Broad Bean Experiment and Snail Seedling Success | Diary of a Permaculture Gardener Ep 25

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Hi there, I'm Linda and this is Hutton Valley Permaculture. In today's video, we're going to be planting out more cauliflower. I'm having a look at broad beans and we're going to be challenging my seed raising chart by starting more seeds even though it says we shouldn't.

[00:00:17]First up on the list of things to do is looking at these uh broad beans. They are getting quite a bit bigger at this point. And I have to be making sure they're all going into this little structure at this point. So, I'm kind of not bending and breaking them too much later.

[00:00:38]And I might have to move this one down because these taller ones um could do with a bit more support.

[00:00:46]Now, we've got a bit of a change of weather coming in in the next 24 hours.

[00:00:51]So, I just want to make sure all of these are kind of tucked in to this structure.

[00:01:00]So, I'm just going to move this down a little bit so that my plants don't get blown around too much.

[00:01:08]Now, you do have to go about this fairly carefully.

[00:01:12]And I've normally got wire to attach it to my post, but I haven't got any flexible wire options at the moment. So, I'll just use these ties, which you can undo and reuse, and that'll work just fine. So, I kind of gently guide them through this mesh so they're all kind of supported again.

[00:01:54]Now, as all of these little plants grow, I just encourage them into the mesh.

[00:02:01]And once the majority are sort of in there, I can slowly just kind of move this up so that you know it can really support tall plants. They've even got a few flowers coming on these. Now, those broad beans are the plants that I'm growing for the broad bean beans themselves. But these plants here were just volunteers in this area. I did grow broad beans in this place where the garlic is at the moment last year. So, there was lots of seeds dropped and I've let some of those plants grow, but these plants are now getting a little bit too big. I've got some brassica plants just behind them and they're getting shaded.

[00:02:41]So, I don't really want these plants here. Now, broad beans are what they call nitrogen fixes. So, they take nitrogen from the atmosphere and put it down into their root system with the help of a particular microorganism.

[00:02:57]And then they use that nitrogen when they start to form their flowers and build their seeds. So before they've made their flowers and sort of filled out their seeds, the nitrogen's still in the soil. As I've got lots of broad bean seeds from last season, I was thinking that I might be able to just plant a lot of seeds in around plants that do need a lot of nitrogen, let them grow up to, you know, this point or maybe even a little bit bigger without shading the the plant that I want to grow and then perhaps at this point just chop them off and give that extra nitrogen boost to the plant and the soil. It also means any plant that's growing is taking carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere.

[00:03:44]It turns it into sugars and it feeds the microorganisms in the soil. They in turn then go off and get theum minerals and things that the plant needs to thrive.

[00:03:54]The plant looks after the organisms and they look after the plant is what I'm trying to say. So, that is what I'm thinking is kind of using lots of these plants to help build the soil and feed the plants that I want to grow. So, what I'm going to do here is dig these little plants up and we'll just have a look at their root system and see if we can see the little nodules.

[00:04:22]We'll lift these up and we'll see what we've got. Oh, look at that. This is what we're talking about.

[00:04:29]See all of these? That's where the nitrogen is stored to help the plant form its flowers and then it seeds. So, what I'm going to do is just cut these plants off at the uh ground level and leave all these little nitrogen nodules in the ground and it's going to feed the soil.

[00:04:51]That gives a bit more sunshine to my little brassica plants.

[00:04:57]seems a shame to kill off those plants, but I think um you know it'll be worthwhile for these brasacas to grow.

[00:05:04]And I'm just going to bury this.

[00:05:13]I'm just going to bury that right next to this plant. So, I've got those roots.

[00:05:17]I'm just going to put them right next to this little plant here. So, hopefully it's close enough for it roots to access that. And I'll put the other roots right next to this plant.

[00:05:31]Just in this garden here, I've got some Tuscan kale seedlings. So, I'm going to plant quite a few of these seeds around those plants. And then I'll be chopping them down, you know, when they get to the sides we saw before. I'm planting quite a few seeds because I'm not going to let the plants get too big before cutting them down.

[00:05:54]So, it's good to have quite a few all planted. Now, we just have to wait for those little plants to grow.

[00:06:03]And I've got to remember to cut them down, of course.

[00:06:07]This morning, I want to beat the rains in and get sort of this area cleared to plant out my cauliflower. Now, quite a few of these plants can stay. Some of the Swiss chard. Um, I've got leak bulbles still coming up sort of along the edges, so I'll leave those. Uh, down this end, I've got my sweet potato that'll stay. There's a little tomato that's kind of ripening, so I might be able to just sort of tuck that out of the way.

[00:06:39]Kind of opens up that area there now to clear out. And another thing to look out for is things like this leak flower head that has now produced loads of little seeds. Now, as you've seen in my garden, I don't need leak plants. I've got plenty, but saving seeds like that means you can share it with others who haven't got such plentiful gardens. So, I'll just put that into a bucket, shake it around, and I'll collect all those seeds in the bottom.

[00:07:17]There's plenty more seeds to come out of this head. I'll just leave it here to kind of dry off a bit more and do its thing before collecting those seeds.

[00:07:27]And there's a few more seed heads in here that should be collected. This one's probably dropped most of its little seeds already, but we'll collect what's left so we don't have too many leaks appearing in the garden.

[00:07:52]All right, it's time to get into it now.

[00:07:54]So, I'll be just waiting. You've seen it before. Weeding and clearing and maybe making these Swiss chard plants a little bit more compact.

[00:08:04]Um, so we can plant around them.

[00:08:22]Now, I've just pulled this seed head off the soil, and you can see a number of those seeds are already sprouting. And these are the the little roots that I've just pulled off the soil.

[00:08:36]Nature really wants to grow when you let it. So there's plenty more seeds to sprout. So perhaps we'll let this head do its thing and we can come back and visit and see how it's going. I'm just going to pop it in here.

[00:08:54]Not really bury it, but just kind of sprinkle some magic all around and just keep an eye on it and see what happens.

[00:09:04]We've got some rain coming a bit later to water that in.

[00:09:17]I'm done with the clearing now. Plenty of space for these collies. I discovered another celery plant. So that'll stay.

[00:09:25]These are some small parnips on the edge. So they'll stay. A couple of clumps of leak plants.

[00:09:35]And the tomatoes pushed aside to leave plenty of room down the end there. But what I will find growing here over time are parnips because yeah, I must have had a seeding parnip plant here because these seeds are everywhere.

[00:09:56]But as has been said in my comments, you can never have enough parnips.

[00:10:02]Now, just checking the soil here.

[00:10:06]You can see it's fairly dry. I haven't really watered this area at all. So, it could do with a good bit of watering cuz I haven't had plants in here for a while that I've really wanted. So, what I might do is just get the collies planted and wait for them to grow a bit and then I'll add some of my coarse compost around them to sort of uh keep the moisture in and feed the soil.

[00:10:33]Again, a good root system for these little seedlings.

[00:10:37]I might just reserve some of them for planting later. I've got an idea with those ones. So, we'll leave those.

[00:10:48]But, we'll get all of the rest of these out.

[00:11:01]Now I'm just going to do what I did yesterday with these little kale plants and plant some of my excess broad beans around each of my collies so that they can get a boost of nitrogen down the track this morning. I'm going to do some planting. Yes, I hear you. It's probably too late, but all of these seed packets I've got here say that I can plant these in autumn, one of them is a year long sort of all year round seed. So, even though I've got my little planting guide, I've got to remember it is just a guide. And um because I like to experiment, I'm going to push the boundaries and push it into May for planting seeds.

[00:12:00]This morning, I'm going to be planting my seeds into little snails like this.

[00:12:05]Now, for me, this has been a real revelation finding this growing method for seed raising. It's sort of really upped my game and produced really fantastic seedlings. I mean, look at all those little roots that are coming out there. So, today, that's what we're going to do. Get some more seeds started with this planting method. In the past, I've always used just recycled uh containers that I've had from the nursery, or I've bought little um trays, but they don't really have a lot of depth to them. And while I know there's lots of successful growers with these trays, like Charles Downing for instance, the way I look after my seedlings, it really just doesn't support, you know, perhaps my lack um method of looking after the seedlings.

[00:13:00]But I find with this method, I can get a lot more depth into it, and it um encourages the brute growth a lot more.

[00:13:09]If you've seen my videos recently where um I've had my pea plants, the roots were fantastic and I've had a really great cauliflower and all the little roots just are encouraged right down and should contribute to a um better plant.

[00:13:27]I think those smaller containers are also designed to sort of start the seeds but not let them grow on for too long before potting them up. But this little method, you can like kind of leave your seeds in there until they're really a decent size for getting into the ground.

[00:13:49]And in the past, I've just used a standard seed raising potting mix, but um for this I've used the seed raising potting mix, but I've also added in some of my own compost. I mean, the seed raising mixes often don't have a lot of nutrition in it because the seeds are um seedlings are designed to get out of those little containers fairly quickly and into a bigger container or into the ground where they've got access to nutrition. But if you add in the nutrition into this mix here in these snails, then it supports the plant to really get to a decent size before transplanting.

[00:14:34]Now, I have used this mixture before with adding in the compost, but you get mixed results depending on what you use.

[00:14:43]So, I've used my really old age compost that's well finished, that's sort of got humus in it.

[00:14:51]And that's what I found the best results with.

[00:14:56]And I make sure that the potting mix and compost mix is fairly well hydrated so that it kind of holds together when squeezed.

[00:15:05]And that seems to work best for these snails. Now, when I put in the potting mix, it's not always to the edge. So, I sort of top it up. But what happened with my last seedlings, the cauliflower seedlings, is that I overflowed the top and the roots kind of went over and when I unwrapped it, it ripped the roots. So, I'm going to make sure that that potting mix is well below the rim of the plastic. So, the roots kind of stick in the one section.

[00:15:39]Now, something that I've also learned over time is the um importance of watering. Now, if you overwater your seedlings or underwater your seedlings, you can sort of do different damage to them. And I always found it a struggle to get the watering just right. [snorts] But what I find with these snails is because I think of the depth, I sit them into a container like this one here and water them. and the water sits at the bottom. The roots because they're still working their way down, they're not sitting in water logged um soil medium for too long. And it means that I can keep the water up to them and it's not overwatered, but it's certainly not underwatered either.

[00:16:33]And that's actually and that's really contributed to my success as well.

[00:16:43]Now, you might have noticed on these little snails, I'm using a different type of band. I haven't had success with the elastic bands. They kept breaking, but a viewer recommended these. I just got an old glove and cut circles and am using that. Thanks to a viewer for that suggestion. I'm going to see how these go and see if they break before I actually um need to open up the seedlings. Another thing that I've learned over time is the importance of sunlight. I mean, you can see the lovely sunlight coming through here. That's the morning sun we're getting. In the past, I used to be very protective of my little seedlings and maybe sheltered them um a little bit too much. But this last year or so, I've just had them out where I can see them, where I'm reminded to look after them. Where I've got them now, they'll get morning sun, and they get the sun up until about 2:00. I mean, it does vary according to the time of year, but there they get um maybe at least 8 hours of direct sunlight each day. And I think that's really contributed to the success of these seedlings.

[00:18:00]And they don't get so leggy. They've got that sunlight they need right from the get- go. They don't have to reach for the sun. So, they're nice little seedlings. I built this rocket stove a few years ago and since it's been here, I haven't really used it as a rocket stove. I haven't even actually finished it, but it is a place where I put my seedlings. It's right outside my door so I can keep an eye on them and it gets plenty of the morning sun. I've also got this little table. If it does get a bit inclement outside, if we're going to have pouring rain or burning sun, I'll just put them on my little table here and move them under shelter. Something I'm getting better at is sort of taking note of the quality of the seeds that I'm actually using and making sure that, you know, they're within date. Some of the seeds which might be a bit old and I'm not sure about starting in this method, I'll just throw out into the garden and if there's still some viable, I'll give them a chance like that. But if you're putting all the effort into these little snails or starting seeds yourself, then you want to make sure that um they're as fresh as possible and have been looked after, so they haven't been exposed to, you know, high temperatures um or conditions that just really don't support them.

[00:19:24]Another thing to think about, of course, is um pests and uh whether your environment supports the pests or not. Now, um you know, I'm not perfect with this.

[00:19:38]You've seen my recent videos with slugs and snails, and earwigs are often a problem with my little seedlings.

[00:19:45]So, what's worked recently is just having them close by. I kind of tend to look at them maybe a few times a day and you can kind of get a sense of whether you've got pests starting to be an issue or not and you can do something about it, you know, fairly quickly. I think if you act quickly, eradicate the issue by moving your seedlings or just moving the pests along in some way, you can keep on top of the problem and not let it become too much of an issue.

[00:20:21]Now, I think the last thing I can think of that contributes to good strong seedlings is the temperature at which you grow them at. Um, I've been growing most of my seedlings in summer and into autumn, and the temperatures have been really nice growing temperatures. Now, we're about to move into cooler months, so I'll be keeping it kind of mindful of the temperature that these seeds are expected to grow at. I do have some um grow mats um that you plug in and they heat up. Now, I don't know how well that will go with the height of these snails, but if the temperatures really do drop, I'll be moving these, you know, this green tray onto a grow mat. And uh just be mindful of the temperatures and make sure that they don't get too cool or you really can't expect your plants to grow.

[00:21:26]Elastic bands aren't really elastic, but once you've got them on, they're pretty good.

[00:21:33]Okay, now you can see the snail effect with all these little snails. In um past snails, I have filled overfilled them, I think. So, I'm going to make sure I don't do that.

[00:21:54]And I'm just gently watering it in so it kind of settles down.

[00:22:00]And we'll get our seeds in. Before planting the seeds, I usually like to have my labels the ready. And I usually like to recycle something to make my labels. I've just kind of cut off the fingers off my glove that I've used to make these little elastic bands.

[00:22:24]And uh I'm using those.

[00:22:36]Now I'm just sprinkling a little bit of my potting mix over the top of those seeds.

[00:22:42]Not too much.

[00:22:45]And making sure that the snail is still um obvious. Everything's all planted out now with the finer seeds. I don't know if you can see them here. I've just left them on the surface. I've kind of just pushed them in to the wet potting mix medium and they should germinate fine.

[00:23:09]Um, they just need to stay hydrated. So, I'll be putting some water at the bottom of this tray so that it can wick up into these snails and keep all these seeds moist.

[00:23:22]And I'll just pop them up here. It's a lovely sunny day today, so they'll be right there. If the conditions change, I'll be changing where these are, but for the moment, they should uh enjoy the warmth. I might just pop the little lid on them for a bit, too.

[00:23:42]It does have some ventilation holes, which I've covered over to keep the rain out, but that should give them a good start, as well.

[00:23:52]I'm definitely no expert at growing plants from seed and seem to learn something new every year. I've shared quite a bit of what I've learned in this video. If you've got something to add that I haven't mentioned, please let us know in the comments so we can all learn from your experience as well. I hope you've enjoyed today's video. Thanks so much for watching. Remember to give the like and I'll see you in the next one.