How to grow a French bean wigwam

With their pretty red flowers and luscious foliage French beans are the perfect climbing vegetable. They’ll add colour to your vegetable patch or garden borders, provide height and produce a bumper crop.

You'll need

● Six or eight garden canes at least two metres high
● wigwam grip or garden string
● compost
● broom handle
● trowel
● fork
● watering can

French bean seeds can be planted straight into the ground after the final frosts at the beginning of May, but for a faster, more reliable germination rate plant indoors on a sunny windowsill. Sow one seed per 7cm pot, water well and they should be ready for planting out in three weeks.

Choose a sunny, sheltered spot and clear it completely of weeds. Dig it over with your fork and turn in a few handfuls of compost or fertiliser.

Build the wigwam by pushing the canes into the turned earth. Space them out as a circle at least 50cm in diameter. If you can’t get the canes in hard earth, use the broom handle to make a guide hole.

Plant the seedlings 25cm apart, just behind and a little to the side of the cane. Tie the seedlings to the canes to encourage them to climb. As the plants grow, gently twist them around the cane and tie further up if necessary.

Remember to remove the canes after the beans have grown or they’ll rot in the ground.

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