BROAD BEANS -- BLACKFLY 1 -- BED/3: 20 October 2002
An October buyer of the Mr Harris's manual laments being too late to start off broad beans according to the head gardener's regime. This dictates an R J Harris broad-bean bed created at the start of the September moon's third quarter, a first seed sowing in the bed at the start of the October moon's second quarter, and a final seed sowing elsewhere in the bed at the start of the November moon's second quarter. This is the foundation upon which is based a total moon-oriented management programme, the reward for which is a broad-bean harvest commencing in the early Spring and extending over two or three months. Pages 9 to 16 of the manual refer.
Mr Harris comments: "There is always 2003, of course, to do the job fully and properly. Even so, there is no reason why something should not be attempted this year, late as it is.
"If it were me, and it was the end of October or early November, I would choose a decent piece of weed-free ground not used for broad-bean propagation for some longish time before, prepare and feed its surface according to the manual's instruction, and then make a seed sowing in November at the start of the moon's second quarter.
"Then I would manage developing plants and their bed as described in the manual, expecting to start harvesting in April and largely clearing the plants just as the first signs of blackfly attack appear.
"The harvested pods would always be young and tender, carrying only immature beans. They would be so young and tender, in fact, that pods as well as young beans would be eaten -- and raw, too, as well as cooked."
The head gardener adds: "Moon management is all well and good when it is possible. The alternative to it must never be nothing. Better to make shift, do what can be done and achieve some kind of return rather than not try at all."
Mr Harris acknowledges that 'making shift' in this way brings in its train a fundamental loss.
The all-important R J Harris BED/3 is not created. In turn, this makes impossible the launching of the head gardener's four-year crop-rotation system -- the system that demands the establishment of the two and possibly three kinds of R J Harris bed by the end of the September moon's third quarter.
"That means waiting for the best part of another year," he agrees. "But never mind. The wait is worth putting up with, for once the whole system as laid down in the manual is begun and then continued, the garden surges forward, producing results it has not been able to produce before, probably."
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