Growing Broad Beans in the Garden Route. Boerbone in die Tuinroete

Since I rediscovered my passion for gardening at the end of autumn here in the South Africa, I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. I couldn't plant autumn crops, since I missed the season. I couldn't plant most winter crops as they should've been planted in autumn, and it was way too early for spring/summer crops. What to do? 

According to some blogs I read, broad beans could be planted in winter. Bingo! I settled on broad beans as the first vegetable for my veg patch. Many other bloggers have explained the benefits of planting broad beans in a backyard garden, but mine were -

3 Reasons to plant Broad Beans in a South African garden:

1. Broad beans, as part of the legume family (that's garden geek speak for plants grown for their edible seeds or grain, incl. beans and peas), put valuable nitrogen into the soil.
2. Broad beans are the only beans which can be grown through winter.
3. Broad beans produce heavily and at a time when not much else can be harvested.

The family wasn't too keen on this broad bean idea, however. They thought it too "volksvreemd" (alien to our eating habits). Everything that doesn't fit into the neat 'rice, meat, potatoes and veg' staple of Afrikaners are sometimes deemed "volksvreemd" in my home. This was before I punched in 'broad bean' on Google Translate, and learned that it is actually plain old 'boerbone'. Oh, how smug was I when I shared this morsel of information...

Broad bean germination rate: 

Thanks to the good folks at Living Seeds I had my beans in lightning speed, planted them in the beginning of July, and this is what popped out two weeks later:

Proud moment: my first broad bean/Trotse oomblik met my eerste boerboon

I must still confess, I did feel a bit despondent after a week with no germination. Luckily, Adelaide Gardener gave me hope again (as referred to in my previous post); and a week after that - voilà! I had a germination rate of around 90%. Not too shabby hey?

Small broad bean plants:

A week and a half later (last day of July) and my little broad beans were soldiering on:

The first few broad beans (vicia faba) to have germinated

I guess only a fellow gardener or farmer can understand the joy of seeing something you've put into the soil, nurtured and spent hours thinking or worrying about doing well. I'm such a garden geek! I planted the beans quite close, as they will later support each other.

The leaves are quite beautiful when they unfurl, I think. Dark green, hardy and glossy. The stems are not as hardy, so they will have to be supported at quite an early stage. I'm one proud backyard gardener, though!  

'n Klein boerboon plantjie - een van my eerstes

Broad bean flowers:

Another five weeks on, and the broad beans are flowering in full force. Now the stress of how big my harvest will be and how well the flowers will be pollinated is weighing on me. Soveel dae, soveel sorge...