SAGA — Doing things properly

Meet Val Bourne

Val Bourne is an award-winning garden writer, photographer and lecturer. Val writes for The Daily Telegraph, The English Garden, Homes and Gardens and Saga Magazine and she is also the gardening correspondent of The Oxford Times.

Latest Q&A

'Why are my runner beans failing to crop?' Acclaimed gardening writer, Val Bourne, advises a reader on successfully growing runner beans

Gardening Q&A archive

• Drought-resistant plants that can be left for the summer

• Fragrant plants

• How - and when - to divide perennials

• How can I make August bearable?

• How do I treat aphids?

• How to liven up a rose bed

• I want to grow some vegetables. When can I start?

• I want to plant a hedge but I'm not sure what to use?

• My garden looks very soulless and bleak in winter. How can I improve it?

• What's the difference between a climbing rose and a rambling rose?

• Why are my runner beans failing to crop?

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Reader comments

Please can you tell me why many of my courgettes are going "bad" at the flowering end before they are grown fully? This is happening on each of my 4 treasured plants.....2 in individual tubs, 2 in the ground. I am so pleased to read about the reason my runner beans are not cropping this year. Many thanks.

Posted by: Mavis Wright | 05/08/2008 17:39:13

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