Growing peas and broad beans against wall

[markalexander_99]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum, so hopefully I'm doing this right!

I have recently moved into a new house and have runner beans, peas, mange tout and tomatoes either germinating or in a cold frame. Shortly, I'm planning on planting them out against my garden wall (see attached photo). It's south facing so should get some good light/heat.

Do you have any ideas of how to train them? I think netting might be slightly messy with the tree in the way. There are old nails and hooks towards the top of the wall. Perhaps I could run wire across and then attach hazel stakes going down to the ground?

I have never grown against a wall like this so would really appreciate any tips!

Many thanks!

[Gary350]

My experience with growing beans is, pole beans produce about 50% less beans as bush beans and they are 3 times more work. You have to put up something for beans to climb on then you have to take it down & remove vines an clean up the mess. If you plan to save your net or poles then you need a storage place until next year. I would plants 2 rows of bush beans, 1 row about 8" from the wall, 1 row near the front 8" from the grass with seeds 3" apart in each row. If your determined to do poles put up 5 or 6 evenly spaced poles 6 ft tall in a row down the center then put your net or fence wire on the poles. You have to spend $$$ on fence and poles that you don't need to spend with bush beans.

[imafan26]

I only grow vanda, dragon fruit, and creeping fig on a solid stone wall. Most plants do not like a hot solid wall
1. Not enough air circulation
2. If the wall gets hot, the plants will wilt in midday from the reflected heat
3 Unless the wall faces south, there will be shadows cast so the plants will want to lean away from the wall.

If you want to plant in that space, and it is south or east facing, you can put up poles and put trellis netting between the poles about 24-36 inches in front of the wall. Trellis netting is hard to clean so I only use it for one season and then cut it down and toss it. For a more permanent trellis, I have 7 ft x 10ft concrete reinforcement wire. I wind the ends of the wire around two 18 gallon pots which make about a 30 inch circle cage on each end. In the middle I can place two more pots. I can put temporary construction fencing around the bottom and bird netting over the top. I still have problems with the tomatoes since they go trough the netting eventually.

If you want to grow vining crops regularly, it is better to have a permanent trellis rather than a temporary one. I had a nice trellis made like a pop up tent frame. I used 8 ft fencing posts for the posts and conduit to form a peaked roof. Rebar was cross tied to support the roof and CRW was used as a roof. It allows heavy gourd and pumpkin vines to crawl on top. I can still plant some shade plants under the vines. The sides had a removable CRW wall. It was 10x10 and I could opt to plant warm season crops like corn instead and not plant any overhead vines.

I use stacked tomato cages for cucumbers and to support peppers and eggplant.

Florida weave is another option, but I find it is too much work. I prefer to cage tomatoes since it does not require pruning.

Trellises need to be erected at the same time the plants are seeded or transplanted out. It is hard to erect the trellis or train them after they get too big.

[applestar]

I’m guessing you are in UK since you said “mange tout ”. This is the flat kind we call “snow peas”? They typically vine and grow to 5-6 feet.

Peas could be dwarf 18” to 24” or typically about 3-4 feet, or tall 6-7 feet.

Runner beans can vine and grow as tall as 10 or more feet.

May need to consider containers for tomatoes — Tomatoes could be the short bushy patio/container type or dwarf 3-5 feet (20-30L), or bigger typical 6-7 feet or really tall indeterminate 8-10 feet. (For these, will need 40-60L+ EACH)

Need to know which varieties of peas and tomatoes you are growing.

... only viable location I can see for runner beans in the pic is that roofed structure midway — I’d like to see that from s different angle and need more description of that area re: sun exposure and what vine is already growing there, but I could see potentially sowing the beans in the bed to the right and setting some bamboo canes in the bed to train the beans up to the overhang.

Ref: runner beans growing up the bathouse pole Subject: Applestar’s 2018 Garden

[applestar]

BTW, it’s my personal conviction that you need to plant peas where you can walk all the way around them. They are very, VERY good at hiding, and to find all the pods, you need to do a sort of ritual dance around them, turning and bobbing your head, bending from waist and occasionally bending knees as you walk slowly ... at least TWICE ... around the plants.