Broad beans & potatoes

[chadspad]

Can these be planted together in the same bed? Ideally, what I'd like to do, is have them in rows, alternating them so the broad beans grow between the potatoes. Will it work?

[Odsox]

I don't see why not.
It would certainly work with dwarf broad beans like The Sutton, as tall varieties might make the potatoes a bit leggy. But then I thought, so what .. what would be the disadvantage of leggy potatoes, when the important bit is underground.
The only drawback I can see is if you are in a blight prone area, hemming in your potatoes like that would be ideal conditions for blight spores to thrive.

[chadspad]

Yes we have had blight before. Another problem I thought of is if the broad beans arent ready before the potatoes, I might disturb the beans Perhaps just side by side will be easier.

[Millymollymandy]

Depends whether you need to earth up your spuds or not, because you won't be able to. Also you won't be able to get at the beans very easily because of the spud growth in the way. Also watering may be a problem. Also how on earth are you going to stake up/support your broad beans with spuds in the way?

[gregorach]

Also: why?

[Odsox]

Also: why?

Maybe to save space, not everyone has a huge garden.
I used to always grow my Brussels sprouts between my early potato rows, they were planted there after the spuds were earthed up and provided you were a bit careful harvesting the potatoes they grew to maturity there. Also reaping the benefit of the heavy manuring that the potatoes initially had and it seemed to fox the cabbage root fly.