Bean trench - best ingredients

**Eyren** · 15-02-2009, 04:51 PM

On "The Allotment", they lined the bean trench with cardboard and newspaper to retain water, then filled it with vegetable waste: cabbage leaves, potato peelings, etc. I would think that anything you can put in a worm composter would work well. No meat or fish, obviously, and I would avoid bread and cooked food as well, or it could get yucky and attract vermin!

**long pod** · 15-02-2009, 04:59 PM

hi i use all the above and a good layer of cow manure did a experiment once half cow and half horse manure the beans grown on the horse manure were of a lighter colour and the ones grown on the cow manure were of very dark in colour
regards long pod

**FionaH** · 15-02-2009, 05:33 PM

My mum used to swear by newspaper and potato peelings
I have both, and some part rotted compost in mine

**Two_Sheds** · 15-02-2009, 05:45 PM

The intention is to conserve water, not so much to feed the bean plants. Therefore, newspaper and cardboard is terrific ... it all acts as a sponge, soaking up water to provide to the thirsty bean plants

**Snadger** · 15-02-2009, 05:48 PM

I'm trying this for the first time this year. I have mixed emotions about it as because it isn't contained in a metre cube as a compost heap would be, I dont think it will fully rot down before planting time!
It is also a bit of an eyesore methinks.........a bit like an open drain.

Mine has cow muck, horse muck, chicken muck, straw, woodshavings and any vegetable waste that it is infeasible to put through a chooks digestive system first!

With the plan this year to adopt Geoff Hamiltons ornamental kitchen garden theme with the emphasis on the plot looking good at all stages, the bean trench appears to be a bit of a 'blot on the landscape'!

Seldom daunted, I will persist and see what effect it has on my crop of beans this year!

**coreopsis** · 16-02-2009, 08:24 AM

I'll add another question:how deep the trench should be?

**Two_Sheds** · 16-02-2009, 08:42 AM

about a spit deep, maybe 2

**Flummery** · 16-02-2009, 09:36 AM

I will probably do what I've done before - plenty of paper and then put in the part-rotted stuff from my Daleks. The well rotted stuff will have gone everywhere else I need it and it's a useful place to plonk the semi-ripe. I also put in the dredged-out pond weed one year (I left it by the pond for 24 hours to let anything wriggly get back into the water though). You don't need to feed your beans - they are fixing nitrogen so don't worry about the stuff not being completely rotted.

**Alison** · 16-02-2009, 12:13 PM

I put the contents of a finished bokashi bin in last year and got a very good crop off the French beans which I planted on top. By the time I dug through at the end of the season all the stuff out the bin had disappeared even though it was quite recognisable when I put it in there back in the Spring.

**BarleySugar** · 16-02-2009, 05:18 PM

I had 2 wigwams of runner beans last year, one with finished bokashi, one without. I got loads more beans from the ones planted on the bokashi, so I'm using paper this year with bokashi on top.

**Gwen11ian** · 16-02-2009, 05:57 PM

Snadger - Couldn't you just cover it with a few inches of soil? When/if you want to turn it, just turn the soil into it and cover with a new layer. Also will help keep things insulated and speed decomposition.

**Creemteez** · 21-02-2009, 08:36 PM

O.k, I'm going to ask.... What is a Bokashi???

**Beetroot Bob** · 21-02-2009, 11:04 PM

I was thinking the same so I google'd it :
Bokashi Bucket and Bran From Bokashibucket.co.uk

**maytreefrannie** · 22-02-2009, 09:24 AM

I first heard of bokashi from the Vine, have been using them since October last, still learning, but I think they're a good investment. They take the cooked stuff that can't go on the compost, they reduce the amount of stuff going in the dustbin and hopefully the resulting compost will do good in the garden (I haven't grown anything on the area where I spread the bokashi results yet).

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Bean trench - best ingredients

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