[chris23005]

Morning all! I have returned from a week's holiday in Cornwall (glorious weather and magnolias and camellias looked wonderful!) to find that some of my seeds have sprouted and some have not! This, despite me putting them outside in a sheltered area as I didn't have anyone I could leave a key with to come in and water!!! Even the coriander has sprouted which I had given up on.

Question:

There are only the two of us here so we don't need masses of veg. Only two Dwarf French beans have sprouted (variety The Prince) and one broad bean plant. Will that be enough do you think, or should I plant some more?

Many thanks

[Debz]

Really depends how much you like those beans.  You can always freeze the extras and be able to eat them into the autumn / winter time.

[LivvyW]

I wouldn't give up on the beans yet, some of my broad beans came up 2 or 3 weeks apart and all were sown at the same time. Have a look underneath, the roots seem to show a long time before anything on top.

[savbo]

think you'd need a few more french beans (which I think crop repeatedly) and a dozen more broad beans - only get a meal's worth off each plant

[jazzbyrd]

Hi Chris ...

There are alot of depends on this one!!

Do you have an allotmentment or are you limited for space?
Do you grow veg in containers only.
With dwarf beans I would say that one plant might give you two small helping at harvest time. Of course they go on to produce more.
If you can I would grow more dwarf beans. If you were to sow some more now you would have a staggered crop.

Jazz

[chris23005]

Thanks all. In answer to your questions:

No allotment, just a bit of space in the garden. Can't go mad because OH is busy planning and planting the rest (he is parks and gardens, I am fruit and veg  )

Have got some things planted in containers (e.g. potatoes) and plan to put some Gardeners Pearl tomatoes in hanging baskets

Have given over quite a bit of the raised bed to strawberries and garlic, and a gooseberry bush which was past its best when we moved in has been dumped but the layered bits have given out about 7 new plants which we plan to grow espalier style at the back of another bed. Also my raised bed also currently contains some plants which are waiting to be transferred to another bit of the garden.

So - no room for rows and rows of beans etc.

Think I might plant a few more and they will crop at a later stage which gives the original ones chance to grow me another couple of meals worth.

many thanks - brain a bit mushy today - combination of hayfever and holiday lag!!!