| Bean Trench |
Now is the time of year to be sowing over-wintering Broad Beans.
Well worth doing as this will help to deliver an early crop of lovely beans in late Spring. One of the first crops of the season,
You need to choose a suitable variety - I always use Aquadulcia Claudia - as these have delivered excellent results over the past few year.
One of the things that helps all beans along - Broad - Runner - French - is a bean trench.
Simply dig a trench - one spade deep - along the row where you will be sowing or planting.
Then chuck in some organic material.
This can be fully or partly rotted compost or manure. You can also add old newspapers as an aid to water retention.
This year I'm using manure from the site heap - a delivery was arranged to the site in Spring - so this is good stuff now after a few months of rotting down.
Then simply backfill with soil.
Final tip - plant a stick at either end of the trench so that you know where to sow your row of beans !
All I need to do now is get the seeds and get then in the ground. One of my favourite sights of Winter is seeing the young plants breaking through - a reminder of another allotment growing season to come.
