The Carrot Tops Allotment Blog!

Last year I grew Bunyards Exhibition broad beans and I started them off in pots – this year, I’m growing a different variety and using a slightly different method.

I’ve always been a little bit conscious of how much plastic we’re using in our day to day lives.  One of my incentives this year is to re-use as much plastic as possible so that I can reduce my carbon footprint and send less to landfill. Waste, in this day and age can easily be avoided.

As you’d might imagine, we’re big tea drinkers and we’re constantly going through plastic milk bottles, and what tends to happen is that we just throw them away, either to be recycled (yay!) or dumped into landfill (boo!). This year that is all going to change and I am on a mission to recycle as many plastic milk bottles as possible.

Anyway, back to the broad beans. I’ve decided that I’m going plant out Giant Exhibition broad beans and see how they fair in comparison to last year’s batch, I’m also planting them straight outside rather than starting them off in a cold frame. First of all I dug over and weeded a patch so that it is ready for sowing. I then pushed these broad beans about an inch and a half into the ground.

After the digging was done I cut off the bottom of all of the milk bottles, made a hole through the lid and put a bamboo stick through the center to keep everything steady in the wind. Because the weather is still a little bit chilly, sheltering the seeds from the cold will encourage germination and also protect the seeds from any little pests that might want to dig up and eat the seeds.

Giant Exhibition Broad Beans were given the RHS Award for Garden Merit, meaning that they’re a reliable variety and should stand up against UK weather conditions.

This milk bottle technique is one that I’m going to adopt for my peas too!