Legumes

Legumes is a fancy word for peas and beans! There are loads of types to grow, including broad, runner, butter and borlotti beans, and mangetout and sugar snap peas. Easy to grow but requiring a good, fertile soil, legumes are well worth a little extra effort. Sow seed undercover and plant out from June, or sow direct in the soil from late May. Keep well watered and feed with an organic tomato food once flowers emerge. Want to encourage natural predators to eat the blackfly on your beans? Grow fennel or other umbellifers to attract hoverflies, whose larvae love to snack on aphids.

What?

Broad beans are good to freeze so you can have them all year long (you need to blanch them first, which means dropping them briefly in boiling water). They like most soils but make sure it is well-drained.

Where?

Broad beans are best planted directly outside. You can give them a head-start by popping the seeds into a plastic bag that is full of moist compost. Keep a daily eye on them and when you see little roots appear, plant them out. They need to be about 20 centimetres apart and 5-8 centimetres deep. You’ll need to support them with canes and string as they grow, and keep them well-watered, especially when you see the flowers appear.

When?

In the south, you can sow in late autumn but if you live in the north, leave it until March or April and you will be able to harvest them from late June onwards. The longer you leave it to pick them, the harder they will get – be warned!