Catching-up

Lovely sunny weather for a couple of days now. So time to cut the grass and try and make things look a bit better. The left-hand deep box is now about full.
The potatoes are all from last year, stored in the fridge over winter. I put the rest of them in the box by the balcony, with last year's molta.
I never got around to starting the beans indoors so I just soaked them overnight and then planted them out - see what happens. Once soaked French beans and Borlotti beans look pretty much the same (and I had already forgotten that I had soaked both!) so they are mixed together in the box.

J. Artichokes still here	French salad potatoes x4	French salad potatoes x4	French salad potatoes x4
Moonlight x5	French salad potatoes x4	Premier x2	Premier x2
Moonlight x5	Masterpiece BB x4	Italian BB x4	Italian BB x4
French beans x9	French beans x9	French beans x9	French beans x3 Black Kale

Beans, beans, beans!

The weather is still not very spring-like. Finally got around to sowing beans indoors today. I have always had 4 broad beans per square and that seems about right to me. In Mel's book it says 9 per square for bush beans, and 8 per square for pole beans. So with this in mind I sowed enough for 9 per square - except the Masterpiece broad bean which will be 5 per square (mostly because I had run out of tray space!). That is the plan at least, assuming they all come up.
The Masterpiece and Moonlight beans are old ones from last year or the year before. Moonlight did not do well last year but I am giving it a second shot.
The Borlotti beans and some broad beans called Aguadulce Supersimonia are ones which I bought from a farm shop near Derby. They are Italian so may not be suited to this climate.
The French beans are from a Nordic company It will be interesting to see how they perform.
Below is the plan as I see it. The empty spaces will be for carrots.

Jerusalem artichokes	Moonlight runner beans x9	Broad bean Masterpiece x5	Broad bean Masterpiece x5
French bean Lord Nelson x9	Borlotti bean x9	Broad bean Italian x9	Broad bean Italian x9
French bean Lord Nelson x9
Rainbow carrot  x16	Rainbow carrot  x16