Bean there

In our garden, my quest to squeeze in a few edible plants continues by planting courgettes and an outdoor cucumber.

We are growing two courgettes with one in a large pot in the sunny yard and a second on the edge of a flower bed, where it can be encouraged to grow along the top of a low wall.

The cucumber has been hardened off and is out in the garden in a sheltered sunny spot against a wall, where it can be supported by wires. I haven’t grown a cucumber before, so it will be interesting to see how it does. I suspect that, like the courgettes, it will need a lot of water once the fruit appears.

Other tender crops to have gone outside this week are tomatoes and lettuce.

The lettuce is almost ready to harvest and this year has been put into containers near the house. I’ve tried growing it out in the flowerbeds, but it is soon engulfed by the beefy perennials and forgotten about.

This time it will be easy to step outside and pick a few leaves when we need them. Where ground space is limited, we have found tumbling tomatoes to be a good choice, as they ripen easily and provide fruit for months. Last year we were picking from July until the first frosts in October. Just one plant is needed in a lined 14-inch hanging basket put in a sunny place.

Broad beans are tougher plants than the tender specimens that have only just gone out into the garden. Ours went out as young plants in mid spring, although they will happily over-winter outside, and are quickly growing up their support of bamboo and twine.

White flowers appeared early and so far the plants have stayed free from the attentions of black-fly, although I’m sure it won’t be long before these aphids colonise the tender new shoots they love so much. The broad beans are in a small bed dedicated to fruit and vegetables which, although only two feet by six feet, still accommodates garlic, a gooseberry bush and rhubarb. A few chard plants will be squeezed in too once they are ready to go out.

Weekend catch-up

NOW is the time to cut back spent flowers from early flowering eupohorbias. Take each stem back to the ground, but keep the new leaves that will already be appearing at the base of the plant. These will carry the flowers next year and will also provide a clump of interesting foliage through the summer. Make sure bare skin is covered up when doing this job as the milky sap burns on contact.

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther with Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Eric Robson, Matthew Biggs, Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithinbank help members of Leven and Brandesburton Horticultural Society near Hull with their gardening problems.

Friday.

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Eric Robson and his team advise gardeners in Aberdeenshire.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Toby and Alys look at brightening up the borders and Carol explores members of the carrot family. Also, a report from Great Dixter on how the garden is faring since the death of owner Christopher Lloyd.

Open gardens

Tomorrow.

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme.

Hartforth Gardens, Hartforth, four miles north of Ripon. Two village gardens open. Easingtown garden has a series of walled gardens, mown paths, a wildlife pond, small copse, rose garden, potager and wildflower meadow. The garden at Number 1 Hartforth has wide borders, courtyard with pleached hornbeam, woodland, rhododendrons, reclaimed stone water splash and pond. Open 11am-5pm, combined admission £5.

Hunmanby Grange, Wold Newton, 12.5 miles south east of Scarborough. Three-acre garden created from an open field with hedges and fences providing shelter for a series of gardens planted for year round interest with seasonal highlights. The Wold Top Brewery is also open. Open 11am-5pm, admission £3. Also open today 11am-5pm.

Jackson’s Wold, Sherburn, at the traffic lights in Sherburn take the Weaverthorpe road then the right fork for about a mile and follow signs for Jackson’s Wold. Two-acre garden with views of the Vale of Pickering, borders, old shrub roses under-planted with perennials, woodland paths and a vegetable garden with a Victorian greenhouse. Open 1pm-5pm, admission £3.

Millgate House, Millgate, Richmond. Award-winning walled town garden overlooking the River Swale and packed with roses, clematis, hostas, ferns, small trees and shrubs. Open 8am-8pm, admission £2.50.

The Old Coach House, Elvington, on the B1228 eight miles south east of York. Two-acre garden with long borders, hostas, wildlife pond, vegetable garden, rose pergola and enclosed flower garden. There is also Elvington fete on the village green. Open noon to 5pm, admission £3.

Old Sleningford Hall, Mickley, five miles north west of Ripon. Nineteenth-century garden with the original layout with woodland walk, lake, watermill, Victorian fernery, herbaceous border, walled kitchen garden and newly developing forest garden. Open noon to 4.30pm, admission £5. Also open today 12pm-4.30pm.

Swale Cottage, Station Road, Richmond. Half-acre garden on a sloping site with enclosed garden rooms on different levels, organic fruit and vegetables, pond, orchard and adjacent paddock with sheep and hens. Open 1pm-5pm, admission £2.50.

Wednesday.

Parcevall Hall Gardens, Skyreholme, off the B6265 Pateley Bridge-Grassington road. 24 acres of land in Wharfedale sheltered by mixed woodland, with terraced, rose and rock gardens, mixed borders, fish ponds and the old orchard for picnics. Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5pm), admission £5.75 adult, £4.75 concessions.

Riverside Farm, Sinnington, four miles west of Pickering off the A170. Cottage garden surrounding farmhouse with lawns, island beds, old roses, pond, orchard and amenity woodland. Open 1.30pm-5pm, admission £3.