Strange that a woman is having problems with growing broad beans, with a name like that if a female can't grow them, who can? However, certainly looks like you've bean successful with the arbor effect.

When are you having us all over for lunch?

Ron - Maybe it's because she isn't from Norfolk - it's famous for its broads. Lunch there in midsummer sounds like a great idea....

Click for a broad overview

Must be some pretty big broads.

The arch looks great! We grew broad beans this last spring and had a super crop. I even had enough to freeze a few -- although I don't like to freeze stuff, I'd rather be a gluton with fresh veggies and give the rest to friends. Our pole beans had a tough start with the cool spring, but finally they have taken off and I am supplying a lot of friends with fresh beans. Our scarlet runners are just starting to produce.

Herb - the arch looks great! And give your wife my sympathy - peas have been frustrating me since I moved here. I had scads of them in NY, where my mother (who grew up on a farm in the Silverton Hills in Oregon -rain, rain, rain) said it was too hot. I did nothing for them but stick them in the ground or a pot with some organic fertilizer and water them, and had tons of peas all spring. Here, where the temp should be good, I've tried everything, including innoculant and Earthboxes. I get peas, but not very darned many. Oh, well.

I have only had fantastic beans one year. We had dug a trench in the garden in the fall and over the winter put all of our compost into the trench and covered it with soil. In the spring, peas were planted directly into this compost. The growth was rampant and lush and the peas delicious...I think I'll try this again this winter. I'd sort of forgotten this success.