French bean seeds were planted towards the end of May, and potted on, planting into well manured ground on 8th June 2018,  In 6 weeks these were ready to start picking.

Three varieties of French Beans are ready for picking.

Purple Queen at the top, Saxa on the right, and Kinghorn Wax on the left.

Saxa variety – 10lbs picked so far (21.7.18), 5lbs now blanched and frozen, the rest have been eaten! The Dwarf French bean ‘Saxa’ (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a strong variety that seems to give a good crop and can be harvested early.  The Kinghorn Wax (Phaseolus vulgaris) is also an early to late, stringless, dwarf French bean, but a lovely yellow in colour. 2lbs of these so far (21.7.18).  The Purple Queen, dark purple in colour, turns green on boiling.  However this seems to be a later variety and the pods are still developing.