h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Strictly speaking this shouldn't be possible because the growing season is too short, but if you can start them off in a greenhouse or indoors during early April, and plant them out after the threat of any late frosts, you should get a crop around the end of August.

Start them off as if you were making regular beansprouts - on wet blotting paper or a bought beansprouter. When the root is about an inch long, *carefully* put the beans into some ordinary potting compost making sure not to damage the root, put them in a sunny place, and water daily (but don't waterlog the soil or they'll rot).

After a few days you'll get a shoot, and by the time they're ready to transplant to the garden you should have a healthy plant a foot or more tall.

Once outside and in the soil, water daily and hope for a good warm summer. The bees will do the rest, and at the end of August there should be plenty of pods on your plants, each of which contain half a dozen or more beans. Unlike dried soya beans, these don't need soaking, and are absolutely delicious boiled for about 5-10 minutes

Even if you've only got room for a few plants in a flowerbox, it's worth it just to get one meal's worth of fresh beans