Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
April 30, 2008: May, the month of great expectations
This week, Terry Walton welcomes the queen of gardening months and creates a slug-safe home for his runner bean seedlings
May is upon us! We say goodbye to an April that brought many unpleasant surprises to the life of a gardener. There were very cold winds, hail, sleet and even a few flurries of snow which were not welcome on any allotments. However April left on a high note with gentle rain and very warm sunshine.
The colour of May to me is blue! This is not the mood of the month but the colour from the prolific flowers of forget–me-knots and elegant bluebells. The forget–me–knots fill the borders with a mass of self-sown plants which spread their delicate blue tinge everywhere. While the bluebells throw their carpet of colour down among the dappled shades of copses and hedgerows as the green canopies continue to be filled by the tender green lushness of the ever-emerging leaves. They give a fluorescent glow to what would otherwise be an uninviting spot.
What a glorious picture Mother Nature paints! This sight stirs the reluctant gardener into action during what is probably the busiest period in the gardening calendar. May brings great expectations and soon the last remaining dormant plants will be coaxed into life by the prospect of a thriving summer ahead.
This time of the year is when my favourite vegetable is ready to be sown. Yes! I am,like many others, a great fan of the runner bean. These grow upwards to the heavens as they produce the most bountiful crop in the minimal amount of space. They are also one of the most attractively growing vegetables producing a wonderful green wall interspersed with the clusters of bright crimson blooms held aloft an their long slender stalks.
These days, with the ever growing varieties of runner beans on the market place these red blooms can be replaced with whites, pinks or a mixture of the prime colours never seen in my youthful gardening days.
My beans do not start their life sown directly into the soil. Oh no! I don’t intend to provide a tasty meal for the rodent population or a fleshy munches for a marauding slug.
Mine are planted using the well trusted Walton method. They are germinated in plastic bags mixed with moist compost. Clear plastic bags are filled with moist compost and the beans mixed in well. The bags are sealed and hung in the greenhouse to germinate. In a matter of days the little white roots will emerge and they are then ready to be planted in three inches pots where they can continue to grow into sturdy plants to be planted outside at the end of May, when the threat of frosts has passed.
These will then provide tasty meals from mid July until early September. There is nothing more satisfying than to pick a handful of young tender beans, slice and cook them, add a knob of butter and a slice of fresh bread for a satisfying lunch after a morning of pleasure on the allotment.
These with a little tender care will provide more than your present culinary needs and the surpluses can be sliced and frozen to provide a year round feed during those dark winter months and help recapture in your mind’s eye the pleasures of the summer past.
The days of May will bring great joy to allotment life as the seasons expectations grow and the plot changes with every sunrise. It makes the entrance through the allotment gates quite an adventure as we look to see what has emerged through the surface of the soil bringing more pleasurable moments into our lives.
More from Terry Walton
- April 22: pumpkin planting time
- April 15: springing back to life
- April 8: a sudden cold snap
- April 1: April fools?
My life on a hillside allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon
