Winter.  Time for the garden to slow down and receive respite from all the heat of our warmer months.

In our climate it’s time for growing Brassica, leafy greens, onions, garlic, peas, and Broad beans.

Winter seed collection and sprouting kit

So to start off our winter crop, we travelled to Blackwood to visit The Diggers Club (St. Erth).  I’ve been a member since 2007 and it is always a pleasure to visit their shop and gardens to see what is available.  I especially like to browse their expansive seed collection and get carried away sometimes.

As you can see above, we chose quite a selection of seeds including a new pair of gloves for me, and a sprouting kit for Kim.

Winter vegetables

So some of the winter veg that we will planting this year is (from top left) Broad Bean crimson flowered, Broccoli Purple Sprouting, Cauliflower Sicily Purple, Broccoli Romanesco, Spring Onions Evergreen, Kale Red Russian, Silverbeet Five Colour mix (aka Rainbow Chard), Loofah (for soap making), Broccoli Green Sprouting, Spring Onion Red, and some Sweet Pea varieties that Kim is going to grow.

Also out of shot is a bag of six bulbs of organic garlic.

Diggers Sprouting Kit

The Sprouting Kit is a fairly simple affair.  For your money you get 4 large packets of seeds and a sprouting jar that has a draining lid and stand attached.  Looks simple enough and I will write a separate post on the process of growing sprouts with lots of photos.  We haven’t been eating them because they are just so expensive at the supermarkets and greengrocers.

So this weekend is renewal time in our veggie patch.  I will spend half a day clearing out the old crops and preparing the beds, and another half day of planting.   I should manage to get everything in the ground including the garlic in the front yard.

Looking forward to sharing my winter garden with you all as it begins to become established.  However before that happens, I will be posting about what remains from the summer crop before I pull it all out on Saturday morning!

Fun times ahead.  I am starting to enjoy winter gardening much more than I used to; mainly due to the killer summer heat and reduced rainfall we’ve received over the last 6 months and the last few summers.

The climate, it is a changing. 🙁

At the start of the winter growing season I began an experiment.  Would saved broad bean seeds grow better than commercial seed?  I wanted to see if there was any difference.  You can see that my saved seed was a different colour than the commercial seed.  Neither seed had been treated, so I thought that it would be a fair test.

You can read about how I planned the test and sowed the seed back in May 2014.

Saved Seed (L) vs Commercial Seed (R)

Well the verdict is in.  Drum roll please…

From what I have observed, there is no difference in height or yield of the different plants.  The controls that I put in place were that I watered the bed evenly with the irrigation system.  Both parts of the bed received equal sunlight; about 6 hours a day.  Both batches were fertilised with the same amount of liquid fertiliser, one watering can distributed over each batch.

The final height of the broad bean patch.

The flowers have stopped appearing, so it is nearly time to harvest the entire bed, which Ben and I will do during next weekend.

I also took a split test photo to see if the bean pods looked any different between the two batches.  Earlier on in the year, I marked where the first batch ended and the second started.

Saved Left, Commercial Right

Not very scientific, I know, but under the circumstances it was the best I could do.  Each plant had three pods per plant.  I tasted the bean from each type and found no discernible difference.

Fresh Broad Bean Seed

Both were absolutely delicious.

An interesting fact is that The Seed Savers’ Handbook states that Broad Bean seed is viable for four years if stored in good conditions.  I will be saving the seed from four plants this year using my usual method.  I cut the plants off near the soil and hang them upside down from the carport rafters with string until they dry out.  Easy as pie.  I then collect the seed from each pod and store in an airtight glass jar in my seed box inside the house.  The seed box is nice and dark.

So there you have it.  Same result with both types.  The best thing about this years’ crop is that there has been no sign of Broad Bean Rust.  All plants are very healthy even though we have had some very strong northerly winds that usually spread the rust fungi.

How many of you planted this wonderful bean this year?  Did you have any issues that I may be able to help out with?  Should me a question via comment, and I will endeavour to answer it.