Growing legumes / beans etc

the_matrix

Hi

I want to grow legumes, beans etc not vegetables in my back garden.

1. Which ones are the easiest to grow?
2. I'm not much into gardening so what is best and low maintenance?
3. What would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

sobie

if you don't want the hastle of putting up canes or wigwam supports then go for dwarf plants. I like Dwarf bean Hestia, and broad bean the sutton.

lime the soil if your soil is acid.
mulch the soil, beans hate dry soil so water frequently in dry spells.
watch out for aphids and slugs.

Beans are one of the easiest crops so you shouldn't have too many problems.

madjackslam

Funnily enough, I was thinking about what to grow in the legume bed last night. And it comes down to the old adage "grow what you eat". So I usually plant some runner beans, but no one really likes them, so I'm not going to bother. By contrast, we like broad beans, so I'm going to grow more of these. (Don't write off broad beans until you've tried them double-shelled, ie, take the beans out of the pod, boil them briefly, then pop the small green bean out of its leathery skin. Much tastier). I've got a row going from the autumn (aquadulce claudia) but find that spring sown beans aren't far behind anyway

I've always found climbing french beans easier than the dwarf ones, although that's probably due to poor slug defences on my part - once the climbers have romped away they sort themselves out.

And peas.... well, frozen peas are pretty good, so I won't grow them for that, but there's nothing like picking fresh pea pods so I'll grow a row or two to eat there and then.

Farway

Ref pea pods, guess you could try mange tout, always expensive

Or the sugar snap peas, again eat the whole pod

the_matrix

Great advice thanks