Grow your own… Broad beans

You can sow broad beans in October and November if you use hardy bean varieties such as ‘Aquadulce’, ready for harvest in May and June.

Protect the seedlings from frost using a cloche. Make two cloches by removing the lid of a large clear plastic bottle and cutting the bottle in half across the middle.

Sow broad beans at a depth of 5cm and 20cm apart.

Plant in staggered or zigzag rows 20cm apart as the plants can help to support each other.

Use stakes and string to avoid the plants flopping over.

Pinch out the top 7cm of the plant once the first beans begin to form to encourage an earlier harvest and reduce black fly.

Broad bean plants need plenty of water. Water twice at the start of flowering and again two weeks later, making sure the soil is well soaked.

Begin picking the beans when they are about 7cm long. Both the bean and pod can be boiled and eaten at this stage.

Once you begin to see the beans through the pods, pick beans for shelling and discard the pods. Beans can be eaten raw in salads or cooked.

Once harvested, pull up bean plants and add them to the compost bin. You can then use the space to grow another crop.

• Adapted from Royal Horticultural Society advice, www.rhs.org.uk