The Side Bed - experimental veg

We're sowing most of our crops from seed this year. I've also set up a side - bed to put the "experimental" veg which doesn't really fit into the trio of beds (plus they are Mr's babies so I leave well alone!).

This side bed gets quite a lot of sun -which is a blessing in our garden as we have a lot of shade - creating trees. We've discussed chopping down the huge cherry tree - although would that be bad for our green - karma...? However it creates massive shadows across the veg beds particularly when the sun is lower at this time of year.

Back to the side bed - I moved one of the shrubs and gave the soil a good tidying up. Digging in some leaf mould and compost seems to have helped a bit, although the proof will be in the growing. Last year I had real trouble; everything I planted got eaten by the slugs. So this year I come armed with slug pellets (organic ones - promise!) as I cannot face another year of plants with holes in them. The first two pics show the bed - I've removed the left shrub in the second picture.

Into the side bed will go borlotto beans (like runner beans but pink/red pods and the beans remind me of zebras), squash, pumpkin, beans which look like french beans but with yellow pods, sweetcorn and some sunflowers. I was going to try the "three sisters" method of growing (where you use sweetcorn to support runner beans and plant low growing squash between) but some blogs say that the runner beans grow to quickly for the sweetcorn so I've decided not too. However as the sweetcorn didn't grow well last year (poor summer) - I fancy another go.

The third pic shows the bed after a good tidying. You can see the cane supports for the borlotto beans. I've sown two of these seeds indoors- one has grown a lot quicker than the other, so I planted the big one out yesterday after leaving it in the cold frame for a week. (You can see it on the right). I've also put out one of the shorter bean plants (I have to look up the name - all I know is they have yellow pods). I also ordered some free plug plants - pumpkin, tomato, pepper, aubergine, pumpkin and courgette. The pumpkin has gone out into the side bed. I have no idea how big it will get. I've also sown a block of sweetcorn around the pumpkin. The first lot of sweetcorn seeds I sowed indoors failed to germinate (old seed - well 1 year old) so I bought another pack and sown direct outdoors. The forecast for the next few days is mild with a mix of sunshine and showers - so hopefully they'll sprout! I am worried about the slugs though.

The aubergine has gone into the cold frame as it needs a bit more growing and I've brought the tomato and pepper plant indoors to pot on. Unfortunately I had a mishap with the courgette and managed to snap it in half...! That's the danger of using garden gloves - bare hands are much safer as you can feel what you are doing to the delicate plants. Mr is growing courgettes in the main bed so I don't mind too much. It was annoying though!