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The Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast, produced and presented by Emma Cooper, is all about growing edible and useful plants in an environmentally-friendly way. It is completely free to download and listen to.
They’re not everyone’s favourite vegetable, but broad beans are easy to grow and the first bean to mature in the kitchen garden. If they are your favourite, then successional sowings can keep you in fresh broad beans from June through to September.
There are lots of different varieties available, long pods and Windsors, as well as red beans and red-flowered beans. They’re not the easiest vegetable to save seeds from (they cross pollinate readily), but it’s not impossible – check out Daughter of the Soil for some expert advice.
If you’ve got some old seeds left over, then they can be used as a green manure – treat them like field beans, but be sure to dig them in before they get tough.
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