I have planted in my garden beans and peas and pickling cabbage

My balcony with peas, beans and rocket sticks

I met a giant in England who gave me a handful of beans

Well not quite. There was no giant, just a friend, and also there is no cabbage, but the beans and peas are busy climbing up the balcony. They will soon be in the trees, making their way to the land of giants, but their first stop will be the neighbour up above me.

When I was in England I helped both my Dad and a friend in their gardens. Dad’s beans and peas we planted together at Easter, at Whitsun I helped my friend plant the same.

Dad’s garden is huge so there is always a spot left to stick in the last few beans in the packet when the rows are full, but my friend’s garden is small so the peas and beans that were over were given to me and I have decided to have a go at veggie growing on the balcony.

It is not a very sunny spot but it is sheltered and warm so I thought it would be worth a try.

I arrived back from the UK in the late evening of June 4^th and immediately stuck my handful of seeds in the very wet compost wherever I found a space between the geraniums and the passion flowers. Within a week they were not only showing their first green shoots, some of them were six inches high. And just look at them now after only two weeks.

At the weekend I will be asking the neighbour upstairs to tie some strings to his balcony railings and drop them down to me. Any veggies that grow his way he is welcome to pick, I will be thrilled to see if something grows at all. I will be working away from home some days during the height of the summer so my gardening efforts may not come to anything but it is fun just the same watching them grown almost as quickly as Jack’s magic handful grew. They will make a lovely foliage covering for the green men to hide behind.