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!

Hill of beans, sowing the seeds

The beans are already reaching for the skies. So time for an update here. 

My previous post 'Hill of beans, project at De Kapeltuin' shows the empty plot for my 'Hill of beans' project from 1 February till 24 April 2015. This post shows the preparation for sowing the seeds and waiting for the seeds to finally show their leaves from 8 till 22 May. 

Before I could actually sow my beans, I did a lot of research about beans. In general, about the specific beans I was planning to sow, about expressions and rituals with beans.

I found out great things and with every new find, my project grew.

First explaining the title: 'Hill of beans'. Watching the classic 'Casablanca', feeling quite disappointed about this classic, I was sitting on the edge of my seat when Humphrey Bogart says to Ingrid Bergman: “Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.

What a perfect expression, but what does it mean. 

The mundane bean has for at least eight centuries been regarded as the epitome of worthlessness. Which is really strange regarding the fact that one bean makes many. So having beans makes you in a way very wealthy (or at least not hungry).

The original sense of hill of beans was literal. For example, a book on rural affairs by one J.J. Thomas dated around 1858 used it in describing how to grow lima beans: “A strong wire is stretched from the tops of posts placed at a distance from each other; and to this wire two diverging cords from each hill of beans are attached”. A little drawing alongside makes clear that the writer is referring to the mounding along the row of bean seeds.*

The belief is that the expression 'hill of beans' comes from the fact that if you sow your seeds, your beans, and one bean doesn't grow or has a disease, the whole 'hill of beans' was worthless.

Because we still use this expression, making something so valuable for so many people in this world, sound like an unimportant thing in life, I wanted to use this as a title for my work. Showing with my 'Hill of beans', the wonderful growth of beans, their many colours and beautiful drawings and of course their nutritive value 

Second, the date for sowing the beans. Beans like it warm, even so warm that they could easily be a solution to our global warming-foodproblem, so the temperature needs to be stable and no frost.

Everyone was saying I should plant them after the Ice Saints, because then there is almost no risk of ground frost anymore. Reading in on the subject, I not only found out that the day after Ice Saints was the best day for sowing beans, but it was also called 'Boondag' ('Beanday)'. I never heard of this before, but the last of the Ice Saints is the day to honor Saint Boniface. In Dutch Saint Boniface is is Sint Bonifatius. In Brabants this is easy pronounced as Boon-i-fatius, so boonman (bean-man). There are all these expressions like "Wie bonen wil eten, moet boonman niet vergeten", meaning something like "If you want beans in your place (or face), don't forget Saint Boniface", to tell you to thank this man if you want your beans to grow well. So the Feast of the Ascension, Hemelvaartsdag, became also my bean-day.**

And then I had to wait for my first beans plants to reach the surface...

8 May, second 'Fietswiel op staak' placed

13 May, organizing beans

13 May, organizing beans

14 May, sowing the seeds-day!

14 May, the beans are in the ground (somehow many pictures are made of em sowing the seeds, but I have none of them, yet)

21 May, making little bean-paintings as signs and using wooden ladles as herbs signs

Bean signs

22 May

22 May, added different 'noise' making objects and shiny bows to keep the birds from my beans

Replacing the plastic signs, collecting rocks and picking plants on the wrong places

The signs are in place

Detail of bean-sign for the 'Soldaatjesboon'

* More about the expression 'Hill of beans' on World Wide Words 
** Information from the article 'De waarheid achter het Heilig Boontje' on the blog 'Boon in de tuin' (in Dutch) 

Hill of beans, project at De Kapeltuin

Last year I got a suprize email inviting me for a kind of residency at De Kapeltuin, a community garden, in Breda (NL). 

They saw a ricecarpet by me in the very beginning of my still short career. Contemplating how to proceed with my ricecarpets, my temporary ephemeral organic carpets, after my projects in England, it come at the perfect moment. I didn't just wanted to make a work on location, I wanted it to grow on location. I made a plan and happily it was excepted.

The carpets that I normally make are made with materials I just buy at Toko, supermarkets and organic stores. In Cambridge and London I experimented with waste from pubs and given materials from homes. Resulting in different, interesting works on maybe even more interesting locations (see "Quid Pro Quo: Negotiating Futures" and "Practices of Sustainability, Étude #1 and Étude #2").  

How can I make my work more sustainable, is the question I'm asking myself. So I'm making my own materials. I'm planted the seeds and with the harvest I'm making my temporary carpet.

So sowing the seeds, reaping them and taking care of the plants till harvest. A seed to seed project.

To stretch this cycle even further, the seeds I use for the temporary carpets, are selected on the quality of the seeds. So people can take the seeds with them during the Harvest festival and plant them again.

They not only take a seed with them, but also a little bit of history about De Kapeltuin. Every seed together tells the whole story. So in this way, people get invited to share. 

It's more than a harvest to eat. It's a heirloom, captured in one seed. 

Last week my seeds went in the ground. I will share the growth of my project here, starting with a little photo-serie of my empty plot. From 1 February till 24 April 2015. The last photo is of Koen and Freek placing the bicycle wheel on a stake in my plot. The ending of the empty plot, but the true start of my project 'Hill of beans'!

On Sunday 14 June 2015 you can visit De Kapeltuin during the Haagse Beemden Kunstroute and I will be there to tell you about 'Hill of beans'. 

More information on www.haagsebeemdenkunstroute.nl/sabinebolk (in Dutch)

 1 February 2015

 16 February 2015

 21 March 2015

 18 April 2015

 24 April 2015

Freek & Koen placing the 'Fietswiel op staak'

Rangoli carpet at Reclaim the seeds

On the 28 of February 2015 I made a little temporary carpet at Reclaim the Seeds. This seed exchange and protest in one was held in Driebergen (NL). In a little parade of minds alike, I arrived at the locations which was gorgeous.

I made my little carpet in the Cityplot tent. This great organization from Amsterdam is an inspiring group of people who give workshops in growing your own food, seed saving and worm farms. I went to a seeds saving workshop to prepare for my 'Hill of beans' project at De Kapeltuin in Breda (NL) and really got a lot of inspiration from it.

For my carpet I used as a pattern logos of the companies that try to patent seeds and are polluting our planet with pesticides. The materials I used where to be used the next they to make a 'Rangoli-soup'. A perfect little protest against the people who are making our food dangerous for use and our surroundings.

Next to making the little carpet, I went collecting beans from my upcoming project 'Hill of beans'. The beans I shopped, I selected not only on their pretty colours and patterns, but also on the way they grow and the ability for me to save the seeds. I did a lot of reading, and since then didn't stop learning about planting beans, ecological gardening, the history of De Kapeltuin, seed saving and other kitchen garden related facts.

Tomorrow, Thursday 14 May 2015, I'm going to plant my selection of beans at De Kapeltuin. 

You can visit De Kapeltuin to see my project grow or check out my website for updates!

Reclaim the Seeds at Driebergen

Preparing the Cityplot stand

 Making my Rangoli carpet

Selecting beans for 'Hill of beans'

Ready to make the soup!

With this post I would also like to thank Ann Doherty of Cityplot for inspiring me to make 'Hill of beans' and letting me join in at Reclaim the Seeds. 

Thanks Reclaim te Seeds, see you next year for sure!

 For more:
- Article in Dutch "Reclaim the Seeds in Driebergen druk en geslaagd"
- Website De Kapeltuin www.dekapeltuinbreda.nl
- Website Cityplot www.cityplot.org