Growing Broad Beans

This week I planted my broad bean seedlings into our vegetable beds. It’s the first vegetable that I have planted out this year, and I can’t tell you the feeling of excitement looking at them in the vegetable beds, the growing season has officially begun!

I marked out neat rows, stepping carefully between them, and could already picture the tall plants later in spring, hung with pods that will find their way into simple suppers in the kitchen at Broadspear.

If you’ve never grown broad beans before, they’re such a rewarding first crop – tough, generous, and wonderfully hardy. Here are a few little things that work well for me at Broadspear:

• I like to start mine in trays under cover, in the glasshouse (windowsill works too). I sowed my seeds at the beginning of February. Then gently harden them off for about a week before planting them out into the beds.

• Give each plant a bit of elbow room – a good hand span or so between plants, and wider paths between rows so air can move through.

• Broad beans love rich soil, so I always add a layer of garden compost before planting, then keep the bed as weed‑free as I can while they’re settling in.

• As they grow taller, I run twine between stakes along the rows to stop them flopping over once the pods start to swell.

• When the weather turns dry, a deep soak at the base of the plants, especially as the flowers turn into tiny pods, makes all the difference to how plump and sweet the beans will be.