The last of the broad beans

Almost ready broad bean pods on the plant

I love broad beans - just picked, juicy broad beans, lightly steamed with some butter, salt and pepper --Mmmm

I grow as much as I can every year. 

They are a long term crop, I sow in October and watch them carefully in the spring. Growing broad bean shoots are the first signs that the soil is warm enough to plant seeds. They are out of the ground like rockets in the first hint of warm spring weather. 

Overwintered broad beans April 2012

Bold and strong, broad beans are a real Super-crop. They grow in symbiosis with a fungi that fixes nitrogen for them arround deep penetrating roots. They leave the soil  open and light and full of nitrogen, more fertile than before they grew. 

Usually easy to grow and relatively pest free, I would recommend them to anyone wanting to start a veg garden.

Fully grown broad bean plants over 4 foot high early June 2013

This last growing season was different. Instead of summer warmed October soil, the seeds went into the coldest and wettest autumn soil I can ever remember. It continued to rain. Most seeds rotted in the ground, so I planted more. Those that did germinate before the winter freeze rotted in the ground and in March my beds had just 10 plants.

I planted again. In the late cold spring I waited - nothing. So in April I seeded pots on my window sill at home. Then transferred them into the greenhouse as soon as the tips showed. As last desperate attempt, I planted 50 bean plants in the 3rd week in April in a late and wet spring.

The biggest bean plant - just taller than me at  5 foot 5 inches!

Amazingly they caught up! One month later than normal I am just pulling the spent plants out of the ground and planting cauliflower and broccoli. 

Two empty broad bean beds

The last of the broad beans pulled from the stalks just before they go in the compost. Yum!

The last of the broad beans till next year

Giant Garlic

I grow giant garlic - these were my best bulbs from last years crop. I saved them to plant this year and yes, that's my foot! Useually five to seven cloves to a bulb and Oh! each clove as large as my big toe.

White soft neck garlic and Karen's foot

I started to grow this type of garlic because it's great to cook with. I'm a lazy cook and these are the perfect size and strengh for me to be able to use one clove at a time. The big, mild and sweet cloves peel really easy and keep well. Much less work in the kitchen and I'm still useing my store from last year.

This photo is the biggest and best of last years bulbs, I split these into single cloves and planted them in October for this years crop which will be coming out of the ground later this month.

I love them. In the garden they are strong bold plants that look similar to leeks (same family) and always look good in the garden in early spring when everything else is dormant. Totally trouble free and once in the ground, almost no work at all.

Soft neck garlic flowers

This year I'm trying an experiment. Its common practise to take off the flowers when they form. The word is that removing the flowers gives a bigger crop. I'm testing this - I've kept the flowers on a few of the plants to see if  flowering really does effects the bulb size.

I'm interested to find out. The three plants I've left with the flowers are still growing, when all the others are dieing back as is normal this time of year. I would usually be pulling them up on a hot day later this month.

The flower colour is a sort of soft pinky white - nothing special, but at four foot high the colour isn't really the point and the bees love them! I'm hoping there not much difference in bulb size - I'd love to have the flowers. 35 of these four foot pompoms all together in a bed would be a fantastic sight.

One of the flowering garlic

Soft neck garlic is really easy to grow in the South West England climate and gives a good crop even when we have a wet summer. I always grow far more than I can ever use and give some as Christmas presents every year - everyone loves them!

A garlic twist ready to hang in the greenhouse to dry

Broccoli for dinner

Broccoli heads - from one plant

Yummy look at these lovely heads of broccoli, the first I've taken from my garden this year.
Its July.
I'm glad I can buy vegetables otherwise I would have starved this year - I'm normally eating something from the cabbage family all year round.
This broccoli bed is doing well after a very slow start - so its broccoli every day now until they are all gone. Then I'll be swapping stuff with my fellow growers until my next batch mature.

18 plants of broccoli

Here they are - all crammed in together, 18 plants in four rows.
I love that fantastic blue green colour!
Broccoli are very easy to grow once they get going. They do need a bit of careful babying when they are young to protect them from slugs and netting to stop the birds pecking them. Its well worth that little effort. Fresh home grown, steamed broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables.

The west corner of the garden 

They are in the west corner of garden. They are very easy to grow close together and as long as the soil is reasonably fertile they are very happy plants with a fantastic presence.
Mine are not growing in full sun,  I have a few trees around the garden. The sun reaches them after 9am and is gone before 3pm.
They do like a firm soil, so I try to plant them straight after beans. I cut the spent beans off at the base and leave the roots in the soil. I make holes for the broccoli with a bulb planter and mulch them with composted stable manure to suppress weeds and give the soil a bit of a boost - they are hungry plants.