It's been a very good summer for crops that like plenty of water, and that means that this year, runner beans would have won an Olympic gold.

These climbing beans need plenty of water, both for the prodigious amount of growing that they achieve, and also for their flowers to set properly.

Left to their own devices they can reach phenomenal heights (well above picking range), and some gardeners recommend "stopping" the vine once it has reached a certain height by nipping out the growing tip.

Other gardeners say the opposite, preferring the "climb-on-a-box" method of picking. My own preference is not to struggle with lofty beans, which tend to become more densely clustered and curved if left to do their own thing above the top of an 8ft cane. Instead, I think a very good compromise is to have the canes at a sloping angle in whichever structure you have devised, be it a wigwam, arch or pergola. The better the slope, the more chance the beans have to hang down clear of the foliage, and the easier it is to see them to pick. The more that you pick, the more the beans will grow.

There can't be many crops that can claim such a high yield either. A single runner bean vine can provide pounds of beans by the end of a good summer. This means it is easy to grow too many! The temptation is then to leave bean pods sitting on the vines, because the kitchen is already stocked with them.

Preparing beans for the freezer can fast become a chore if you're the only one doing it, and it is a pity to freeze them all when they taste so much better fresh. I like to give them away to neighbours and friends. Without sounding pious about this, it is easy to forget that people who don't grow their own can be very appreciative of a small bag of produce, especially when you have already grown tired of the sight of that particular vegetable.

On the subject of local community building, there are several late summer shows coming up in the next few weekends. Today (August 30), you can visit the Fishponds Horticultural Show, at the Methodist church in Guinea Lane, between 2pm and 4.30pm.

This is the second year of the show and, building on last year's success, there are classes for fruit and veg, preserves and baking, and handicrafts. Fishponds Organic Orchard has a stall at the show, too.

More centrally, there's the Love Food Festival, at Paintworks, off the Bath Road, tomorrow (August 31), between 10.30am and 4.30pm, which promises to be a family-friendly day out, featuring growers and producers of food and flowers from all over the West Country.