There’s been no movement yet from the broad beans. They’re sitting in their little paper pots in the greenhouse being very quiet – just as they have been for the last two weeks.

The cat grass is singularly unimpressive, too. It’s supposed to sprout in three to five days, but so far, after 14, there’s no sign of life above the top of the soil.

Down below, things are very different. I turned out one of the cat grass pots (there are 20, so plenty for mishaps) and the seeds have put out little shoots. I’m starting to wonder whether the way that the water can seep out through the sides of the paper pots – which it can’t do in conventional plastic ones – means that the compost is compacting down and the seeds aren’t strong enough to push up through it.

Either way it’s going to be a case of sitting it out and waiting to see what happens. The beans, I’m not too worried about. It took forever for the runners to show any signs of life last spring, so there’s no reason to believe the broads will be any different.

The cat grass, though, I’m not so sure.

Related posts:

1. How to blanche broad beans
2. Broad beans
3. Planting beans, lettuce and sunflowers