The other day I realised as I was planting my runner beans that when I had harvested my hazel bean poles I hadn't harvested nearly enough!
But then again I have increased my growing since I cut them down!
To solve this problem I went to see what we could harvest from what trees we had planted. The willow coppice is growing well and although I pulled out a load of poles when I was teaching some bushcraft sessions last summer.
The downside with this is that willow always wants to grow! Just push it in the ground and you'll create a tree!
Not what I want in the middle of the veg garden! This is where I got my little team of helpers in and a few veg peelers.
In truth they didn't really need the peelers, it came off so easily, they really loved doing it and were disappointed when they had stripped the 30 odd poles I needed!
These are now in the garden ready and waiting for the french beans to climb them (Cherokee Trail Of Tears)
Can't wait to see them covered in beans! my runners already have flowers in the polytunnel and the ones outside are a good 3ft high in places! I'm predicting a bumper harvest this year out of the garden!
What do you use for bean poles?
I love the look of the bean pole you created. Wonderful helpers you've got there.
ReplyDeleteI need to research and see if I can grow willow, as I enjoy creating these sorts of structures for the garden.
Happy transplanting!
Thank you! Yeah, I love the bean poles, I have to touch them every time I walk past! Hopefully we'll have plenty of beans from then this year!
Deleteand they still might grow! willows love to set root.
ReplyDeleteI really hope it doesn't!
DeleteCoppicing is a great rural craft to have.
ReplyDeleteYes! and produces soem many great materials we can use on the smallholding!
DeleteWe used an old A-frame from a swing set, covered in netting for a bean fence. Seeing your offspring tearing bark off willow reminded me of my uncle showing us how to make willow whistles when we were kids - it involved bruising the bark on a short section and sliding it off in one tubular piece, cutting various holes and shapes in the stem part and sliding it all back together again.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a really fun project! I might have to look into that one and see if it's something we could do together!
DeleteI do recall you have to do it in the spring when the cambial layers starts to grow again and is very wet and easy to loosen the bark from the stem inside. You cut a piece about the length and diameter of an adult woman's middle finger (I'm looking at my hand as I type to try and gauge a size) - without any shoots coming out of it (ie smooth bark).
ReplyDeleteYou chamfer one end (the end you will blow from), and on the front you cut out a notch where the whistle hole would be on a recorder. Then you tap it all over with the handle of your pocket knife to bruise the bark and make is slide away from the stem. You have to cut a slice off the front of the stem above the notch (so the air you blow can get into the whistle), and (this is where is gets hazy) - there is cutting of some sort required below the notch, but I seem to recall not all the way to the bottom. Eventually you slide the bark back onto the stem and whistle it. Haven't thought about that memory for over 50 years. Do let us know if you ever work it out. (F)