I've never grown 'banana' shallots Roofy only the normal type, 'Red Sun' is one of my favourites but the banana ones look as though they would be milder & easier to prepare for cooking. I have grown dwarf runner beans ages ago though, they were 'Hestia', I seem to remember the beans weren't much smaller than normal but the plant was more compact. I grew them in a very large deep, round plastic pot, you do need to keep on top of the watering though with runner beans.

What a lovely display, SueA. I may backlink to it once I get my Onion thread going.

Interestingly, I reckon my runner bean pot is just a BIT smaller than yours. Similar diameter, but not as deep.

As ever, you and Daitheplant have given me food for thought.
Or... perhaps more accurately, thoughts for food !

You "Ahem" him Di.

I beg your pardon Roofy

Does anyone have any recipes for Heron ?

Another idea for you to consider Roofy for growing in pots is Swiss chard or Rainbow chard, here's a couple of pics. of pots I grew years ago, easy to grow, look pretty & similar use as spinach/cabbage.


You said you wanted your salad leaves to mature all at the same time, this is a pot I used to grow in at the old house, quite shallow & wide, if you sow fairly thickly they should all come up together & if you just snip from different parts & leave about an inch at the bottom of each the leaves should regrow. If you just want one harvest you could grow mini little gem lettuce which I grew in a raised bed last year.

For your runner bean problem you could try growing some which are supposed to be completely self-fertile so not reliant on pollinating insects. I've grown 'Firestorm' this year which are one of these, they have red flowers & I think there's one with white flowers called 'Moonlight' (you could grow them as a tribute to her! ) I've also grown a few sweetpeas in the same pot as runner beans in the past as they attract pollinators, they grow up the canes with the beans.

As winter approaches, many of you may be turning your mind to storage of gardening brick-a-brack. Plantpots, seeds, tools, bags of compost and mulch and similar, hanging baskets, and all the paraphenalia of the modern Gardener.

Of course, the word "storage" covers a multitude of sins. Some people regard their entire greenhouse (if they have one) as a storage dump in winter.Rosie simply tips her entire garden, house, and street into her giant 60' Polytunnel Aircraft Hanger. Moonshine uses the Summer House, and Daitheplant uses Northumberland.

Me ? Well, I can store some plantpots and compost sacks etc on the bottom shelves of my auxiliary greenhouses. But the BULK of it goes into my two Garden Storage Bins.

The correct usage of Garden Storage Bins.

1. Firstly, choose your bin carefully. It must be made of flimsy plastic, but at the same time be very large, AND HAVE WHEELS. This means you will be tempted to fill it up, and then MOVE it (hence the wheels), at which point it just disintegrates under its own weight, scattering your precious Gardening Irons all OVER the place.
2. When placing stuff into the Garden Bin, ensure that the small stuff is at the bottom. If you MUST put things into little plastic trays or crates (to organise the storage space), then ensure that these trays/crates are made of VERY flimsy plastic, and have VERY low retaining walls. This ensures that they will fold in half when you try and pick them out, and will scatter their contents liberally everywhere.
3. If you have followed item (2) above, then you SHOULD find that all of the things you need for Spring are right at the bottom, meaning you have to pull everything out to get at them. (spilling all the trays and crates in the process). With everything now jumbled, and all your plantpots no longer nested inside each other, your stuff takes up more space, and will not fit back into the box. This will require several heavy plantpots to be put on the lid, in order to force it back down into an approximation of the "closed" position.

Well, thats how I've been doing it SO far. But..... no longer !

I have purchased another two storage boxes from Aldis (attractively priced at £15 each). I've also bought some neat little expanding flick-crates from Wilkinsons. (they're like deck chairs... they start off as a flat piece of plastic, but with a simple flick of the wrists, some bending and forcing, and quite a bit of hysterical cursing, they fold out into several broken pieces on the floor. After glueing it all back together again, they form a usefull 12" deep plastic crate, which you can use to 'compartmentalise' your storage boxes.).

Armed with these reinforcements, I am going to re-pack my existing two large storage bins.

Nothing will be more than 50% full, unless it is internally compartmentalised by broken plastic crates. This means I should be able to access my things really easily and without hassle, If something is at the bottom, I just have to lift out the plastic crates until the desired objects are revealed. No more spilling things and jumbling stuff up. No more bulging lids held down with plantpots.

And this is just the beginning. Wait till you see what I've done with the Polytunnel !

(to be continued).