November is approaching, the weather is shifting, but the soil is still warm enough for those key winter sowings. We are reminded to let you know that now is the last chance to get your broad beans in!

Click the button below to get your broad beans from our seed shop:

Our preferred broad bean variety for autumn sowing is 'Super Aquadulce'. It is hardy, growing through the winter to produce great harvests of large beans next spring.

Broad beans serve as an excellent transitional crop, filling those empty spaces through the winter and ready to lift before the spring-sown crops go in. It's always a good idea to minimise bare soil, and using a living crop absolutely optimises the space you have whilst supporting soil health.

How to sow broad beans

1. Prepare the soil by weeding and adding well-rotted organic matter.
2. Sow your beans direct, 6 cm deep, with around 30cm between plans and 50 cm between rows
3. They shouldn't need support, but you can add canes later on if they are falling over.
4. Water the beans in, and water well when the flowers first appear
5. Broad beans are self-pollinating but produce better crops with the help of busy insects, so planting flowers alongside will help attract them (e.g. calendula, poppies, cornflowers and phacelia, which can all be sown now).

Click the button below to get your broad beans from our seed shop now:

In other exciting news, next weekend we will be launching our 2027 seed catalogue! This will showcase all the new varieties we've been working on this year, and all of our usual much-loved varieties, all available for you to sow next season.

Happy sowing and seed browsing!

Izzy and the Vital Seeds team