February 12th 18th
Broad beans often make enemies because of their tough, grey, inner skins. The trick is to pick them young, before the skins have thickened, or to blanch them and pop them individually from their coats (tedious, but rewarding, work). Now is the time to sow them.
Ideally they should have a somewhat heavy soil that has been dug deeply and manured well the previous autumn. If by some miracle of planning you have such a bed, congratulations! Otherwise dig some well-rotted manure into the lower layer of the bed and fill up the rest with soil and compost, and let it settle for a week. Sow the beans on end, with the scar downwards. Space them 25 centimetres apart in double rows, like traintracks, with 25 centimetres between each track. Each pair of rows should be 60 centimetres away from the next. In a month or two, when they have grown about 10 centimetres, pull the soil halfway up the stems to encourage them to make more roots. Watch for blackfly, and nip out shoot-tips if affected.