GAME-CHANGING Growing For Diversity & SELF SUFFICIENCY In The UK - Polytunnel Tour
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Growing our own food is a huge part of our Self Sufficiency goals and here in our temperate climate, having Polytunnels is a real game changer for extending our growing season AND the types of food we can grow.
We do still grow a lot of our bulk produce outside, however, we also understand the VALUE of undercover growing space and every year we are learning more about how we can increase the production of our polytunnels - and we are having a LOT of FUN learning and playing.
Its high Summer and our Polytunnels will be in peak production in the next few weeks and for this video we are taking you on a tour through our tunnels to share all of the heat loving crops we are growing.
We are Dan & Laurie and our land is called Freedom Forest - Its 3 acres in the South of England where we are creating an edible oasis and trying to provide as much for ourselves, from our land as possible, where we are completely off grid.
Our food growing journey began together in 2017 when we created our first No dig lasagne bed. Every year we grow more and more and now we are currently around 60-70% self sufficient in our food needs.
Our style and methods are inspired by permaculture and we try to be thoughtful about how and what we do, to be as gentle on the planet as possible.
In our videos you can follow our journey as we share our experiences and what we get up to at Freedom Forest. Our polytunnels provide us prime growing space for heat loving and slightly tropical edibles and we like to pack in as much as possible, so we create layers, much like in our food forest. This tour video shows how much everything has grown and come on since our tour 5 week before, when the plants had not long been in the ground.
We are MASSIVELY grateful that you choose to watch our Videos and support us in this way, however, If you appreciate and get value from what we share and would like to help us a little more, you can become a Freedom Forest Patreon (link below).
It takes us about a day to film some video and another few evenings to edit it, Patreon provides a way you can support what we do with any size donation you wish, it could simply be the value of a packet of seeds! We have many projects coming up, as well as wanting to improve our videos with better camera equipment... maybe even a drone one day to make our videos even more detailed and better quality for you to enjoy! You can help make it viable for us to keep putting the time into making these videos by becoming a Patreon. In return your name will appear in the end credits of our videos and we'll message you a password for the 'members area' of our website where we share more of our favourite recipes exclusively for our Patreon's 💚
/ freedomforestlife
If you are in the UK and you are looking at investing in a polytunnel, we use Premier Polytunnels. This is not a sponsored video, we have just found them to be lovely to deal with and offer a great product at a very competitive price 👉 www.premierpol...
Enjoy & Thanks for Watching
✌️🌿 Peace and Plants
#freedomforestlife #polytunnel #gardentour #selfsufficientliving #selfsufficientgarden
Good to see other gardeners mentioning the man made clouds that we are seeing more and more.
Thank you - we hope that bringing more awareness will help - plants/growing defo feeling the effects this year with noticeable reduced sunlight - can’t understand how anyone can think it’s going to help!!!! 😔
Unfortunately we've been watching this happening for many, many years. What's worse is that it is not just the reduced light but also the chemicals they contain that are stopping everything growing. Polytunnels do help to protect from that but I'm pretty sure that the water from my well that I use in it is polluted too.
So glad you are aware of the hopscotch skies. So many folk remain in denial. Interesting that often after the skies are sprayed, a cold wind
whips up for the rest of the day. Also 4pm seems to be top temp and not midday any more.
Our runner beans are very late and several attempts at replanting needed. Bees are consuming their honey as not enough pollen for them due to the cold.
Polytunnels are a godsend to protect our plants from the 'elements'!
@freedomforestlife it's not, it about reducing food production and in turn populations..and to control people... hungry or starving people are easier to conttol!! All part of their agenda.. using climate change as a false flag to do it!!
@@freedomforestlife Thanks for the video. To clarify, you think they are spraying the air to make it rain more?
I know microcrystals spraying is useful because they can act as seeds for droplet formation. I didn't think it was financially viable though, and the water vapour needs to be already in the air.
There are lots of places that need more rain.
Good to see more growers that are awake to what's going on in the sky..all part of their agenda.. ..great video 🙂👍
Yes indeed! Just wish there was more we could do to stop it!!! Glad you enjoyed the vid, appreciate you watching 💚✌️🌿
Idea for your "tsunami" of Cape Gooseberries. Batter, deep fry and serve with vanilla sugar and yoghurt Or batter, deep fry and serve the a Chinese Sweet and Sour or Kung Po
Wow, amazing ideas of how to use cape gooseberries - thanks for sharing 🧡✌️🌿
Great video guys, I have learned so much from you, a can't thank you both enough for sharing it's great to see more of dan too, his confidence on camera has grown as much as your plants! great to watch.
What a lovely message - thank you Sally - so glad you get something from our vids and enjoy watching. Appreciate you watching and commenting 💚✌️🌿
Wow guys! Super inspiring - thank you! Great to see what can be done here in the UK.
Think I'm going to try brassicas in my tunnel this winter but itll be first year with it so we'll see how that goes...
Hi, Glad you enjoyed the vid - Appreciate you taking the time to comment too 🙏 I'm going to start a few extra brassicas for the tunnel in the second half of Aug I think, I did mine in sept last year (when I sow our salads) and I reckon the pulling the brassicas forward a month they'll establish much better - Happy growing, let us know how they go for you. 💚✌️🌿
The stuff of dreams ❤
For Sure 💚
I'm growing everything outside, so it's good to see a comparison with your crops. In general, most of my plants are slightly behind yours.
Cape gooseberries are just starting to put out one or two flowers; harvested just one tiny tromboncino so far; hope to harvest the first cucumber this week; marigolds just starting to flower; chillies (all in pots) just starting to flower; harvested only a dozen tomatoes so far (Latah/ House/ Sungold), although my first ever purple cherokee is just about ready now so looking forward to sampling that shortly. It had better be good! Like you, my purple cherokee plants are nowhere near as strong growing as other varieties - the Sungold plants are about 3 times the size of the PC's! If you want a really early tomato maybe give Latah a try....it's ready about 2 weeks earlier than sungold, so it can extend the season for you a little bit if that's of any use.
For chillies, i'm no expert but i believe that their growth can stall sometimes if they're transplanted into too large a soil environment - they focus on root growth for a while at the expense of foliage and fruit. Maybe try one or two plants in 5 or 10 litre pots next year to see if there's any improvement. Some of the good chilli growers on youtube get good results with this.
Great to hear your update Tony and really good info about that Tomato variety and the chillies too, I will defo try a couple in pots next year for the Cayenne and maybe Jalapeno, we have grown both successfully in the the past, this year and last, the plants just seem to stop for AGES! Will try a mix next year. Need to start making a seed list so I don;t forget this TOM either! 🙏✌️🌿
The ground temperature could be affecting the cayenne, they're always a success in a pot, I found.
Thanks Tony, that’s a good point - maybe I will try them in pots on the bench next year - appreciate your sharing 🙏✌️🌿
Hi there Dan and Lori😊🇦🇺
Than you for sharing,, there’s lots of variables in plants, heat and airflow may be one thing others may be pollinators, if required may not like high heat
I’m guessing it’s the airflow from door even half shut on both ends of tunnel warmer in middle which a plant may find more beneficial for plant.
In this case most variables are from outside sources which affect plant growth differently dependant on variety.
Seeds could be renewed , if you plant one old one or two to compare its growth to new seed, remembering many seed companies get the same seed from producers.
Keep a Diary of this for next year, you might see a pattern for the two ends not growing well if it repeats next year then try something else at those ends only.
HEy Rick, thanks heaps for sharing all those ideas - very much appreciated 🙏✌️🌿
This is my first year growing cayenne peppers. The plants are small, but germination was good. Slow but good! Small plants, but tons of flowers and fruit forming! Faster than my other chili peppers.
Hi Eva, Interest maybe it’s down to seed again!? Are you growing in pots or in the ground? ✌️🌿
Pregrown in pots, then in-ground in the greenhouse 😊
Your polytunnel is so productive. Very inspiring in what has been a tough gardening year for those of us who grow outside. Would you consider selling some corms of that Hawain taro variety?
Hi Daina, this year we will probably need to save the harvest so we can extend the crop for first year of our door trials, where we only have one plant, next year or in future years, once we’ve got the plant established well, I am sure we’ll be able to 💚 will know more when we see how many corms it’s actually produced at harvest time in autumn … stay tuned 🙏 so glad you are keen to grow yourself- are you in the uk? Appreciate you watching 💚✌️🌿
@freedomforestlife . Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am in the UK and in my second season of growing on my allotment. I'm interested in experimenting with tropical plants and really enjoy when you showcase these in your videos. I've tried a couple of plants from Southern Africa on the allotment. Apart from loving the growth habit of Taro plants, I saw your video on how it possibly deters rats in sweet potatoes and would like to trail it, too. Mine weren't eaten by rats last year, but I did find a couple of babies in the bed when I dug them up.
With tomato seed, you may find that even switching companies doesn't improve the quality of the plant. Many companies source seed from the same wholesaler. They say toms don't cross and seed can be kept, but I have found they do cross and I've lost some real treasures I've been saving for years. The key is to keep the insects out and separation.
Thanks for the info Keith - Appreciate you taking the time 💚✌️🌿
Great vid, up the polytunnels! What was the name of that tomato with the trusses, rising true? Didnt quite catch it. Thanks!
Hi, the tomato is Riesebtraube 🍅 glad you enjoyed the vid, appreciate you taking time to watch and message ✌️🌿
Geoengineering at work as well. It is what it is. We cant do anything about it. They have the money and power to do it. Poly tunnel is the ultimate way to do gardening in uk.
Polytunnels do offer great protection for sure! We are so grateful for ours. I feel raising awareness to whats happening in the sky and the sun is the best thing we can do, its amazing how many people actually really start to notice it, once you've pointed it out, yet they never ever had before ... It was like that for me, even when I had a good awareness to clean food/ Glyphosate etc. If enough people see, more will hopefully start shouting about it 🙏 Appreciate you watching and commenting 💚✌️🌿
Hello, do you sell your seeds / bulbs? Would be interested in the Taro corm
We don’t yet, as this is o my our second year growing taro, we do sell a few Yacon growing tips at the end of winter. If we can build up the tarp varieties in the future, we may sell some, so stay in touch 💚 thanks for watching ✌️🌿
Pretty sure that gap in tomato production is caused by heat. . I get the same issue. Flowers will form but fruit doesn't set. Toms don't really like it super hot. Anything past high twenties and they start to struggle.
Yeah, i feel pretty sure its the heat too - I did a bit of research last year when it happened and it seems to make sense, it is always so helpful hearing from others about their experience and ideas too, to confirm our thinking is reasurring too 🙏 I may rry spacing them a little further apart next year and see if that helps with a little more air flow maybe ... ✌️🌿