Wednesday 6 November 2024

Fava Beans Planting And More Leaf Mulching.

 At this time of year I find it a problem sourcing seeds.  My German garden centre and food and beer providers seem to have put gardening stuff away for the winter.

Luckily my other cheap gardening supplier: The Range still continue selling gardening supplies like bulbs and seeds...

Now Fava or Broad Beans are the last thing to sow before winter.

I bought a packet of them for just 75 Cents and I sowed two fish boxes of them in the polytunnel today:

Broad Beans or Fava Beans originate in China and the Himalayas.  They were probably brought to our shores thousands of years ago.

It will be good to see something growing through the winter.  Beans are Legumes and the extract nitrogen from the air and release it through their root nodules.  Instead of taking out goodness they add goodness to the soil.  Like the banana, beans are full of potassium.  Which is very good for your blood pressure and your heart.

Have you planted any Broad Beans yet?

I am always weeding my raised veg beds and I scattered to big buckets of leaves around my leeks.  Hopefully they will suppress the weeds and feed the soil when they break down?

Any once else mulch with leaves?  I also mulch with straw.  With the leaves I am imitating the rich  leaf blanket of the Autumn floor and feeding the worms, beneficial anaerobic bacteria and much needed plant food like carbon.


Newly mulched oil tank (repurposed) raised bed.



7 comments:

  1. Hang on. If you sow seeds in a fish box I would expect you to harvest fish and not legumes because they would surely be sown in a legume box. Never mind Dave - we all make mistakes - just like the American electorate yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I found the fish boxes on a neae by beach YP. I filled it with well rotted fym and homemade compost and sowed the beans in it.

    I guess you are talking about the multi headed monster called democracy? I don't think Trump will bw there long. Its his deputy that worries me. I will stick to watching gardening You Tube videos and stop watching the news me thinks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My broad beans have shoots showing, I got the same type as last year, they grew well and gave a good harvest, these harvest much earlier, which allows me to plant a summer crop in the space.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are in front of me Marlene. I wonder what we shall plant to follow the Broad Beans?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brassicas are the crops to follow beans Marlene. I try to rotate my crops.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just like Tom and Barbara...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes The Good Life. Thankfully Mrs Leadbetter doesn't live next door JayCee.😀

    ReplyDelete

Fava Beans Planting And More Leaf Mulching.

 At this time of year I find it a problem sourcing seeds.  My German garden centre and food and beer providers seem to have put gardening st...