by John Waters

Created on: February 21, 2009   Last Updated: March 01, 2009

My great, true, personal garden story: My personal account

JACK AND THE BEAN SHOOT (A tale from Dorset England)

For once in my life I am going to do something properly. This was my resolve to develop my gardening career after inheriting a small extra patch of vegetable garden. Where I live the late fall is a good time to plant broad beans. My old man used to do this and his crops were awesome to behold, I was going to try and do the same.

My first job was to clear the ground which had become somewhat overgrown. My little patch of nine hundred square feet took two back breaking days to clear of grass tussocks and weed. Then another day barrowing and spreading a ton of farmyard manure and another two days deep digging and burying it. The end result was satisfying even though my aching back made it hard to straighten up enough to appreciate the results of my labor! However, the old jackdaw on the fence seemed to approve, he and his mates had been taking it in turns to keep me under observation, I thought they were after worms and bugs turned up by my spadework, well they were, but that was only part of the story!

Next to buy the beans from my local garden store. The store had them in packets at 1.50 a packet and I calculated thirty packs should do the trick(Forty Five pounds plus twenty pounds for manure delivered, these beans are starting to get expensive) Back home the sowing began in earnest the same day. Remembering how my old man planted I raked out shallow troughs six inches wide and two inches deep and scattered beans evenly along these before backfilling and firming down. Again the sentinel jackdaws were there watching in a scene reminiscent of "The Birds" by Hitchcock. There alone in the dusk of a late October day they waited and watched as I wearily went indoors for a bath.

With the hard work behind me the aches and pains were soon forgotten and replaced by the thrill of watching for the first green shoots. Sure enough they appeared within just a few days and grew at an unbelievable speed. What a crop this would be, we should be able to fill the freezer. Then disaster, I went out one morning to find bare patches where bean shoots had once been and, as I stood there wondering, a neighbour called from over the fence. Old Prim(short for Primrose) was an elderly lady and a retired market gardener. "Tis the jackdaws be avin yer beans John" she said, "I bin watchin em all morning" My answering "Thank you" concealed my muttered "Why didn't you tell me you old crone"

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