Topic: What to follow Broad Beans

[jokey]

Hi

Can anyone tell me what to plant after my broadbeans?

Chears

Jo

[pigeonseed]

When are you expecting to have eaten them? Or have they already gone?

[jokey]

Not sure, flowered already and some flowers have dropped off and got beans behind them so maybe end of june ish

just don't know what to put in july/august as i don't want an big empty space like last year so trying to think ahead :(

[Tee Gee]

Cut them off at ground level, leave roots in and plant winter greens!

[suncekoret]

I like your style Jokey - I hate to see good land left empty even if it is 'tidy'

Depending on when they are cleared you could plant PSB or May maturing caulis
Still time for leeks or sow turnips, kohl rabi or Mooli

I have also planted squash nearby and allowed them to spread over the broad bean patch

[campanula]

leeks.

[davyw1]

Anything that you put in then most likely wont be coming out till next year so it comes down to your crop rotation.

[PurpleHeather]

There are loads of things which can be planted there to be honest. Plants which have been started off in a nursery bed and are ready to put into their final planting place in July and August. From the top of my head........

Savoy

Spring greens

PSB

Leeks

Kale

You can still get  a few salad veggies in raddish and lettuces. Inter crop these with the brassicas. (I suppose you know that you can grow lettuce in between things like cabbages because the lettuce grow quick and will be out of the ground before the cabbage need the space)

That is for food things but there are some bienial flowers for which the seeds can be sown and then transplanted in the spring to your pretty garden such as sweet williams. The soil will take the summer crops for following year.

Cauliflower which over winters is another one but I have never had success with it. Logically, a late sowing of 'early' variety potatoes should have enough time to  produce but chitting them could be difficult. I suspect that they would just end up dormant and come up the following year.

If you are into oriental veg like quick growing chinese cabbages which tend to hate anything other than 12 hours of light and 12 hours dark then sowing them when the year is on the wane could produce a better crop.

Then tend to bolt but are still good, chopped and added to a stir fry.

[Unwashed]

Standard practice is to follow legumes with the cabbage tribe because legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen in their root nodules and nitrogen promotes leafy growth.  Leeks usually follow the new potatoes in the rotation because the tatties are all out when the leeks are ready to go in.

[jokey]

cheers everyone for your replys, i have loads of great ideas now

one last thing how long will my leeks stand in pots before i need to plant them out, i know they stay in the ground forever. 

[PurpleHeather]

Leeks tend to get bigger the earlier you put them in but don't be put off even the tiniest leek is good for cooking as either a veg, part of a soup, stew or casserole. They tend to go to seed early in spring and the centre of them wont cook when they do it is a solid lump up the middle. Fine for taste in stock but you will need to cut them lengthwise to check for the lump which is best removed before cooking.

One plant allowed to go to seed will produce enough seed for leeks to feed a small village.  The wild life love them because there is little flowering when the leek produce flowers.

To extract the seed just hang the dying flower head up side down in a paper bag.

When thourilly dry bash the seeds out. Keep in a dry drawer to use the following year.