beans meanz problemz?

Collocations:

Horse... Carriage.

Strawberries... Cream.

And..

Beans... Fickle!

What you want to achieve is simple....
Start with dried bean. Germinate and grow to healthy plant. Grow more beans. Next!

Actually, there seems much that can make germinating beans seem really frustrating.

So, let's get positive and talk about how to do it properly.

First, place dried beans on to plate lined with kitchen roll and moisten and cover overnight.

Return to beans next morning and add more water, ensuring each time that only kitchen roll is moistened and beans are not submerged.

Check morning and afternoon (ish), add more water until beans are fully reconstituted and water collects on plate - then add no more.

Next - sniff! Beans can go funny quickly and smell worse than broody hens. Be prepared to give the beans a gentle wash in a jug with running water and place back onto fresh moistened roll on plate and cover.

The beans should then germinate, as these beauties have. It may take a number of days to get to this point. Be patient. If you've got nothing to do, sniff your beans!

The next step is to plant out in trays in peat free compost. Cover - rodents are the enemy!!!!! Mice must be kept at bay!

Bring beans on and let their stems get nice and strong before planting out. In wet weather especially, the disgusting slimy jaws of slugs and snails will chop the baby plants off 'at the knee' if they go into the ground too soon. Hugely discouraging for bean and gardener.

Then, watch them grow!