Garden Bears' World - Bears and Beans

This edition of Garden Bears' World is brought to you by Hanley and Endon, who have been busy checking on the greenhouse and planting out our runner beans.

'You might remember I planted a runner bean from some Polar found in her seed box, to see if they would still grow,' Hanley Bear explains.  'It certainly did!  It's too tall for the greenhouse and, now the gales have gone, it's time to plant it.'

'We need to make sure the poles Polar put up are sturdy enough to support the beans when they grow,' says Endon.  'The best way to do that, is to climb them!'

'Then we need to make sure we've cleared any weeds away from the ground around the poles, using our special bear-sized gardening tools.'

'And now it's time to plant my big bean!' says Hanley.  'Polar has already dug a hole for it and poured in lots of water.  We need to settle the soil around it and help it climb up the pole.'

'Now we can start planting the rest of the beans,' says Endon.  'Half of these are Polar's old beans and half are from our friend Chomper B.  There are more Chomper beans in the cold frame to go to the allotment with our human guardians later, but these are the ones for the garden.'

Hanley Bear demonstrates how to dig a hole deep enough for the bean tube, putting the bean in the planting hole so it leans towards its pole, then stepping back a little way so as not to get wet paws when Polar waters it.

Then it's Endon's turn.  'We have to fill in around the bean with more soil.  I am raking very fine, dry soil around the bean so slugs won't want to crawl over it, and won't eat our bean!'

While they were digging and raking to plant the rest of the beans, the bears found a piece of stone with a very sharp edge which seemed to have been shaped to fit into a human's hand.  They gave it to Polar, who thinks it may have been a Stone Age hand tool.

'How exciting!'

'Then it's time to check the poles are still nice and stable after all the digging and planting,' said Endon.  'The best way to do this is more climbing!'

'Now it's time to see how everything else in the greenhouse is growing.  We have more small lettuces ready to plant out and cucumber plants to give away to the other allotment humans.'

'And look how big the tomato plants I sowed have got now!  Soon, the flowers will start turning into little fruits and we will have cherry tomatoes - the perfect size for small bears to eat!'

'There's more room for them in the greenhouse now Hanley, because Polar has moved some of the Sarracenias out onto the patio.'

'We'll have to watch out, Endon.  They're getting so big and tall now, they could almost eat small bears!'  

'Here's Sonning, with our tea, so that must be the end of this week's Garden Bears' World.  But we'll have more gardening adventures to share with you all soon!'

Sonning goes Shopping

While the nasty virus is attacking humans, Polar and Grizzly are staying at home as much as possible and this means we are staying at home too.

Our day starts with us waking up in our Bear Basket, sometimes with the smell of porridge from the kitchen.  Then it's time for breakfast, a quick chat with our bear and animal friends on Twitter, and off to the front bedroom window to do #BearHunt duty, in case there are human cubs looking out for us.

We spend almost all day here, waving to human cubs and grown ups, like the postie people, Mr Matt the milkman and the dustbin guys.  We play 'I Spy' and, on Saturdays, Hanley Bear makes up exciting international football games and commentates on them.  Stoke City always win, of course!  

Polar or Grizzly bring us lunch and sometimes afternoon tea with biscuits, then we come downstairs for our tea and to watch programmes about animals, history, gardening or railways on the television.

The front garden is looking very colourful now, with lots of aquilegias in flower, so it is nice to look at.   The roses will be out soon too.  Polar says we can have a picnic on the lawn out there one day, which will be fun, especially if there are scones. 

Last week, however, I had a different sort of day.  Polar said she wanted a sensible bear to come with her to collect some shopping she had ordered.  Usually, a nice person from Morrisons delivers our shopping and we wave to them from our window, but something had gone wrong with Grizzly's order this week so Polar had booked a 'click and collect' instead.

I hadn't been out in the car for ages!  Polar put me in charge of the wet, very soapy cloth in the bag for wiping her hands between tasks, and asked me to remind her when to use it.

As we drove down the A34 road, we were following one of our favourite Great Bear lorries.  I waved and cheered, but I don't think the driver could see me.  I tried to take a picture of it with Polar's phone as it turned off for the industrial estate, but it is a bit blurry.

When we arrived at the supermarket, Polar drove to a special place in the car park and a man came out with a big crate of groceries.  He stepped back a long way, then Polar loaded them all into bags in the back of the car and stepped back a long way so the supermarket man could get his crate. 

I waved and said, 'Thank you, Mr Morrison!' but Polar explained he wasn't the shop owner and so that might not have been his name.

I reminded her to wipe her hands with the soapy cloth, and to do it again after we had bought some petrol.

When we got home, Polar washed her hands and helped me to wipe my paws, then she got another soapy cloth and wiped all the shopping, which I helped her to put away in the larder.  I like the larder, because it is where we keep all our tasty jam and chutney, and it's where the honey and stroopwafels are kept too.

Because I had been a helpful bear, Polar said I could have a run in the back garden for a little while, then have Elevenses with Grizzly.  It was very warm and sunny and the solar fountain was bubbling away very well. 

Soon it was time for #BearHunt duty again with the other bears and I could tell them about the Great Bear lorry and the treats there were in the shopping for us.  Hanley and Endon said they would like to go next time but Polar has managed to book deliveries for the next couple of weeks, so we will cheer and wave to the delivery person, and hope for other days out when it is safe.

Garden Bears' World - At the Allotment

We bears are doing what it says on our T-shirts most of the time but Polar and Grizzly do take us out very occasionally.  On Saturday, we all went to the allotment and we took a picnic lunch with us.

We sat on Polar's scarf and enjoyed one each of the cheese scones that Hanley Bear had made, while Polar and Grizzly planned what they were going to do.

They had some hard work ahead, turning over the compost heaps to help them rot down better and moving them further back from the greenhouse. 

While they were working, we went to explore behind the shed, where there was a new sunny space, now the big hedge had been trimmed back.  Polar had transplanted some daffodil bulbs into it.  We thought it would be an ideal spot to plant the 'seed bomb' wild flowers we won in the raffle, once we've had some rain.

Then we climbed up to the new path Polar and Grizzly were making, so they could look after the hedge and keep it neat when it started growing again.  At the moment, it's perfect for climbing, so that's what we did.

 

Then Hanley Bear went to see how the work on the compost heaps was going.  He didn't want to be late home, because there was going to be a classic Stoke City football match on the radio.

Grizzly said they were doing well, but would finish off another day, as Polar had another job to do for now, which was planting Endon's tomato plants in their big pots.

We all came in to help.  Endon dugs some holes in the compost in the big pots, then Polar carefully turned out the plants and  put them into their pots.

When all the tomato plants were in their pots, and Endon was satisfied that they were well-watered and happy in their new home, we decided there was just time for another exploration.

We checked the framework of canes that Polar had put up for the runner beans we are growing from the seeds sent to us by our friend Chomper B. 

Hanley Bear said he was worried that the canes wouldn't be strong enough for big bean plants and Polar agreed, so she says she will take some of the hazel poles from our garden down to reinforce it.

After that, we went to check how the onions and garlic were growing.  We are still eating some that we grew last year but they will run out soon, so we hope this year's won't be too long.

Hanley Bear worked out from where the sun was that it must be nearly 3 o'clock, and ran back up to where Polar and Grizzly were to remind them about the match.  Luckily, they were just packing up and soon we were all in our Bear Bag and on our way home.

When we got home, we all washed our paws.  While Hanley Bear tuned the radio in the Railway Room to Radio Stoke, Endon and I went into the kitchen with Polar, to make cups of tea.  She had a lovely surprise for us - there were some small jam tarts, made especially for bears!

Endon and I put our football scarves on, so we could help Hanley Bear pretend he was in the crowd at the match.  He was very pleased, because his team won the game by four goals to three, and he enjoys games with lots of goals, but I was more interested in Grizzly's trains and all the little buildings - and the jam tarts, of course!