Broad beans for every week of the year?

Today was a fine day - sunny and warm on the allotment. I actually thought of buying an ice lolly.

Sure enough, the bottom half of the plot has been totally cleared in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera over but I'll take some piccies tomorrow if I can. Also, the garlic in Bed 5 (I think) which I planted a couple of months ago and which I assumed had rotted away, had sprouted and was clearly visible. Next to it, a small patch of chives (which I should probably divide up at some point) which looked quite dead when I last inspected it, looks like it has started to grow nicely.

My first job was to spread over some rotted down hedge clippings from my neighbour onto one of the beds. I chose Bed 9 was it seemed quite poor when I last dug it over. Then I "clawed" over Bed 1 and sowed 2 double rows of broad beans (Masterpiece Green Longpod since you ask). I am to chop off the tops of the plants once 4 clusters of bloom are showing. Apparently they are suitable for freezing - I thought they all were. There are 13 seeds in each row (not bad luck hopefully) so I have one plant for every week of the year. I have covered them over with wire sheets which have been pinned down to keep the mice out. I spoke to a couple of fellow allotmenters today and both said that they sowed broad beans back in December and have not seen them since. I don't think they covered them over though so the mice may have found them under the snow. I hope that they see some signs of them soon.

I came back home and got on with some more sowing. I sowed the four types of chilli that I had last year (listed in the post dated May 24th 2008), some sweet peppers (California Wonder), some aubergine (Black Beauty) and French marigold (Orange Winner). All of those are now on the windowsills vacated by the onions and sweet peas.

Now for a quick spot of housework before settling down with a nice glass of Viognier and a gardening mag...