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!'