'Growing Peas and Beans' provides gardeners with everything they need to know about growing these popular legumes. Topics highlighted include soil preparation, dealing safely with pests and diseases, sorting seeds, and finding out where to get the best and most interesting varieties. More than 150 peas, beans, runner beans, broad or fava beans, hyacinth beans and snake beans are profiled. Descriptions are sufficiently detailed to allow identification. Growing a wide variety means that fresh peas and beans can be available for most of the year. Home-grown is best - for superior flavour, maximum vitamin content and freedom from pesticides.
Peas and broad beans came from the "Old World", and beans from the "New World". This book includes an account of their origins, plus a new appreciation of the genetic discoveries of Gregor Mendel, and the revolutionary breeding prowess of Thomas Andrew Knight. The varieties of peas and beans that we have today represent a living heritage, rescued in the nick of time by enterprising gardeners. This precious heritage is one that we as today's gardeners should treasure, so that it lasts long into the future.
