Kitchen Garden Forum

I will follow your respective chickpea growing experiments with interest. Alas no spare growling ground left for any trial this year but my efforts to grow pea shoots for salads with supermarket dried soup peas have been very successful in previous years at a fraction of the cost of packets from garden centres. You just have to sow little and often as the shoots can get rather coarse and wired if you let them grow too long

I!ve never grown soya beans either which I'd like to try as unlike broad beans they seem to stay a nice fresh green instead of developing horrible grey skins which some broad beans seem to do when frozen. Do the plants look like broad beans, or dwarf French beans?

Hi PP!
I grew peanuts a couple of years ago & got 1/2 a bucket full (planted shelled ones initially) - unfortunately I like them boiled & salted but they turned out a soggy mess so a wasted experiment, but now know they have to dry a bit.

Hi Primrose!
I hated broad beans thanks to that grey skin thing, but have learnt the knack of boiling (even the big ones), until you get a wee split then they pop out & are green & tasty inside that skin! (Only a few minutes actually) - hate to thank Jamie for that but do like his pea & broad bean falafel things! I've never grown soya but they come with loads of warnings to boil them as well for a bit - but will see whether human or rodent get them first!

I was right about the birds or mice taking my chickpea seeds, lots of gaps in the row but those that survived are about 3 - 4" high. Re-sown & covered up snugly. My soya beans are up, I thought they would be more bean like, but they kind of remind me of baby sweetcorn shoots, only about 1" high so could change a lot, liking the look of them indeed!

Weeded what was to be the sweetcorn bed & will plant some peanuts in there - with or without my 2 sweetcorn plants, but might leave them at home as whatever cobs I get will be quite precious! I've the week after this off so they can go in then.

No sign of any chick peas germinating so I've soaked a few Sainsbury's soya beans and they've all got roots on in a couple of days. I'm going to plant them in the greenhouse border so I can keep an eye on them. Not sure of spacing but will put them in a single line and see what happens

Try the chickpeas again PP! Don't soak them just put them in a spare patch. I got 3 lots of crops last year which were quite near the grape vine so a pretty dry area with only a weekly water. I didn't soak my soya beans either but they popped up, their still under the tunnel mesh so hopefully will still be there when I go down tomorrow, but now we've got rid of the rats the mice are a problem again.

I think the chick pea seeds were a bit old. I had soaked some to make falafel and used the spares for planting. I'll buy some new ones and try again.

Hi,

I would say every other seed germinated - picture below to show what they look like. The test will be whether we get fruit!

Pawty

Hi Pawty! They are looking good, mine are around that size (well first survivors), no sign of the 2nd sowing yet - could be the pesky mice again as no matter how secure you think you have the netting they will get in!

Hi PP! No Soya beans at my local Sainsbury's so will try the Health Food shops on the weekend. Can't blame mice for the failures of these wee ones though - the underside of the net tunnel was covered with snail/slug shiny trials.

My soya beans have all germinated in the past two days in the greenhouse and the yard long beans are starting to climb their canes?

My new Soya bean seeds are on their way to fill the gaps! Along with the wasabi rocket I also found on the same site. (Might regret that in my lunch box)! Also going to give Welsh Onions another go, my last lot were not happy but the Lemon Balm thugged them out of the herb bed so they are going solo out of the herb bed.

I'm liking these plants, can't wait for my chickpea nibbles, but someone has to remind Mother Nature we need a Summer!

Hi,

Also planted wasabi rocket! I fed some to Mr Pawty as 'micro' salad..... it's pretty hot but has a lovely flavour. I keep a trug thing in the back garden for growing cut and come again salad. I sprinkle lots of different seed and see what grows - it's a great way of using a small space. I grow 'proper' lettuce down the lotty, but have a tendency of forgetting about these in favour of the ones in the back garden as I find the lettuce you pick at the lotty goes limp quickly and you don't regularly need a whole lettuce!

Pawty

"I sprinkle lots of different seed and see what grows" What a great idea Pawty... going to give this a try also.

Thanks for the reminder Pawty!

I do use up old seed with micro leaves normally, but completely forgot so I will add some of the wasabi rocket to the mix. They came today so can start off this project at home & then more at lottie on the weekend. I grow a whole range of lettuces but the butterhead ones do go limp quickly. Try Tom Thumb, they are one serve lettuces, grow quickly & just right to take a couple for a salad night, taste just fine as well as being small have really tender leaves. Apparently if you have the room you can pop your lettuces (with stem on) in water in the fridge or a really cool place they stay fresh - unfortunately can't test this Google search tip as don't have the room in the fridge & don't have a cool room or larder like these US sites have. Have tried it on the counter top but kitchen is south facing & cat's were far too interested!

Disappointed in the chickpeas. They grew well, got lots of double seed pods but no chickpeas inside, they are all puffed up like there should be but nothing. They are intact so no critter responsible so obviously germination. Will plant some more in a different spot as missing my plot snack.

My soya beans are doing well though. They took a while to take off but looking good now. I thought they would be taller for some reason & didn't expect them to be quite so hairy, but they definitely have something in their pods at least.