Soybeans have long been used for feeding animals, but they can make an interesting and nutritious addition to our own diets. Soybeans are used to produce tofu and miso and contain just under 40 per cent protein.
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You can harvest them in the green pod stage when they are still green and tender, and at this stage you can cook or freeze them.
This way the harvest lasts over several weeks as the beans nearer to the bottom of the plant mature more quickly than those at the top.
Once all the beans are picked, pull up the plant and compost it, or dig it straight into the garden bed.
Young soybean plants make excellent manure for digging in or you can leave the beans until they are fully mature.
When the leaves have turned yellow and dropped off and the pods are thoroughly dry, pick them and pod them.
The beans can be stored for adding to winter stews, casseroles and soups.
You can do this with your scarlet runner crop too. There are always some beans that escape your notice and get to the lumpy stage, when they are a bit too tough for cooking.
Leave them to mature on the vine and then pod them when they are fully mature.
Soybeans do best in a well-drained soil with a pH between 6.5 and 7. They thrive in heavy clay soils.
Sow them after the soil has warmed up in spring, about the time you plant your sweetcorn. December is not too late to plant them.
The soybean (glycine max) is one of the world’s most important vegetable crops. The seeds have a higher protein content than any other edible seed. They figure highly in vegetarian diets.
DIY Asparagus
Asparagus is a delicacy that is expensive to buy but easy to grow in your own garden, as long as you’re prepared to be patient.
If you grow your own from seed you will have to wait three years before you can start picking, or you can buy well-established two or three-year-old crowns from garden centres in winter.
Don’t cut stems in the first spring after planting, and only sparingly in the second.
Once established, your asparagus can go on producing for 20 years.
It needs plenty of compost/old manure and some lime, if your soil is at all acid.
As with all vegetables, asparagus should be kept free of weeds and the damaging influence of trees. Each season more organic matter should be added.
In spring you can ridge up the rows with compost. This will bleach the shoots by excluding sunlight and add valuable nutrients to the soil.
If you plant established crowns you can cut spears in the second season. Slide a knife about five centimetres down the spear beneath the surface and cut it off there. Be careful not to damage small spears that are developing from the crown.
In winter, after seed heads have formed on the foliage, cut it down to ground level.
Planting plan
It’s time for planting strawberry runners. Give them plenty of compost and they will produce fruit for you in spring.
And if you’re thinking of planting roses this winter prepare the ground for them now. They do well in heavy soil. A good rich loam is ideal.
Dig in manure or compost now and it will break down by planting time.
They grow to perfection in full sun, protected from strong winds.
Preparation should be made now also for new fruit trees. If your garden is small, remember that most fruit trees come in miniature varieties nowadays.
It’s easy to overlook container plants in odd corners of the garden. They might be dry. Check the potting mix well below the surface. Sometimes the top may seem moist but the roots can be quite dry.
Sow broad beans and prepare onion beds for late winter planting by digging in dolomite.