Borlotti stake out

Once more it’s that time of year for fiddling around with bean poles, jute twine and an open knife.

These poles I cut from our hazel coppice from two years back and still they are still going strong.

The soil in this plot is a bit on the clay side of loam and I hope the beans work their way out. I picked a load of stone out as I covered them and four rows of bush plants I put in. I also contour sowed four rows of cannellini on the terrace above that has a better/finer soil structure.

It’s tricky with beans: if the soil is too cold - below 12c - germination is slow and rot a danger; heavy rain and soil surface compaction is also a hazard. But leave it too late and the soil moisture is gone and the structure gone to dust. Fingers crossed.

An extra of the poles later in the falling sun.

As I churned around with the cultivator I wondered how they worked this difficult terraced land with ox-drawn ploughs.