Well, my French climbing beans have been growing incredibly slowly this year. I planted them on May 2nd, just before the weather suddenly turned cold and then I had to pull them up again and pop them in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks! Then I planted them out for good on around May 20th.
Since then, they really haven’t done a lot of growing. I thought perhaps I had dwarf French beans by mistake, but they have started to wrap themselves around the bean poles. But they’re not much bigger than they were when they arrived.
Looking back at it, they’ve had a difficult start… very strong, cold winds in their first 2-3 weeks, followed by lovely warmth, and then some more strong winds followed by what has been a surprisingly chilly, damp spell. It has almost felt autumnal the last few days, and I don’t think the poor things know if they are coming or going!
Hopefully the warmer weather that is forecast for the next week or so will give them a chance to finally flourish. If not, there must be something wrong the soil/compost in their raised bed – fingers crossed!