Gardening: Children will never forget that Jack and the beanstalk moment | Brian Kidd

JPNS-04-08-12-121 GARD STRAP RUNNER BEANSJPNS-04-08-12-121 GARD STRAP RUNNER BEANS
JPNS-04-08-12-121 GARD STRAP RUNNER BEANS | Other 3rd Party
Do you love runner beans? They are the most popular vegetable, enjoyed by millions and provide a great deal of fibre and taste to our cooked meals.

Home-grown are simply the best and even children can taste the difference.

This is a good time to sow the seeds and a nice little job for children.

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Take a sandwich box and put a sheet of absorbent kitchen paper in the base. Wet it and spread out the beans, then cover them with another sheet of wet kitchen paper.

Now put the box somewhere warm and dark and have a look at the beans 24 hours later. You will see that they will have swollen which means they are absorbing the water.

About a week later a little root will emerge from the bean; this means that bean will grow.

So each one with a root is now put into a little pot or into plant cells which fit into a standard seed tray.

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If the beans don’t produce a root, the seeds were no good. Compost won’t be wasted...

Why bother?

If children do this, they will be interested right from the start and will eagerly await the shoots to appear.

Then they can help put up the eight-feet-long canes in the garden so the bean plants can be planted after May 21, the safe frost date in Portsmouth.

Children like to see things happen quickly and in the case of runner beans, they grow with great speed.

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Ask a child to stand alongside a bean plant and put a label at the height of their head. Tell them to look at the plant every day and their imagination will immediately focus on Jack and the beanstalk!

If you don’t have a garden, use a little bit of imagination. Do you have a path? Yes? Why not grow some runners in a growing bag?

Get someone to help you fix seven garden canes eight feet long feet long on to a wall in a fan shape.

Place the growing bag on its side underneath the canes and make sure the canes can be gently pushed into the bag.

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Slit the bag along the top leaving three inches in the centre so the compost won’t fall out when watering, then plant one plant or two seeds under the surface of the compost beneath each cane and water afterwards.

In three weeks the seeds will have germinated but if you planted seedlings they will have grown up to nine inches in three weeks. Yes, they do get cracking.

You don’t grow vegetables but prefer flowers?

Why not grow some runner beans on a wigwam in the flower border? No-one will notice but you will have a magnificent pyramid of foliage and flowers or an attractive background. Remember to use eight-feet-long canes.

Think about the colours on the flowers. White, red, pink even bi-coloured flowers resulting in delicious runner beans the children will enjoy because they planted them!

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Bees adore the flowers and pollinate the blooms so that we can enjoy this wonderful vegetable.

THIS WEEK’S TOP TIP

Daffodil and tulip foliage is a pain when planting summer flowers and you won’t be the only one to pull it off! Please don’t. The best way to encourage bulb leaves to die naturally is to remove the dead flowers and seed heads.

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