[kingdhesiii]

Does the trench idea apply to both beans and peas or just certain types of beans? Im only growing about 6 sutton broad beans and about 4 of the french beans that ill get from the digin seeds. Will these need a trench.?
Many thanks John.

[mumofstig]

It's only for climbing beans, where sometimes it is easier to keep the frame in the same place year to year.
So yours won't need trenches

[kingdhesiii]

The sutton broad beans are a dwarf variety anyway. But I thought the trench part was to trap in moisture, surely by logic this would apply to all beans and peas then wouldnt it. If you can understand where Im trying to come from.
The french beans are climbers that come with the digin seeds. Its all geting a little confusing now. Thanks for any help tho. John.

[DD.]

Climbing beans, (including French Climbers), have far more foliage per plant than dwarf ones or peas and thus need more water.

[kingdhesiii]

Ill only be trying about 4 french beans, just to try. It might be better to try those in containers then maybe.?

[DD.]

They'd do well in containers.

[Sharonx]

How deep and wide do you need to do the trench?

[Zippy]

So long as you put enough compost onto the soil for worms to pull down and keep the soil moist, there is no need to dig trenches or fill trenches with kitchen waste.

Its a hark back to olde times when people buried their kitchen waste (including meat scraps) and grew on top of it. Now we make compost in bins and give our meat scraps to the bin men.

[mumofstig]

Although old, there is nothing wrong with the system IMO:)
That kitchen waste would not be rotting in the compost heap in this cold anyway,and it's got to go somewhere. It is not considered a good idea to put meat scraps in nowadays....but it would still all rot down anyway
I save my finished compost for areas where it is more appreciated

[jolly jen]

the first year i never dug a trench .and hads a really bad attack of black fly,and they plants seemed to get a disease,last year i dug a trench, filled it with my veg peelings and fruit,and plenty of newspaper,and they grew well.
but remember not to use your spud peelings,
i will be digging a trench again this year ,i have been saving up my peelings and egg boxes in my kitchen compost bins.

[PennyS]

Thanks chaps this is very helpful.
I've grown runners for years and have never dug a trench, so this year I'm going to do one.  I've got some nice stuff to put in the bottom, need to dig the area first though.
It'll be interesting to see what difference it makes.
I'm still debating though, what type of frame to use ....

[Carol]

I also find that at this time of year, I have loads of material to compost (the old sprout leaves, leek tops, prunings from the garden), and even though I have 5 daleks I run out of space. 

I put all the partially rotted stuff from the top of the daleks in the trench, put the fully rotted stuff as a mulch around the plants that really need it, then start fresh with at least a couple of empty bins.

So apart from being good for the beans it makes space in the compost bins!

[Sharonx]

Hi - Could somebody tell m how deep I need to go and how wide for this trench. Keen to get this started, but don't want to be digging any deeper than I have to! thanks.

[peapod]

Hi - Could somebody tell m how deep I need to go and how wide for this trench. Keen to get this started, but don't want to be digging any deeper than I have to! thanks.

Dig about a spades depth, the width ..probably only about half a spade to a spade head  length

[Kristen]

Hmmm ... does putting "old leaves from Brussels" and "hard to rot stalks (Brussels / cabbages / Sprouting Broccoli) interfere with crop rotation?

Or is it not different to composting them and spreading them all around the plot anyway?

(If it looks diseased it won't go in either place, but I'm thinking that putting specific plant material, complete with any attached bugs, into next years Brassica plot (Brassicas-follow-Beans) might be trouble?)