We stopped picking runner beans last month as we just could not keep up with them. We eat as many as we could, and we gave away as many as we could, but we will had more. I’m not sure why I planted so many of them. I decided instead to keep the remaining pods on the plant and wait until they died off so I could use them for seed instead. This worked for a lot of them, but it was getting to the point that the beans were falling over due to the bad weather and it was all looking a bit messy and looking like it needed tidying up for the winter. That bed now just has some sorry looking leeks which got over shadowed by the beans and the squash plants. The squash plants have gone too, we had great promise of some late butternut squash but a lot did not come to anything. The ones that did we really late to grow and small, apart from one giant strange looking green squash which I’m really not sure what it is!

We spent an afternoon podding the running beans for the beans. A lot had not dried out so they won’t be that good, but everyone had fun podding and playing with the resulting beans.

I gave the decking a quick clean and the garden looks much tidier that it did, a lot less overgrown. In the other bed we still have some turnips but it is mostly field beans as green manure. I’ve covered it over with netting with the on going battle against the squirrels.