Next year's broad beans

I really don't like black fly, so I tend to sow my broad beans in the autumn, put up with a few losses to bad weather, and then I am generally picking my first broad beans in May or (in a bad year) early June.  This year we had lots of lovely warm salads of baby broad beans, asparagus and wilted spinach - all from the potager - and the memory of these delicious lunches goaded me into getting to work.

I had designated the raised bed that had the (failed) tomatoes, aubergines and peppers as the right bed in the rotation for the broad beans.  The bed had lost a bit of soil and some fertility to the last crops, so I topped it up with a broken bag of terreau universel (grow bag to British readers) and about half the contents of the dust bin full of sieved home made compost.  I raked it all in and firmed the bed down a bit.

I then made two six inch wide trenches the length of the bed and within that dibbed a double row of holes for beans.  The seed I used was home grown saved seed, but the original strain is Aquadulce Claudia from Marshalls.  These are good robust plants, ideal for overwintering, and producing long pods with up to 9 beans (well 9 was the record this year, but it was an exceptionally good year).  I dibbed 76 holes and sowed 2 beans per hole, then watered, then covered the trenches with soil/compost mix.  The seeds are quite deep but that should protect them from frost and mice.

Finally I covered the bed with wire cloche frames - they don't do anything to protect from the weather, certainly not while the seeds are germinating.  Their more important function is to keep the bed free of cat bottoms, as the raised bed looks like the biggest and most luxurious cat litter tray invented!!  The frames will come off when the bean plants are about 8 inches high and are strong enough to resist cat bottoms and free ranging chickens. 

However by the time we restock with chickens and have them well enough trained to be free range, I should actually be picking beans!  Now that is a lovely thought!

Comments

[Jane Holland]

As an update to this entry, when we got back from a trip around England and Wales on the 9th December, most of the sowed stations of broad beans had at least one seedling coming up. This morning (11th December) ALL sowed stations have at least one seedling growing up and looking lovely and healthy. I hope they are robust enough to get through the predicted frosts over the next few days!!