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FLBroad beans or fava beans (Vicia faba) are a great crop to get into the ground before frost hits 🫘🥶
When sown in the fall, you get a bit of a head start on a springtime harvest since young plants overwinter with no/little winter protection. If you experience harsh winters, you should sow them in the spring around the same time you sow early peas and expect to harvest in around 3 months.
Not only are they easy to chop back after flowering and harvest (their brittle stems are great for composts or for working into garden beds), their roots have a symbiotic relationship with the soil bacteria Rhizobium which helps turn atmospheric nitrogen into a form which plants can use. So be sure to leave those valuable roots covered with gnarly nitrogen-fixing nodules in the soil to break down naturally.
This year I’ll be growing 6 varieties (7 if you include the smaller-podded cover crop one), each with slightly different heights, flower + bean colours, and flavours.
Have you ever grown broad beans? Either as a cover crop or for the delicious shelled beans?
#broadbean #favabeans #nitrogenfixer #fallgardening
@fluent.garden
