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Hi Jacqui, I grow Borlotti and other beans for drying each year. I tend to leave them on the plant as long as possible, so when I harvest them they are fairly dry already. I pod them then leave the beans out on trays under cover for about a week. I then put them into plastic tubs (takes much less space than the trays!) in my kitchen without the lid on – and every now and then I give them a toss to brings the lower ones to the surface. I guess I leave them like this for about 2 weeks (maybe longer as I tend to forget about them) before closing the lids. I’ve never had any go mouldy.
I live in France and something I have learnt from my neighbours is to store them semi-dry too – they are delicious and cook much faster. Harvest them when you have a good sized bean, pod them and then simply bag them up and freeze them. No need to further dry them, blanch or anything else.Andrew, I planted two espalier apples three years ago against the wall of an 1700’s stone building. It was exactly as you describe – full of all sorts of rubble. I planted bare rooted one year old whips into holes as Charles recommends (just a little bigger than the roots required) and the trees have done very well. Each year in autumn I mulch with well rotted manure.
I tried this two years ago – had two small raised beds to fill. I used coarse sawdust (from untreated oak planks that my husband had planed) in a layer of about 10cm, then topped it with another 10cm of compost and manure. Initially the strawberries I planted straight away did very well, but as the year progressed the level of soil dropped dramatically (as the sawdust composted?) and the strawberries languished (as the sawdust used up the nitrogen to decompose??)I kept topping up with compost, but ultimately took the strawberries out, mulched again with compost and left the bed empty until the following year. This year it was perfect! If I were to do it again, I would either make compost first as Kevin suggests or fill the beds and leave them for some time before planting.
Maybe Charles or others have had more success though?Could it be leek moth? I’m in France where the moth causes a great deal of damage similar to your description. There has been discussion about them on this forum, so clearly a problem in the UK too. No part of the lifecycle occurs in the soil. Local friends recommended alternating rows of carrots with leeks, but sadly, that did not help. I’ve found the only solution is to cover my leeks with mesh until the end of September.
Thanks for your interest and encouraging comments!
The raised beds total about 42sqm. I probably put about 50% manure in when I started, so roughly 4 cubic metres. Each bed is 120cm wide and 20cm deep. I’ve added another photo to show you a better view of the beds.
I also have what I call “the pumpkin patch” which is an additional area of about 60sqm, divided into 4 sections in which I rotate potatoes, pumpkins & squash, onions, sweetcorn in each quadrant each year – this frees up the raised beds for planting everything else. We have a superb climate here (summers can be very dry though) for growing everything outdoors, so I don’t have a greenhouse or tunnel.
I’ve enclosed an aerial photo to show what it looks like – you can see how hot our summers are from the dry grass in the orchard!My successful garden is thanks to you, Charles! Your books and web information have been an invaluable resource.
The first year I only got the raised beds ready in June, so I landed up planting immediately into the manure which was dry and clumpy too. I broke it up by hand (it was quite a task!!) into smaller clumps and then forked it into the minimal amount of soil I had in the beds. It has been much less work in subsequent years when I put on a thick layer in autumn and I don’t fork or dig it in at all.
I don’t know about your area, but we often get a late cracking frost at the end of the April, so I don’t plant anything tender (tomatoes, peppers etc) until the first week of May. I find Charles’ sowing timeline is perfect for our climate.
I’m attaching a photo to show how my potager looked last summer only with the manure feeding the soil – no additional fertilisers. I am really thrilled with it 🙂I’ve been “no-digging’ in SW France for four years using cow manure with great success. I’m in the Périgord Noir ( near Sarlat) When I started my raised beds I really struggled to find ‘bonne terre’ A neighbouring farmer offered me as much manure as I was prepared to dig from his winter barn and I’ve never looked back. The first year I piled in a huge quantity of it in to fill the beds (probably 50% manure!) and mixed it in with the poor quality soil I had. I had the most amazing crops!!
Now I use Charles’ method of laying a thick mulch of manure on the beds in autumn. I just spread it on roughly and by spring even the big lumps break down easily. I give it a cursory rake to smooth it out a bit, then plant straight into it. It works really well! I use nothing else – no fertilizers etc.
The manure is sometimes quite lumpy, other times it has lots of straw. Depending when I collect it, there is sometimes some fresher stuff mixed in with older, but I just use it as is and it works fine.
I don’t add any other mulch during our hot dry summers.