If you bury something delicious – a perfect package of protein, round, soft and expanding as it starts to swell into germination – then it should be no surprise when someone with a nose for such things steals it away for supper. I have marvelled at how good mice and squirrels are at doing this so surreptitiously. I have waited patiently for the first new shoots of peas and broad beans, quite assured that the soil has not been disturbed, only to dig around and find not a single seed left. You can’t fault them: there is so little else to eat, and planting such a rich package of nutrients is, well, asking for it.
Yet, sow them you must, as this is the ideal time to get broad beans and early peas in. They don’t need heat to germinate, so you can sow them outdoors, either in the ground or in modules to plant out once the shoots show. It’s a great crop to plant with children: the seeds are satisfyingly large and easy to sow, and germination is quick. Plus there are lots of different ways to harvest. First, there are pea shoot tops for salads: if you make perhaps three successive pickings, then stop and let the plant flower, you’ll being picking peas by early May. Broad beans take longer and you can’t pick the tops until the plants first start to flower, but there’s a delicious meal to be had with these tender greens. After that, if all goes well, there should be plenty of fat broad beans to pick.
But that’s if you get past the hungry mouse. The best method I’ve found is using holly, the prickliest you can find, preferably dried indoors for a few days so the leaves are crisp.
It seems that sensitive noses don’t like to root around in the stuff, and the thick, leathery leaves create a perfect microclimate for good germination, protecting the emerging shoots from the wind and hoar frosts. You might have to anchor the holly by poking it into the ground. If you are starting off in modules you can get away with just laying it on top and keeping the seeds somewhere out of the wind.
For early peas, I grow the dwarf variety Meteor. The shoots are delicious, and the peas tender and sweet even in tough ground conditions. I grow mine in pots by the back door, in the polytunnel and under cloches on the allotment, because I can’t get enough of the first flush of peas. For broad beans, I recommend either the Sutton or Robin Hood, both are short varieties ideal for smaller spaces, either in the ground or in pots and containers, and tough enough to cope with windswept balconies and rooftop gardens. Sow seeds 4cm deep, 5cm apart for peas, and 23cm apart for broad beans.
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