Beans, lettuce, peas, carrots, lettuce, radish, courgettes and yet some more lettuce and a surplus of courgettes yet to come… is this the average English vegetable garden at the moment?

I discovered our first runner beans today. They were cunningly hidden amongst their healthy green leaves and dots of red flowers busy with bees. So satisfying to serve up your own freshly picked produce. Perhaps I’ll roast some courgettes in garlic butter (last years garlic still going strong) as well.

The humble runner bean, so easy to grow and probably the highest yielding crop for the amount of vertical space that they take up. One wigwam of runner beans can supply several pounds of produce over the season. Yet the same space  may only give you half a dozen or so lettuces.

As a native to Central South America, runner or climbing beans, were introduced into this country during the mid 17th century by plant hunter and then gardener to King Charles l, John Tradescant. Although initially only as a decorative addition to the herbaceous border and not as a vegetable.

I wonder if it was a young under gardener who sneakily took the first bite and then ran home with a handful of these strange long pods to his mam who in turn, chopped them up, boiled them and fed them to her ravenous family of twenty six.

I am often curious as to who it was to first discover whether something was edible. Or not.

I had meant to write about the gratifying abundance of bumble bees this year. I have noticed how some plants are almost overwhelmed with them - Monk’s Hood (Aconitum napellus) and Lavender especially. (Plus my runner beans!) I wonder if they will take over from our declining honey bee?

Ah yes, the reference to Gladioli : Ravioli, in case you were wondering… Donna, mobile hairdresser extraordinaire, on seeing a vase bursting with the tall blowsy stems of Gladioli exclaimed that they were the only flowers that she knew the name of because they sounded like Ravioli!