Towards the sides of the terrace pinks, small artemisias, and geraniums such as G procurrens will form little mounds. At the edges, larger plants will be allowed, including hypericums, campanulas and perennial wallflowers. These will grow irregularly along the edges, and the idea is that a path will weave around the clumps.When trying to establish a new plant, it is worth seeing if it can be divided into two or three pieces before planting. The terrace garden look, with tidy plants running between paving, seems artless. It does, however, need plenty of forethought, and a vigilant battle against weeds.

At Hinton Ampner, the National Trust garden near Alresford in Hampshire, they have had plenty of opportunity to see which plants will grow between paving since re-laying the terrace in front of the house. Yellow-podded: 'Kinghorn Wax' stringless, round wax bean, 'Rocquencourt' dark yellow rounded pods contrasting with dark green foliage Good in cold areas. Climbing: 'Blue Lake' excellent flavour, 'Or du Rhin' broad, flat yellow pods, late, black-seeded. For haricots: 'Brown Dutch' floury texture and an excellent flavour, 'Chevrier Vert' a classic old French flageolet.Seeds from: Johnsons, London Road, Boston, Lincs OE21 6BR (0800 614323); W Robinson & Sons, Sunnybank, Forton, Nr Preston, Lancs PR3 0BN (01524 791210), Suffolk Herbs, Monks Farm, Coggeshall Road, Kelvedon, Essex CO5 9PG (01376 572456), Graines Baumaux, BP 100, 54062 Nancy, France (00 33 83 15 86 86). Purple-podded: 'Purple Queen', the glossy purple turns green when the pods are cooked but the flavour of the purple cultivars is paralleled, 'Purple Tepee' productive and quick to mature. From various caches of beans dug up in caves in central Mexico and Peru, archaelogists reckon that South American Indians have been cultivating beans since at least 6000BC.I'm still working my way slowly through the French bean archive, but these are some of the ones that I have enjoyed eating: Green-podded: 'Aramis' fine, round stringless pods, 'Delinel' excellent texture and flavour, 'Pros' round sweet juicy pods, 'Tendergreen' meaty pods, stringless and fibreless.

The traveller Samuel de Champlain noted exactly the same symbiotic relationship in his journeys in Brazil in 1605 That's a partnership that we could easily copy The two crops like the same kind of situation. Then shell the beans and store them in air-tight jars.In Ecuador, where I was earlier this year, we often saw climbing beans planted among the sweetcorn, so that they could use the strong stems of the corn for support. Keep the soil moist throughout the growing period, but especially when the plants come into flower.Expect about eight pounds of beans from a 10ft row. For fresh beans, pick the pods frequently while they are still succulent. They generally germinate so fast, I don't bother with indoor sowings, but sow direct into the ground, setting the seed about an inch deep and about nine inches apart in the rows.In exposed situations - where this can't be avoided - you can earth up the stems of young plants as they grow to give them extra support Provide canes or other supports for climbing French beans. For dry haricot beans, leave the pods and pull up the whole plant at the end of the growing season Hang them under cover until the pods have dried off. Sow at regular intervals, starting in late spring when the soil temperature has reached about 13C.

The climbing types will need support, but the compact bush varieties will crop without any propping up, even in pots and Gro-bags.They like rich, light soil, but are not fussy about whether it is neutral or acid They do best in a sheltered position. You can sow them in a dee apple box, lined with newspaper and filled with compost, then transplant them out when the weather warms up. But the shock to the system holds back transplants, and indoor sowings may crop no sooner than seeds sown outside. By nature French beans are fast growing annuals and it is a waste of seed to put them in cold, dank ground. 'Rose d'Eyragues' has pods speckled with pink over cream and the haricots inside are similarly decorated, each one individually marbled.You might expect a French seed merchant to have the best selection of French beans but in fact they are not French at all.