A gardening influencer has urged people to ditch the avocado and instead grow a cheap alternative in their gardens.

Amy Chapman, better known on social media as ‘IntheCottageGarden’, has a total of half a million followers combined on Instagram and TikTok who love to take part in her useful tips on how to best grow things in your garden.

In one video, Amy urged avocado lovers to try an alternative for their avocado toasts by growing another food that’s better suited for the colder climates.

“You can grow your own avocado alternative, here’s how,” she said at the start of the Instagram video.

She continued: “If you love avo on toast, but, like me, you live in a cooler climate where avocados just wouldn’t grow, try growing broad beans instead.”

While it might sound like an odd alternative, Amy went on to defend herself by saying: “I know they might now sound that exciting, but hear me out because they taste amazing blitzed up with a little oil and garlic and spread onto toast. And they’re also super easy to grow.”

How to grow broad beans

If you’re interested in growing your own broad beans, Amy went on to explain: “You can start the seeds off in spring or autumn, either by poking the seeds straight into the ground where you want them to grow, or for a little bit of extra protection from things like mice, you can start them off indoors in pots or a nice deep root trainer like this one.

“They’re pretty low maintenance, just make sure you plant them in a nice sunny spot and remember to water them now and then so they don’t completely dry out.”

Growing broad beans won’t only be a fun way to get your hands on the avocado alternative, it can also be beneficial to improve the quality of your soil.

“Broad beans help to fix nitrogen into the soil from the air, so growing them could actually make your soil better.” Amy explained.

“And other than that, you can pretty much just leave them to do their thing and you’ll be harvesting an abundance of these vibrant beans from early summer.”

Viewers quickly took to the comment section to share their thoughts on the peculiar suggestion of substituting avocados with broad beans.

One person said: “So you’re proposing… Beans on toast. love it.”

“If we all just grew broad beans maybe we’d be able to afford houses,” a second viewer wrote.

A third person asked about what kind of broad bean variety she would recomend, to which Amy replied: “I’ve never had a bad broad bean variety! I’ve had good luck with the Sutton, aquadulce Claudia and red epicure.”