[DD.]

Hi Digger Dave,

Thanks! I have eventually got the message.
But give me one more piece of advice about the bean seeds I have already planted - including the 2 that are reluctantly peeping through:

Should I leave them or throw them out and start agin in 6 weeks time? And then in the greenhouse, or straight out in the waiting raised bed (where sweet peas are growing already to protect the runner beans?

Its a great forum for advice

I'd leave them, keep your fingers crossed, at least you've still got more than ample time to re-sow.

[milkman]

....well I never actually have my ruler with me at the plot, so I just dig a hole as deep as I can with my handfork - how deep it actually is I couldn't actually tell you - a ruler's depth was an approximation - but I never have trouble digging my spuds up with my big fork...

[WG.]

Do you earth them up milkman, or leave them on the flat?

[milkman]

Well I refill the hole with the soil that came out of it to dig it.

Then when the green shoots show through I mulch them at least once (twice if I can make time) with a thick layer of whatever I can get my hands on - usually compost and grass clippings.  Have tried newspaper as well in the past but that was too much faffing around for me.  Might try straw on top of the compost this year 'cause we sell it in our shop.  

If it's gonna be frosty and the shoots are through I cover them up with fleece.

[king cauli]

i thought a ruler was someone in charge and a rule or measuring tape or stick was for measurement,i am the ruler and i rule