French Beans give you two crops for the price of one: enjoy the pods when they're young and tender, or leave them to dry on the plant for use as haricot beans. Easy to grow and heavy cropping. A tender crop, wait until at least April to begin sowing these. Choose either dwarf or climing varieites to suit your growing space.

Sow seeds indoors from mid April for transplanting later on, or direct sow outdoors from late May to July.

Indoors, sow bean seeds at a depth of 4cm in 7.5cm pots or trays of free-draining, seed sowing compost. Place in a propagator or seal container inside a plastic bag until germination. Do not exclude light as this helps germination, and keep pots moist. Once germinated, grow on in cooler conditions until all risk of frost has passed and the plants are large enough to be transplanted.

Gradually acclimatise them to outdoor conditions over 7 - 10 days before planting French beans outdoors in rich fertile, well drained soil in full sun with protection from strong winds.

When growing beans, hoe between plants often and water regularly. Provide a compost mulch around the base of bean plants to combat dry periods.