The versatile Broad bean!

[veggiechicken]

Broad bean flowers are beautiful - worthy of a place in the flower bed and the bees love them.
They are also croppable at many stages from the little finger stage when you can eat the whole pod as you would a French bean, to slightly larger when the beans slip from their furry coats and are sweet and tender. Leave them a while longer and you can squirt the inner, bright green bean out of its tough skin.

Leave them even longer for the beans to dry and use the dried beans in soups or save for next year's sowing (if they haven't been grown near other BBs).
You can also eat the broad bean tops.
When the beans finish cropping, cut the stems down to the ground and, if you smile nicely, the plants will grow again from the same roots. If they don't, no worries, your soil has been enriched by those wonderful beany nodules.
They can also be sown at different times of the year - if you choose the right varieties. Some are autumn sown and over winter, some spring sown and Luz de Otono can be sown 9 months of the year and can be picked in Autumn.

I'm sure you know where I'm leading with this. Permanent broad bean patches randomly scattered throughout the garden.

[nickdub]

Sometimes the bumbles nibble little holes at the back of the flowers so they can get the nectar without having to struggle through the front and get all covered in pollen.

[veggiechicken]

Here's a Bumble a few minutes ago




Who couldn't like BB polka dot flowers? They make me think of Audrey Hepburn - no idea why?

[lottie dolly]

Wow,they are really advanced to what mine are,i sowed them in 3 diferent times,the first lot have flowers,but not like yours.

[Sylvan]

I agree, yours are massive!
You'll be able to climb to the giant's castle soon

Even my February-sown ones are much, much smaller. :envy:

[veggiechicken]

These are Wizard Field beans - I'm been sowing a few every four weeks but I'm not sure when this lot were sown.

I grew them last year too https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ans_94094.html

[Lumpy]

I love broad beans and went a bit nuts with the Robin Hood seeds.
As a consequence I now have plants not just in their allotted tubs but snuggled round the blackcurrents, nestled around the goose gogs and at random places in the flower beds.

Note to self - must get more seeds.

[Bren In Pots]

I agree with VC broad beans are perfect from flowers to beans and the tops taste good in omelettes. I really ought to make over more space for them.

[Sylvan]

How much space do you give your broad beans?
The seed companies give wildly differing spacings - from 10cm to 45cm!

[Sylvan]

How much space do you give your broad beans?
The seed companies give wildly differing spacings - from 10cm to 45cm!

[purplekat]

This just shows how different it is across the country. I've got two lots of Wizard beans, some sown in Autumn to overwinter, and some from March. Both sets are about three inches high and nowhere near flowering yet, never mind cropping

[veggiechicken]

This is another clump of Wizard with Aquadulce at the rear. They've been flattened by snow twice and bounced back.

[ecudc]

I have bean envy. My wizards planted last year are more like pixies.

Did you know you can make falafel out of broad beans. I've also used them to make bean burgers.

[veggiechicken]

How much space do you give your broad beans?
The seed companies give wildly differing spacings - from 10cm to 45cm!

I don't know, sorry. I just bung 'em in where it looks right.
I start them in modules, then plant them out when about 6" tall.

[Sylvan]

I was going with about a handspan (mine's 7 inches) apart but thought maybe I've been doing it wrong.