[fatbelly]

Thanks for all the advice - I think I'll give the autumn broad beans a miss.

I'm just so impatient to start growing stuff, because I've waited so long for the raised beds and fruit cage to be finished (see below).

I'll content myself with my pak choi and kale seeds instead!

Wow that is one impressive structure. I'm Jealous......
As regard Broad Beans, I have grown them each year with a late February sowing in my unheated greenhouse. The planted out late March and I have had great crops.

The seed companies will encourage you to grow Autumn sown BB's but very few actual growers bother.

[VeggieVirgin]

Wow that is one impressive structure. I'm Jealous......

Yeah, it's great, isn't it. We've got racking on the left-hand side (which you can't really see in the photo) where my other half has been growing native trees to replace some conifer woodland. I'm also growing salad leaves in boxes on the racking. He's also put wires along between the red metal posts in the middle for peas, beans etc., which we're going to grow in big plastic troughs. The whole site is between a barn and an old cowshed, so it's really sheltered, which it needs to be, because we're quite high up and exposed here.

As regard Broad Beans, I have grown them each year with a late February sowing in my unheated greenhouse. The planted out late March and I have had great crops.

The seed companies will encourage you to grow Autumn sown BB's but very few actual growers bother.

I think I'll follow your advice and keep my broad beans until next year.

[Pip Judgeford]

Vegevirgin: Sooooo jealous of the fruit cage.  That is serious planning/building.  Just what I need here. 

I got Bob Flowerdew out of the library so often I bought his Gourmet Gardener book.  He has completely transformed my view of gooseberries with his approach of netting and leaving them to completely ripen - I thought gooseberries were green and sour but now I've eaten them sweet off the bush...

Regards Pip

[Kristen]

Just in case not obvious / known:

Take the roof net (at least) off in the Winter otherwise the weight of snow will be a serious problem. Didn't do that with the first fruit cage I built

[diggerjoe]

Grew red flowered as a trial this year but they were puny plants - not sure if I was a bit late getting them out but if I grow them this year it will be in the flower border. Grew the purple bean ones as well that have purple skins on the  beans think they were called violetta they were really good this year will try these again.

[Pip Judgeford]

Thanks for the hint diggerjoe - I'll crank back my hopes on the red flowered BB's.  I'm so used to Giant Windsor, which get 2 metres tall and cant be killed with an axe, so I'm thinking with the reds that I'll cosset them a little more and expect a little less.  Havent come across violetta BB in NZ... but have now added it to my "track down" list.

A lot of the NZ heirloom vegetables came out from UK etc in 1840-1900 when the settlers were breaking in the land, so the robust high-productivtity ones are the kinds around now.

- Pip

[japagow]

Pak choi are easy to grow but do you grow them in winter? Or, like the rest of us do you spend the cold winter months dreaming of the sun and leafy green veg.