Now that I can see these tiny pods, I really really want them to hurry up and mature! Looking back at my records I see that last year my first Broad Beans weren't harvested until 18th June, but the previous year I picked some on 6th June. Of course different years have different weather conditions, and I don't grow the same varieties of bean every year, so all I can say is that my 2020 beans will be ready "soon".
One of the varieties I'm growing this year, and the first that I planted, is "Express", which is supposed to produce an extra-early harvest, but it doesn't seem to be playing along with this. It is growing in the same bed as some "Imperial Green Longpod" and some "Witkiem Manita", but it's looking as if they may all be ready at the same time, which is annoying, because I had been hoping for a more spread-out harvesting period this year!
In view of the coronavirus situation and the initial uncertainty of food supply, I didn't throw away any of my spare Broad Bean plants this year; I just squeezed them into some little corners of the garden. Ironically, the biggest and healthiest-looking of all my beans are these "Imperial Green Longpod" ones, late-planted spares that ended up at the bottom of the garden next to my log-pile, Comfrey patch and second compost-bin.
These plants are definitely the ones with the most flowers, but I know from past experience that many of them won't set pods.
Well they say that "What's worth having is worth waiting for", so the beans had better be good!
