Who doesn’t love sweet and tasty broad beans, and I mean fresh ones of course, not those awful frozen kind? Right now is the perfect time to plant over wintering broad beans which will be perfectly plump and delicious come May next year.
Start off by choosing a winter hardy variety – Aquadulce Claudia is an easily sourced option and doesn’t grow too tall either. Broad beans will require staking and you should prepare the soil by digging in a little compost (preferable to manure) and you’re ready to roll.
My top five tips for tender and tasty Broad Beans:
- Sow in double rows, staggering the seeds along the row. Space the seeds around 20-25cm apart or so. This season I’ve planted two beds to broad beans, the second of which I’ve planted a little closer together more like 15cm apart. I might live to regret this, but it’s a bit of a windy site and I’m hoping they’ll lean on each other and slightly support each other a little better - run string around your rows or blocks as they grow every 30cm high or so.
- Come early spring, watch for frosts on flower blossom and keep the plants covered with cloches or fleece.
- Once the first beans have set at the base of the plant, pinch out the tips of the bush and toss these lovely tips into a stir fry. This helps to minimize black aphids which can be a problem on shoot tips – if found though, spray the plant with soapy water.
- Harvest when beans are visible through the pods usually about 15-20 cm long. Eat them straight away for the freshest and tastiest broad bean you can imagine.
- Once all beans are harvested chop plants off at the base and slash them down as a mulch on the soil surface. The mulch will nourish and feed the soil as it decomposes and is ideal to plant summer seedlings directly into. The mulch will keep the weeds down and conserve moisture too – perfection!
Happy Sowing, Joel
Joel Williams is the Grower for the University of Roehampton Students’ Union’s Growhampton project
Top tip for the week:
I love intercropping and this autumn I’ve planted fast growing Texel greens between one bed of broad beans and radishes in the other.
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