My first harvest of french beans. I always grew just the climbing beans – not runner beans, only any other, like Blauhilde or Hunter. Last year I tried for the first time the dwarf variety and was very pleased with the result, I had a great harvest, they just kept producing.

This year I started the dwarf beans in the greenhouse, as I did all the others but I planted them in one of my raised beds (this variety is called Safari). The soil in the beds doesn’t come up to the very top so the plants were nicely sheltered. I even covered them with a mesh, in case the pigeons wanted to have a nibble.

They grew well and the result is today’s picking.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse things are speeding along. The tomato Tigrella is doing great; I can see why it is called this, even though it is still green.

Another great result is the cucumber. These are Marketmore and I had them last year and was very happy with the result that’s why I decided to have another go. I know they’re an outside variety but I was very happy with last year’s result that I decided to grow them inside the greenhouse.