Hill of beans - surviving stormy weather with flying colours

18 juli 2015

When they start to grow, it goes fast! Every time I went to check on my beans, every time I found more pods and every time I got a bigger longing to see what was happing inside of them. It was really testing my patience this project. Like every project I start, and testing my fear of heights...

When I was hanging pieces of wallpaper on a 3 meter high metal thing on a wobbly ladder in the Grote Kerk two years ago, I promised myself I wouldn't make such installations again. Sitting on Koen's neck trying to get a beanstalk released from a ribbon, I remembered myself again to this promise. This promise failed already last year, when I choose the highest point on Vlieland as a viewing point for my work. What is it with making projects that involve this parts of yourself that you normally try to avoid? 

Beans pods!

24 july 2015

Flowers of the Pinto bean / Drentse Kievitsboon

28 july 2015

Arriving at De Kapeltuin I saw that my 'Bicycle-wheel on stake' was hanging skew ('scheef'). The windforce was about 8 and with every windflaw the stalks were working as sails. Not the kind I wanted though. The other 'Bicycle-wheel on stake' was good. The stalks grew more equal on every side which made it more closed up and therefor protected from the strong wind.

Standing on Freek upper legs I tried to get a rope around the bicycle wheel to make an extra guy rope. I couldn't reach it and remembering my promise. Instead of trying more risky moves, I went to the school next to the garden and just borrowed a ladder. 

With the extra guy rope the stalk hold steady and was ready for more stormy days...

Windforce 8

Monstrance bean reached the top

31 july 2015, skew but steady

Runner bean pods / Pronkbonen

Tiger Eye bean pod

7 August 2015

The Runner beans are getting bigger!

New guy rope is already in use

14 August 2015

The night before we went on Holiday (our first real Holiday ever), I couldn't sleep. I was not nervous for our vacation, I was worried about my beans! It was storming soooo heavy with downpour on after another. With my skew bicycle wheel in mind, I was imagine the stalks breaking, flying around, destroying De Kapeltuin and finding this plot in the morning that was visited by a tornado...

So before we start our journey, we went to my plot. Oh nooo, oh noo, went through my thoughts. And my plot was fine, just very wet, nothing else. I was so happy and ready to go on Holiday!

22 August

Blue sky, green beanstalk full pretty red flowers

Three "Hills" 

On 27 september from 14:00h till 18:00h everyone is welcome at De Kapeltuin to see the end of my project 'Hill of beans'. I will give a presentation about my project around 14.30h and 15.30h. Next to my bean-project you can get a lot of vegetables, seeds, herbs, honey & ointments from the garden on that day, so bring some pocketmoney! There will be music & poetry, food & drinks and the beekeepers will tell something about the Kapeltuin hive too.

See you Sunday 27 September at the Harvest Feast / Oogstfeest!

Hill of beans, climb - bloom - pod

18 June 2015

This year went fast. I was so focussed on making this project into a success, that I focussed on the end, getting my ripe beans, my harvest. And now the evenings are getting shorter, the warm deep colours of Autumn start to appear and I'm happy to tell you (spoiler alert!) that {a small} bean-carpet can be realized during the Harvest Fest. It's good that I didn't had time to update my site much in the meantime. Now I can look back and enjoy the progress again and get back those Summer days that passed so fast.

In my previous report on my project 'Hill of beans', I wrote about how I planted next to the beans different herbs and Marigolds to repel certain bugs and attract others. It's so rewarding to work on a location with so much life in it. On every pole & plant I found a Ladybug. And only on one plant I found aphis, and they were being dealt with by Ladybug babies (they look a lot less cute). My just starting plants couldn't get full credit for this. The maintenance of De Kapeltuin plays a big role in this healthy environment. They keep a lot of space around the plots for flowers like poppies & cornflowers. It's a feast for the eyes, but also a great bug-defence-system. 

Built it and they will come

Footprints after weeding

Everyone, or at least the greenies, told me that the Runner beans grow really fast. Well, I really had no idea how fast, fast can be. When the first beanstalk starts searching for the thread and they found it, its like this grow explosion starts. After one month they were only inches of the ground, but after 6 weeks the beanstalks already reached my shoulder. On week later they almost reached the top of the 'Bicycle wheel on a stake'. In 8 weeks they grew 5 meters! And then the fun begins trying the get the new beanstalks around the threads as well, counter-clockwise...

26 June 2015

View from the "right' side of my plot with 'Het Hooghuis' behind the trees

First curlers and climbers

Runner beans/Pronkbonen "Roomsche Boonkes" are really fast growers

End of June, beginning of July was a period of drought. So I watered the plants a couple of times, especially the upcoming herbs. I pricked out the seedlings of the Savory/Bonenkruid, so they needed extra attention. The other herbs had a tougher start and I replanted the Dille many times, but the ones that survived the drought started to bloom very quick. Plus point of drought is that you don't need to weed that much. 

On the evening visit on 3 July I found my first flowers on the Runner beans. Beautiful, pop (knal) Red. Only for this you would already plant these beans!

3 July 2015

Sun setting while watering the beans & herbs

First flowers

Runner beans are almost at the top

Beans not only grow fast, the bloom fast and they make bean pods fast. When the Runner beans reached the top on 12 July, I also found my first tiny bean pods on the Jacob Cattle Amish beanstalk. I was still waiting for it to climb, so I was very surprised finding not only flowers, but also pods.

12 July 2015

A lot of bright Red flowers on the Runner beans

These ones already reached the top

Tiger Eye flowers

Not all my climbers climb...

First tiny bean pods on the Jacob Cattle Amish beans

On 27 september from 14:00h till 18:00h everyone is welcome at De Kapeltuin to see the end of my project 'Hill of beans'. I will give a presentation about my project around 14.30h and 15.30h. Next to my bean-project you can get a lot of vegetables, seeds, herbs, honey & ointments from the garden on that day, so bring some pocketmoney! There will be music & poetry, food & drinks and the beekeepers will tell something about the Kapeltuin hive too.
See you Sunday 27 September at the Harvest Feast / Oogstfeest!

Hill of beans, first leaves & first presentation

27 May 2015, the beans are coming up!

Waiting for the beans to show their first signs of life was a long wait. I haven't mastered Wu-Wei, the Art of doing nothing, yet and after the 14th of May it was very cold for a few days. We had even some evening frost. So I was very happy when I got a message from Freek on 26 May (13 days after sowing) that my Runner beans were coming up! 

When I took a look on the 27th, it was not only my Runner beans, but all the different types of beans showed their first bits of green and some of the herbs had their first tiny leaves. 

Runner beans/Pronkbonen "Roomsche Boonkes"

Runner beans/Pronkbonen "Roomsche Boonkes"

Pinto bean / Drentse Kievitsboon

Savory / Bonenkruid

To prepare for this project I read a lot about beans as I mentioned in my previous post "Hill of beans, sowing the seeds". I borrowed this great book, the Organic Gardener's Handbook / Handboek ecologisch tuinieren by VELT from my friend Pieter and read it almost from cover to cover. I first only wanted to read about beans specifically, but wauw, that book has so much interesting information in it. All the types of biological gardening are described with their history and who invented what. For every vegetable is a chapter on how to sow them, harvest them and protect them and from what you need to protect them. Different herbs can be used to keep away different pests and attract insects that will do that job for you. 

Between and around my beans I planted Dille, Marigolds, Sage, Thyme and Savory. Herbs that help me to keep Black bean aphids and Bean flies at bay. Marigolds scare of nematodes in the ground and attract Ladybugs (I don't know if this is official, but it really works, they love these plants). The Savory is not only good for the taste, but also for the digestion of beans. So a lot of win-wins and they make it look pretty too!

5 June 2015

12 June 2015

On 14 June was the presentation of my project in progress during the Haagse Beemden Kunstroute. An Art-route through the neighborhood Haagse Beemden where people can visit studios, house galleries and exhibitions. It was the first edition for De Kapeltuin and I felt honored representing them. Next to my plot of beans, I made a small photo-exhibtion through the garden. Photos from the past and more present history were placed in a way you could see the now and the past. I also asked Freek, the 'gardenmanager', to exhibit his found ground-treasures. He showed me his small collection of special finds before. Unfortunately he threw already a lot away, but kept the special ones: A plastic big, shards of pottery & tiles, bones, unidentified metal & glass objects and a very scary toy Rabbit. He placed them on two pedestals in the garden. Visitors got a sense of the history of De Kapeltuin while enjoying the present, seeing my work in progress and getting an idea about what the Harvest Feast / Oogstfeest on 27 September will bring!

14 June 2015

On 27 september from 14:00h till 18:00h everyone is welcome at De Kapeltuin to see the end of my project 'Hill of beans'. I will give a presentation about my project around 14.30h and 15.30h. Next to my bean-project you can get a lot of vegetables, seeds, herbs, honey & ointments from the garden on that day, so bring some pocketmoney! There will be music & poetry, food & drinks and the beekeepers will tell something about the Kapeltuin hive too.
See you Sunday 27 September at the Harvest Feast / Oogstfeest!