of awards for you on my blog. You don't have to accept them - just wanted you to know that I enjoy reading yours!

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  16. What a wonderful post - I do stuff like this all the time - so I feel much better now I know that I am not alone
    K

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