Growing Broad Beans in your Spanish Garden

Broad Bean - Haba

Broad beans are a useful vegetable to grow, much more useful than they appear to be in the UK.
You can of course use cook them as a vegetable, or do as the Spanish do, and eat them raw, especially with a glass of red wine.

Young Broad Bean Plants in a Group of 3

If you have grown broad beans in the UK, you probably grew them in a row or possibly a double close spaced row.
In Spain they are grown in bunches, or at least they are sown in groups of 3, with about 15cm between each seed, and perhaps a 1 metre space between each group. Later sown beans that will probably not grow so large could be at closer spacing.
Being a large seed, broad beans can be sown fairly deep, about 3 or 4 centimetres. You can simply push them in the prepared ground at the desired positions.

Mature Broad Bean Plants in Flower

The theory is that the three plants that hopefully grow from each group of 3 seeds, will grow together and produce what looks like a bush at first glance.

In other words, the plants entwine and support each other - and it appears to work.

Blog items relating to broad beans
30/12/09 Everything Growing but Broad Beans Disappointing
Over the last 10 days or so we have had around 10 litres per sq m (4 inches) of much needed rain. That, together with some warmer weather giving dayti .... more

31/10/09 First Flowers on Broad Beans
The first flowers are showing on the broad beans and it doesn't look as though the blackfly are going to be a problem. We always hope to see flower .... more

25/10/09 Blackfly on the Broad Beans
We have had some good weather recently and the vg garden is probably looking the best it has ever done at this time of year with hte Brocoli and Broad .... more

19/09/09 Sowing Broad Beans
Have just put plenty of broad beans in. I soaked them first for 24 hrs this year, hoping to get them off to a better start. As they are a large seed, .... more

02/10/07 Melons Out, Broad Beans In
The melons have finished (later than usual) and as soon as they have come out, broad beans have gone in. This is how our crop rotation usually works. .... more