BROAD beans are easy to grow from seed and can be sown straight into the ground or under cover, depending on the season.
You can plant them outside before the soil gets too cold, in October and November, and once it starts warming up again in March or April, but during the winter months you can get ahead by planting seeds in modules and growing them in a greenhouse, coldframe or on a window sill.
It is also worth growing them in modules in March or April too, ready to plant out once they have put on a few leaves, so they don’t instantly fall victim to slugs and snails.
Just fill modules with seed compost, drench them in water using a watering can with a rose nozzle and once they have drained put one of the large seeds into each module, pushing it half way down into the moist compost.
If the drenching has made the compost more compact top it up, but you won’t need to water it for a day or two.
It’s a good idea to sow another lot of seeds about three or four weeks later, then more three or four weeks after that, so that the plants don’t all produce beans at the same time.
Sow up to a dozen seeds each time, depending on how much you like to eat broad beans.
You can start planting them out into your vegetable plot once they are about three or four inches high (8-10cms) about 10 inches (25cms) apart.
If you are growing more than one row, plant the beans so they are staggered, rather than directly opposite each other, and leave room for short bamboo sticks or other supports so you can tie in the beans as they grow.
Similarly, if you are planting beans straight into the ground give them the same spacing, because broad beans can be quite bushy plants.
Once the bean pods appear you can pinch out the plant’s growing tip, so that all the energy it produces goes into producing beans rather than leaves and stems.
The beans should be picked when they are about four to six inches long (10-15cms), and you can feel fat but firm beans inside each pod.
If you leave them too long the beans become quite tough-skinned, and you also run the risk of losing them to snails, squirrels, mice and other allotment pests.
You can also eat the pinched out growing tips, steamed or quickly boiled and added to pasta or rice dishes.
