Is it okay to start planting out?

[Charlie_Newbie]

Hello, my allotment is in Essex, and I've been worried about planting out too early. I want to sow Bunyards Exhibition broad beans and Quartz sugar snap peas from seed.

In addition, does anyone recommend any companion plants/flowers to go along with them?

Cheers!!

[hamamelis]

You should be fine with broad beans now, so long as the soil's not too wet; they can be direct sown (which does risk them being eaten by voles) or started off in pots and planted out later if you prefer, or if your soil's a bit waterlogged. Broad beans are tough, I generally sow some in autumn and they survive through winter (except this winter most of them got dedded by something).

Dunno about the peas, early varieties should be OK now, but I've not grown Quartz, so I don't know them.

The big problem with broad beans is blackfly (at least round here, they actually destroyed my whole crop a few years back!), but I don't know if any companion plants are supposed to be any good at repelling them.

[Bigmallly]

Nasturtiums planted around your Broad Beans may attract the blackfly away from them............that's what I am trying this year.

[Thelma Sanders]

Fothergill's say sowing in March & April.
Pea Quartz Seeds from Mr Fothergill's Seeds and Plants

Here I cover pea beds with polythene to warm the soil, about now, and then sow the earliest peas underneath the poly in about 10 days. Remove the poly once they have all germinated.

[Twynyrodyn]

Nasturtiums planted around your Broad Beans may attract the blackfly away from them............that's what I am trying this year.

How far away do you plant the nasturtiums?

[Twynyrodyn]

Nasturtiums planted around your Broad Beans may attract the blackfly away from them............that's what I am trying this year.

Just to confuse the issue I found this on another website, 'Nasturtium – Orange colored nasturtiums will deter aphids, squash bug & striped pumpkin beetles, yellow ones tend to attract the beetles! So plant orange nasturtium close to your garden to deter insects, and plant yellow nasturtium far away from the garden to attract the insects. '

[Charlie_Newbie]

Thanks everyone. I was planning to use plastic bottles as cloches to protect the plants from birds. But hadn't thought about blackfly.