Bean trenches are one of those traditional garden techniques that seem to have lost a bit of favour. The idea is that you dig a trench, line it with newspaper, fill it with your kitchen waste, before covering with soil and planting your beans - so adding lots of fertility and moisture-retention to the soil. Sounds like a good idea but a bit of hard work though, especially as some gardeners recommend starting in the autumn and filling it throughout the winter.

I've decided to try a quick fix with the contents of my Bokashi bin. The fermented kitchen waste is absolutely packed full of nutrients and micro-organisms, or EMs (Effective Micro-organisms) will rot down quickly and hopefully form the perfect growing medium for my heritage seed swapped bean seeds.