Friday 18 April 2014

Broad Beans

My Broad Beans have moved on to the next stage of their lives. They had got too tall to fit under the cloches.


The catch-crop of Radishes is beginning to swell now, and I expect to be picking the first ones within a few days.

Broad Bean plants never seem very robust (though I suppose they must be), so I always give them some support. This is my method: I put a stout stake at the end of each row and tie two lengths of soft string to them.


I then arrange the beans so that one string goes each side of the stalk, like this:


As the beans grow taller, I put in more rows of string - usually about 3 or 4 pairs.

The final part of the procedure at this point is to put in some aluminium rods topped with balls from the "Build-a-Ball" kit, and drape a net over the whole thing.


The net will protect the bed from the foxes / badgers, deterring them from nosing about in the moist soil in their search for worms.

Looking closely at the plants, I see that flowers are already forming:


This means that we'll be eating Broad Beans in about a month's time.

5 comments:

  1. My broad beans haven't shown themselves yet. And I too support mine. I typically use a grid, but then I don't grow them in rows, I block plant them.

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  2. Our broad beans were started in pots and are now due to be planted out, I hope you can find 3 identical blemish free radishes to prove you are a good gardener as specified in The Big Allotment Challenge.

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    1. Sue, yes, I watched that first episode and was appalled by it. I particularly noted that one couple admitted sowing over 500 radishes and still managed to get only 4 that met the "three identical blemish-free" criteria. I thought it was a very poor programme, and not likely to encourage anyone to take up gardening / allotmenteering as a hobby.

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  3. Your broad bean ahve strong potential... Unfortunately i Cannot eat them becasue of a genetic disease. I will study them through your blog!

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  4. Wonderful looking broad beans I admit to mine being under cover still. With regard to your reply to Sue I thought the show was huge fun, as far away from real gardening than you could get. I watched the show with Mike who thought this gardening lark was easy, I believe there will be some very disappointed newbie gardeners out there soon.

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