Day two. A bit clearer

So day two of the clearing is done and a weary family of 5 have retired for the evening.  The bean frames have been dismantled as even just walking past them made you feel you were in mortal peril.  This got me to thinking which manner of supporting climbing beans is best.  There were several disadvantages to the system installed by the previous tenant.  Although substantial is scale the frame I dismantled today took around 2 hours to remove.  Surely not conducive to healthy crop rotation.  The bottom to the frame was difficult to get to with a hoe which as far as I’m concerned is absolutely essential to good gardening and finally, the material used to put the thing together were a mix of timbers, rusty metal poles, stiff wire and duck tape.  As a family of 5 ranging between 3 and 6 feet there was a poke in the eye waiting for all.  The decision was taken to remove the frames and opt instead for long canes lashed together at the top with some twine.  Call me old fashioned but there are several reasons I choose this method.  The first is that in my experience tepee style canes pushed into the ground are pretty strong.  I have never had significant problems caused by high winds.  The main reason I think is that the wind can pass around and through the tepee.  As the canes we use are usually 8 feet long there’s no chance of a poke in the eye and most importantly for me they are easy to move when the time comes. 

We also planted out first row of seeds today in the shape of some lettuce.  Despite the drought I wanted to experiment with whether any of the 2 watering cans of water I put on the 6 foot long row will have been held by the soil. 

The clearing of out little orchard began in earnest where we found beneath the weeds we had a sea of debris to shift from wire to glass, house bricks to old hose pipe.  With the bean frames shifted and the orchard clearer its an excellent place to sit and have a picnic or survey the rest of the allotment with a cuppa.