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However, much more satisfying for those people who’re already craving for spring is the chance to plant broad beans and peas now for an early harvest next year.

Before frosts, snow and ice get a grip at the ground you may sow a couple of rows of spring legumes a good way to be capable of pick by May – when spring-sown broad beans and peas will just be on the seedling stage.

Choose a hardy sort of broad beans, comparable to Broad Bean ‘Aquadulce Claudia’, that is available from the entire main seed companies.

Then prepare your soil by digging it over to clear weeds or old crops and add home-made compost or other organic matter reminiscent of manure to aid prevent the soil from becoming waterlogged over winter and to supply extra nutrition for the seedlings as they grow.

It’s best to not sow beans at the same site as they grew over the summer, a good way to reduce pest and disease problems.

Legumes grow best where potatoes or brassicas comparable to cabbage and brocolli were grown this season.

Equally, you shouldn’t grow potatoes at the same patch to avoid the building up of such pests as wireworm and slugs; and also you should avoid brassicas at the same site in case the soil succumbs to club root disease.

Also, the roots of legumes fix nitrogen into the soil and it truly is particularly useful for leafy green brassicas, so try and plant cabbages and brocolli at the site of this season’s beans.

When it involves planting the broad beans, use the brink of a rake to attract a straight line along a plank, or string stretched between two sticks, then place the bean seeds about 8ins (20cm) apart and about 2ins (5cm) deep.

Carefully rake the soil back over the seeds and firm down the soil using the back of the rake.

Water the soil using a watering can with a great rose, label the row and canopy with a cloche or horticultural fleece that may be raised because the seedlings emerge.

Use the identical method for planting peas, and select an early variety including Douce de Provence.

If you reside within the far north you can favor to sow both broad beans and peas in modules now to overwinter in a coldframe or sheltered spot then transplant within the spring, after they should go under a cloche to give protection to them from frost.

You can start the seeds off in deep pots jam-packed with seed compost, but when you have to make your individual root trainers collect the card centres of bathroom rolls and put 5 – 6 of those in a deep pot then fill with compost and put one seed in each.

When it involves planting out the seedlings you’re able to just plant the card centres 8ins (20cms) apart. That way you’ll be (pardon the pun) on a roll…