I got a good clean up done in the veg patch this week, clearing most of the beds where there were crops that needed removing. Primary among these were the legume beds where I sowed peas, broad beans, dwarf french beans, climbing french beans and runner beans this year – all of these are long past their best in my garden now that the first frost have arrived. In my crop rotation, I sow the cucurbit family (that is pumpkin, squash and courgette) in with the legumes too. All my pumpkins and squashes are harvested now and curing happily in the potting shed. The courgette plants are still producing and don’t seem to mind the mild frosts we’ve had so far. I will leave them in place while the going is good.
The unused bean pods on french (climbing and dwarf) and runner beans are a great source of winter food if you are of a mind to save them – in fact this is one of those happy coincidences when my laziness is horticulturally correct so to speak, since they are best left to dry on the plant until the pod skins are papery. Before composting the plants (which I always chop with a shears before composting) I strip the pods from the plant and dragoon the children in to shelling them.
Clearing the beds like this is the first step in putting the beds to sleep for the winter. Next up comes my annual dithering over what ‘mulching’ material to use to cover all the beds (bare soil is, as Joy Larkcom says, outrageous!). I generally go for a layer of compost or manure and then cover down with black plastic – but I am growing a little tired of the sight of the black plastic covers in the winter garden (really it’s more than just the winter, it’s in place from November to May usually). So I might opt for a straw cover instead of the plastic this year. The fun just never stops round these parts folks.
