Crouchended
Life in Crouch End, bikes, trying to be green and other randomnessArchive for April, 2007
Climbing French Beans – the wigwams are made!
Building things and being constructive feels good. I get a kick out of it. I get a big kick out of gardening for this very reason, plus I get to eat the end product. I consider it a great use of a Saturday afternoon to build things, and this weekend it was wigwams made out of cane for my French Climbing beans to wind around and up.
The first set are in long pots on a patch of concrete….
I had a couple of bamboo canes left over which i’ve added to the Brassics raised bed at the back of the garden. 
I tied the canes using a technique i learnt a long time ago when i was a boy scout – i never thought it would ever come in useful.
I’ve planted two types of bean, Neckar gold, which have attractive yellow pods, and Barolotta di Riza which have crazy pink and brown mottled pods. I’ve planted lettuces in between every other bean to add some ground cover, i’ll add some herbs too once i have some from the germinator.
I see famous people
Crouch End is famous for people being famous. There’s even a blog about spotting them in the area. I once saw Simon Pegg outside Woolworths, but aparently he’s beginners level c’leb spotting.
Neigborhood Fix It
Neigborhood Fix It is a website launched by MySociety, an organisation that believes in using the web to build social capital .
Here’s the entry for Crouch End. In theory Haringey council shoudl respond to anything that is resported in the borough.
Potatos grown in buckets
The first of my early potatoes in buckets have reached the point where they can be left until there’s just the wait until the flowers form on the top, indicating that there are are lots of lovely new potatoes underneath waiting to be eaten. They are an Arran Pilot variety which I chitted at the beginning of March, and I’ve grown them in buckets – a method similar to this one – where each time the potato shoots come up, you fill in soil around them. This means the potatoes should grow along the stems. You know when the barrel is ready for eating when the potatoes flower on the top.
To help the plants, i have planted some bush beans, one on either side which you can just about see on the first picture.
Progress in the garden
Over the Easter weekend i strung together a wrecking crew of guys and we took my old rotten shed down – this solved the dangerous rickety shed problem – but also created a large pile of wood……
Hapilly, I have some room where I did have some empty beds, dying to have some raised vegetable beds put in. I’m experimenting with companion planting this year, and as you can see from the photo I’ve managed to put some of this into action already – the geraniums either side of the wooden ends of the bed are intended to catch attract hover flies that feed on aphids. The tomatoes are deliberately at the back to be shielded by the peppers in front which prefer the full sun. There some garlic there too which deters pests, and going in there later will be some basil, parsley, carrots and lovage – all beneficial.
Crouchended 