Bean Trenches

Dirty Nails has just finished filling the second of his runner bean trenches with compostable kitchen waste. Trodden down, then covered with the excavated soil, the decomposing waste will ensure plenty of goodness for this summer’s runners. He has dug his trenches along a shed and fence that receive plenty of sun, because he likes to grow his runners as an edible screen.

Trench-composting consists of digging a ditch one spit deep (depth of a spade head) and filling it with rottable refuse. Discarded vegetable matter can be added bit by bit over time, and will break down slowly. When the trench is full, cover over with soil. Locked-up goodness is gradually released below the soil surface in the ‘root zone’. This is exactly where crops, including hungry beans, want nourishment most. Runner bean seedlings will eventually be planted outside in mid-May at 8 inch (20 cm) intervals, so the trench must be dug to the desired length according to the number of individuals that are to be grown.

Well-rotted farmyard manure (FYM) can also be used for this method of feeding veggies. It is a superb alternative to the contents of the compost bucket, but can be a little harder to come by these days.

Lettuce

In the greenhouse, or indoors, Dirty Nails has been sowing lettuces. Iceberg Talia, or Lobjoits Green Cos, are ideal for sowing now in trays of moist compost. As soon as the second pair of true leaves are forming he gets them out into the sunniest spot possible. Dirty Nails pegs plastic bells over his first outdoor lettuces, which brings them on a treat. With a bit of luck these lettuces will be ready for cutting and eating by late April or early May. This is one of those early-season moments that makes life worth living.

Natural History In The Garden Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers are making a noise this month. They will be busy in surrounding big trees, communicating with each other. Both the greater and lesser spotted varieties use trees as sounding boards. The greater has distinctive red feathers at the base of its tail, and is both bigger and more common than the blackbird-sized lesser. The drumming noise is made by rapid blows of their beaks on branches, and up to ten drums can occur per second. Greater spotted ‘peckers have a deep repeat which fades at the end. The lesser is higher pitched and stops abruptly.

Vegetable Snippets: A Look At The Lettuce

Lactuca serriola still grows all over Europe, North Africa and the temperate parts of Asia. This plant is the wild predecessor of all the multitude of different types of cultivated lettuce. In Britain it is commonly known as prickly lettuce. The Ancient Egyptians are believed to have been the first to begin domesticating this plant, and it was extremely popular by Roman times. Known in those days as vinegar salads, lettuces were served as a first course at banquets, and eaten with great gusto on account of the supposed aphrodisiac qualities contained within the leaves. By the fourteenth century lettuces were being widely cultivated in Britain.

As well as being nutritionally useful sources of vitamins A, C and B9 (folic acid), potassium and iron, lettuces also contain small amounts of a narcotic not dissimilar to opium. It is this which has earned these leafy saladings their reputation for aiding restful sleep. In Beatrix Potter’s story The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies the rabbits who raided Mr McGregor’s vegetable patch succumbed to these soporific qualitie.