I am always amazed when I spend a little time in the veg garden getting exercise and mental rest , which results in almost free tastey high quality food for my family. Money saved and health improved!
Daily therapy, we are wild creatures not what we do for a living. Enjoy as much time as I can outdoors in any way shape or fashion. Gardening a huge chunk of that time during the day along other activities. Happy, turn that tv off.
Just a shout out to Ben and appreciation for everything he does for us. The world right now is utterly mad beyond mad and this site is a much needed escape from all that madness!
Thanks so much guys, that's incredibly kind of you to say. And yes, gardening is such a welcome distraction from the madness of the world around us right now.
What is absolutely priceless is the pleasure of working with my hands, the enjoyment of learning about how nature works, and the satisfaction of getting delicious food for my efforts. Having an abundant harvest to share is a welcomed bonus too! A potato from my garden is worth at least 10 potatoes from the grocery store in my eyes.
I grew my potatoes in bags this year, and I had the best harvest I’ve ever had. Not a single potato lost to pests. Previous years I’ve had more holes than potatoes.
@@eeeeesha Yeah normally mine do, last year I had more holes than potatoes. Out of 40 potatoes planted I probably got less than 20 usable potatoes back.
I've been recovering from an emergency operation since June and am so behind on my gardening. I didnt realise what a difference my few minutes a week of weeding and looking for pest damage made! Hoping for better luck next year!
Japanese Raspberrries are one of the very few fruits that can be in the freezer and taking nearly no harm from that. My mom harvests most of them and freezes them instantly, just for some delicious fruity cake with glacing in the middle of winter. Alwaays a little wonder for all of her guests!
My Jerusalem artichokes took over my garden 😂. I've moved them today. The flowers are amazing and great to give to friends. My grandson harvested a bucket full of the tubers with his plastic fork. Time to make soup. Thanks for all the tips ❤
@GrowVeg Do you think weather change has impacted growing? I didn't have a single parsnip this year...I sowed twice. Next year, I plan to sow later. Soil is very slow to warm up!
Dear ben your videos are always very interesting and contagiusly entusiastic after the summer we had in north london i m going to plant corn like yours i did very well with sweet pepper in green house they grow much bigger than usual thank you
Just love watching your video's and garden tips. Was amazed how you stored the re-freshed compost/potting soil in a bag for next season. That was brilliant, no bugs can crawl in to over winter!! Where there is a willing heart, things happen. Thank you for sharing, have a beautiful day.
I installed a solar watering system in my poly tunnel & asparagus bed in August - saved me so much time, I will be investing in more for the rest of the allotment & the garden.
Another great tip , I can’t believe how many potatoes you harvested out of one Pot Ben .Fantastic tip.I got myself a large Trog basket recently too.Can’t wait for a summer harvest to use it! .All the digging in a garden with Potatoes you get double the harvest in a pot. Then you reuse the potting mix !Cheers Ben from Australia 🇦🇺 Just love your tips 😂
Ben, you have consistently great videos! Clear, succinct, and I ALWAYS learn something valuable. In this video, I particularly appreciated the focus on perennial veggies and your use of the ollas (did I even spell that right?). Keep up the great work!
Those potatoes have me thinking about mash, celeriac, butter and crème fraiche, delicious! I’m trying to grow things that come together in a winter warming soup or stew recipe,love leeks, they just sit there until I’m ready. Cooking last night my husband said “Oh no, I forgot to buy leeks” It was fun to go and pull one up with a triumphant “Tadahh!” 🥰😂
Thanks for the suggestion, will certainly consider this. Rosemary is very hardy though, so may grow best outside. So long as the soil/potting mix is well drained.
Another really useful video, many thanks. Growing purple sprouting broccoli for the first time, my plants went into the ground a couple of weeks ago, they make yours look like exhibitions specimens but seem to be settling so I’m hopeful. For the first time my spring sown courgettes did nothing, just too wet and cold I think. As I had seeds I sowed again in August without much hope but those plants are amazing, still growing and cropping beautifully. So called summer fruiting raspberries are only now forming berries so will be interesting to see if they ripen before the frost arrives. Really hope that next year is kinder for gardeners but at least we can always find motivation through your weekly videos to keep us trying. Thanks again for all of the advice shared.
It's always a good watch, Ben. I think this growing season has come to a sudden end.😢 But the potatoes in the greenhouse are flying.😅 It's been too wet for my raspberry they've got mould 😢 cheers, my friend 👍 🐟
I found a decent little Sun Joe chipper/shredder at a thrift store. It's been great for compost and mulch. My jerusalem artichokes gave me about 20 gallons worth. Next year I'm planning on growing corn and sorghum and shredding the stalks in that thing. Not too bad for $25 USD and easier than whacking them with a shovel. 😁 I've stopped bothering with a compost bin. I just chuck kitchen scraps in grow bags and top them with soil, or I send bigger stuff through that chipper. There's going to be a lot of canna lily and moringa going through it here in the next few weeks I suppose.
Unfortunately, Japanese wineberry is a major invasive here in Eastern Pennsylvania :( someone planted it on our property years ago and it's such a battle to get rid of it!
Just found you via Charles Dowding - I hope to grow more veg varieties next year and not have a glut of runner beans and tomoatoes like this year. I have been composting for years but only just discovering why mine has been so wet in the past. !!! Keep up the interesting videos -- plenty to catch up as i am a subscriber
All good stuff as ever , mate. (Except that for my physical ,and more especially ,mental health ,I need to spend as long as possible in the garden!........If work commitments are too much...work less! Childcare commitments?....extra hands in the garden!) Best Wishes..
What I realized after cleaning our freezer is we don’t need to grow so much anymore. I have identified many varieties of our favorites that do well here and concentrate time on those vegetables only. I definitely hit the best bean varieties this year and had to finally let them go after over a dozen harvests. As far as storage, it’s getting increasingly warmer and for longer into end of season and finding a cool space is non existent. This year’s harvest was ready 2 weeks earlier also.
Fantastic video Ben! Can you tell us which varieties of tomatoes and corn you have used that are resistant to blight and wet summers like this past one? Thanks! ❤
I used the variety 'Swift' for the corn - it's an early variety, so more resistant to poor summers. For blight-resistant tomatoes I used 'Crimson Crush', but others are available. :-)
You can grow vegetables in very compact spaces also of course: ua-cam.com/video/JQNrfMT8Dhw/v-deo.htmlsi=AESkq_W4FWAAu2-1 and ua-cam.com/video/_Dkz8AGRY0s/v-deo.htmlsi=63R7LVgSunqjZjZW
I enjoy your videos. American viewers should know that wineberry is probably not the best thing to grow in their gardens. It is a highly invasive non-native species in North America that easily escapes cultivation and displaces native species. It is actually illegal in parts of the Northeast. (reposted bc prev was from work account - oops)
For me, working with my hands and [weather/situation depending] bare feet in the garden acts to recharge my own energy batteries and I could not care less whether that is a psychologically prompted benefit or because of earth energy. I gather that there is a suggestion from investigation of ancient sites that ''earth energies'' were utilised and wondered if you had an opinion on this newly imagined electro culture because the odd bit of copper does seem, perhaps, to make a difference - if nothing else to slugs. This year I wandered past your excellent green tomato suggestion to a soup - roasted with onion, peppers etc and liquidized and now have family members begging me to grow green tomoatoes next year. I'm also trying green tomato wine because I have fallen into the obsessional pit of home wine making. handy to give people in exchange or as gifts since I couldn't possibly drink more than a nip of it. I am now far less bothered by the awful weather we've had this year - everything has been used and stored in one form or another - but I still ache for another polytunnel! Thank you for your videos - I love the enthusiasm. I would sign up but qr code things are far beyond me, or my ancient phone.
@@GrowVeg It bubbles even as I write. I have only recently become hopelessly addicted to winemaking, when I wanted to make a country wine for an elderly neighbour because it [dandelion] reminds him of his mother, and these things are important, I feel. Now I can't walk past anything without whipping out a demijohn and not being a drinker I will end up with plenty to give away. I am happy to send you a bottle if you want once it has finished doing its mystical stuff.
Toads don't live in water constantly. Only in spring they mate in the water. After that they live out of water. So I'm not sure that toad can climb out of that deep plastic olla. I would take it out of there, or make a tiny toadstairs of a plank or so..
Thanx man. I am specifically interested in the Japanese berry you talked about, similar to Raspberry. I’ve never heard of them but would love to plant them in my garden. I am in Canada in Zone 6b Do u think I could grow them here?
I could likely grow where you are, yes. But exercise caution. In a lot of the US it is banned as it's very vigorous. I don't know what the situation is where you are in Canada - but I'd definitely check. :-)
Thank you! Quick question: why are you removing the roots from the soil before removing? Wouldn’t leaving in the roots add additional compost/nutrients? Thank you for your answer!
I’m not sure why I did that. Generally leaving the roots in place - like I did with the spent corn - will help to add additional organic matter, you’re right.
One of the things I like(d) about your channel are the videos emphasizing how to garden inexpensively and especially the importance and ease of seed starting. In fact you've developed a program around seed starting. I was truly disappointed by this video to learn that you did NOT start your own tomato plants but rather purchased hybrid plants. Not only did you buy them versus start them yourselves, but they're not even heirloom so you can't save the seeds. Well you can, but you won't get true plants. Definitely not what I expected from your channel. "Transcript 3:32 Not only that but I bought them as young, grafted plants 3:36 to give them extra oomph behind them that's saved starting these from seed and ensured I've got this really, really vigorous growth." You should lead by example. Why bother having a workshop on seed starting, talking about seed saving and talking about ways to garden frugally if you're going to spend money in a nursery buying hybrid plants to save time in the garden? That's not what gardening is about. The time is well spent as since it is very mentally therapeutic, the time spent is healing. Just never expected that from you.
I bought a couple of plants like this for growing outside - others (in the greenhouse) were grown from seed. I see absolutely no problem or conflict of interest in buying seeds and plants - most gardeners do this. The grafted hybrid plants are NOT GM plants or anything like that. And they've performed really well outside - our summer has been truly awful, with temperatures struggling to get about 68 Fahrenheit a lot of the time. I consider paying a small amount for robust, outdoor tomatoes a good tradeoff. :-)
Great video, as always. That was a very interesting and surprising little planting of corn. How many plants were there? How wide were the rows and how far apart in the row? What variety was it? Thanks!!
How many do you feed from your garden? There are only two of us but we often make up a veg box for out daughter, any left over we take to the local food bank
There's just three of us in our household. The garden doesn't suppy absolutely everything of course, but keeps us well stocked with plenty of fresh veggies and fruit. :-)
This is fantastic to read! Most herbs are in fact perennials. Great for growing in the UK would be thyme, rosemary, lavender, sage, oregano, marjoram, chives, mint of all types, lemon balm - and so many more. :-)
If I hear the words save time once more I'm going to go mad, This man gives the impression that it's all about as little time as possible. He is duping 800 000 plus people.
But lots of the methods shared here really do save time - that 's the point of the video, to share a few ideas that may help to shave a few minutes off the schedule for busy gardeners. :-)
On the left-hand side of the greenhouse I'm growing cucumbers and also lemongrass, planted directly into the borders. There are also a few aubergine/egg plants in there, and some potted peppers. :-)
@@GrowVegmaybe it’s green eggplant. There are 7 green fruits hanging down and I thought it looked like a citrus tree, lemon or lime maybe, but I’ve never grown them so I’m not sure.
0:47 to 1:41 It seems that planting them in buckets makes it easier to harvest the potatoes. I saw some neighbors planting non-root vegetables in planters instead of directly on the ground. They put the planters on the ground. Is there any point of doing so ?
It could be worth it if the soil was compacted or hard to plant into or something. But generally, I reckon it would be best to plant straight into the ground for non-root crops like that.
Yes, you could certainly reuse the pot, though I'd caution reusing the potting mix, unless the potatoes are pristine, in which case you could try, perhaps refreshing it by adding some organic fertiliser to restore the nutrients lost.
Ooh Ben so good but I have 3 questions. Hope that's not too many! I have just got 3 pallet collars. Did you treat yours and if so what with? Or did you just leave them untreated? The 2nd is the wine berry. I dug my raspberries out because they suckered all over the place. Does the wine berry sucker do you know? Finally your potatoes you placed in the shed. How do you know if there are any rotten ones? Thanks Ben. Love your videos and tips, Shoshanah
No problem. :-) I didn't treat my pallet collars - they just went in as they are. So far the wineberry hasn't suckered, but the stems it throws out are very long and pretty epic! So probably a bit more brutish than raspberries on balance. But very vigorous and plentiful. With the potatoes, it's really just trusting that they'll be good to be honest! You won't know till you empty the bucket. But my potatoes rarely last that long as we go through them quite quickly.
Yes, many crop roots you can just leave in the ground to rot down, where they'll add extra organic matter to the soil. This is especially worth doing with harder-to-dig up crops like corn.
Where was all this rain and dampness you mention? Spring was rather damp here in London, but summer was almost completely dry and I wasn’t able to provide plants with the water they needed.
Great tips, but @11:36 YIKES! Looks like the very invasive Asian wineberry that's a real pain in my yard. The birds eat the seeds and these brambles pop up everywhere, very much like I've heard the British talk about blackberry patches. Be careful!
I wondered the same about wine berry. We have an area that spread a picky low growing, spreading mess. I have come to the conclusion it is some kind of wild wine berry after research. It’s awful!! The neighbor doesn’t take care of their acreage and the wine berry and buckthorn I battle and the other side buckthorn and black walnut trees. It’s a Battle! Those wine berry leaped across a path and the rhizomes are racing everywhere! Maybe I should send my brush killer bill to both neighbors🧐.
@@dustyflats3832 Wineberry was brought to Pennsylvania, USA from Asia in the 1890s to for hybridization with cultivated raspberries. I believe it when you said they leapt across a path. I had some the birds planted under the shade of my saucer magnolia, and it grew at least 10 feet of cane weaving in and out of tree branches to find the light. Geez. I don't have any wild yards next to me and have been having luck cutting, digging and/or regularly mowing to control the wineberries I've worked on so far. I, too, have problems with black walnuts, but at least they're native. Squirrels hide and forget about the nuts in the worst places and as you know one chop doesn't keep the tree from coming back. I'm in Maryland, USA, and don't have buckthorn that I know of, but I found that's non-native too, so sorry about that! Good luck with the battle!
I also grow pretty much everything too but I qualify it as "how I feed my family - vegetables", and vegetables are only a portion of what we eat, although i see a lot of YT titles like yours. I dont grow any grains, and no longer milk my house cow (because we're both getting on in years) although I am privileged to raise our meat and eggs. Clearly my veg garden doesn't completely "feed my family"
My tomatoes are still ripening in the poly tunnel (South Bucks). It is going to get colder next week, so I'll probably bring the uprooted vines into a shed to ripen over the winter. 👍
Thanks for the video. Notice you appear to be using Sylvagrow compost - how do you find it? I've found it awful! I've done a number of vegetable, herb and flower seedling/ growing on trials comparing it to Fertile fibre general purpose peat free compost and in every single case the difference is massive. The fertile fibre produces haelthy vigorous plants but not the Sylvagrow, I think it's down to the moisture absorption. The FF sucks it up within a couple of minutes when watered from below but not Sylvagrow.
I'm not that impressed by Sylvagrow. I use it as it's what's sold in my local garden centre, but I do think I need to look at alternatives for next year!
I'm def no expert, but I heard you never want to use night shade soil on other plants, as they harbor things they can handle, but others can not. You might want to use that soil only on tomatoes/potatoes.
You tell us the potatoes took 10 minutes. But u used potting mix and a pot. You had to buy that, so go to the garden centre, to your land. I reckon that takes 30 minutes?
@@GrowVeg I apologise for my tone. But I just found everything takes so much more work than being told on these youtube videos. Some people don´t have a car and have to bicycle to the store, spend money, go back to the land, which is not at home - this is 1 hour easily and not 10 minutes, for potatoes only.
I am always amazed when I spend a little time in the veg garden getting exercise and mental rest , which results in almost free tastey high quality food for my family. Money saved and health improved!
So true! :-)
Daily therapy, we are wild creatures not what we do for a living. Enjoy as much time as I can outdoors in any way shape or fashion. Gardening a huge chunk of that time during the day along other activities. Happy, turn that tv off.
Just a shout out to Ben and appreciation for everything he does for us. The world right now is utterly mad beyond mad and this site is a much needed escape from all that madness!
Absolutely. A little normality to keep us sane
Totally agree. Thank you, Ben. 😊
Thanks so much guys, that's incredibly kind of you to say. And yes, gardening is such a welcome distraction from the madness of the world around us right now.
@@GrowVeg Will you marry me Ben?!
Yes, thank you Ben! I have learnt a lot from you .
What is absolutely priceless is the pleasure of working with my hands, the enjoyment of learning about how nature works, and the satisfaction of getting delicious food for my efforts. Having an abundant harvest to share is a welcomed bonus too! A potato from my garden is worth at least 10 potatoes from the grocery store in my eyes.
So true! :-)
Your channel gives me everything I need to know. I needn't look anywhere else. I have your garden planner too. Keep up the good work.
Thanks so much Jonathan - it's really great to have your support. Happy gardening! :-)
Thanks a lot for the free abridged book! Will make a useful autumn/winter reading 😊
That bucket potato trick and moving them into a shed is brilliant!
I grew my potatoes in bags this year, and I had the best harvest I’ve ever had. Not a single potato lost to pests. Previous years I’ve had more holes than potatoes.
I'll definitely try that then! My potatoes have been eaten by slugs 😢
@@eeeeesha Yeah normally mine do, last year I had more holes than potatoes. Out of 40 potatoes planted I probably got less than 20 usable potatoes back.
How about placing the bag inside another hard container? @@Junk_World_Templar
@@Mygraciously Yeah you could, but I’ve not needed to so far.
Thank you for giving me the love of growing food.
That’s so lovely to read, thank you! 🤩
I've been recovering from an emergency operation since June and am so behind on my gardening. I didnt realise what a difference my few minutes a week of weeding and looking for pest damage made! Hoping for better luck next year!
I love flowers that have colors like dragonfly wings. The toad's shelter is so cute.
Love the peacock impression 😆 x
Thank you Ben it's always a pleasure to catch up with you and keep on track happy gardening 😊
And to you. :-)
Japanese Raspberrries are one of the very few fruits that can be in the freezer and taking nearly no harm from that. My mom harvests most of them and freezes them instantly, just for some delicious fruity cake with glacing in the middle of winter. Alwaays a little wonder for all of her guests!
Regular raspberries freeze well, as do blackcurrants, gooseberries etc
My Jerusalem artichokes took over my garden 😂. I've moved them today. The flowers are amazing and great to give to friends.
My grandson harvested a bucket full of the tubers with his plastic fork. Time to make soup.
Thanks for all the tips ❤
They are stunning flowers aren't they - flowers and food from the same plant is a great deal! :-)
Wow your garden looks huge and plentiful, thanks ben great tips brilliant video ❤
Love your videos! You are so positive and informative, keep up the good work!
I'm jealous of your corn!!! The Japanese wineberry looks invasive!
I use the leaves of the brocoli and sprouts through the winter too
Wonderful video! Thanks so much! Now to go work in my garden!🐕🐸🦎🐛🦋
I really really enjoy your videos, so informative and full of life. Thank you :)
Thanks so much. Happy gardening! :-)
my favourite gardener thanks Ben for another informative video
Hi Ben, congrats on the amazing content - cheers from Canada
Thanks so much - and I appreciate you taking the time to watch too. :-)
You always find a way to present new, unique tricks and ideas in your videos - thank you!
Thank you Ben for all great and helpful information and for your book ❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks so much for your kind comment. Happy gardening! :-)
For all that I THINK I know about growing food, I learn something new from you from every video. Thank you for everything you give.
As gardeners we are all always learning. :-)
@GrowVeg Do you think weather change has impacted growing? I didn't have a single parsnip this year...I sowed twice. Next year, I plan to sow later. Soil is very slow to warm up!
That looks delightful! ❤
Dear ben your videos are always very interesting and contagiusly entusiastic after the summer we had in north london i m going to plant corn like yours i did very well with sweet pepper in green house they grow much bigger than usual thank you
Thanks for your kind words. The corn I grew was ‘Swift’ from memory.
Little and often is the key for me, don't overdo it. Staying positive too!
A positive mindset definitely helps! :-)
Just love watching your video's and garden tips. Was amazed how you stored the re-freshed compost/potting soil in a bag for next season. That was brilliant, no bugs can crawl in to over winter!! Where there is a willing heart, things happen. Thank you for sharing, have a beautiful day.
And you! 😀🌱
Thanks I appreciate your teaching it’s like watching PBS! (public broadcasting station)
I installed a solar watering system in my poly tunnel & asparagus bed in August - saved me so much time, I will be investing in more for the rest of the allotment & the garden.
Wineberries grow wild here in Pennsylvania on the side of the roads. Sometimes I see ppl parking on the shoulders and picking them up
I used to have a cat who loved chewing sweetcorn stems.
I have 2 that go after the corn silk.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this channel! Thanks so much! Learning loads from you!
Thanks so much! :-)
G'stuff! I think this year has been pretty good for my garden! :)
Another great tip , I can’t believe how many potatoes you harvested out of one Pot Ben .Fantastic tip.I got myself a large Trog basket recently too.Can’t wait for a summer harvest to use it! .All the digging in a garden with Potatoes you get double the harvest in a pot. Then you reuse the potting mix !Cheers Ben from Australia 🇦🇺 Just love your tips 😂
Yes, I found the containers to be really very convenient and definitely lower maintenance. :-)
Ben, you have consistently great videos! Clear, succinct, and I ALWAYS learn something valuable. In this video, I particularly appreciated the focus on perennial veggies and your use of the ollas (did I even spell that right?). Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much for your kind words. And yes, you spelt ollas right! :-)
Those potatoes have me thinking about mash, celeriac, butter and crème fraiche, delicious!
I’m trying to grow things that come together in a winter warming soup or stew recipe,love leeks, they just sit there until I’m ready. Cooking last night my husband said “Oh no, I forgot to buy leeks” It was fun to go and pull one up with a triumphant “Tadahh!” 🥰😂
That’s brilliant! Potatoes and leeks are the combination made in heaven. :-)
You’re awesome, Ben :)
Good video as always! Someday could you do a video on how to keep rosemary alive indoors over winter? I've always had it die.
Thanks for the suggestion, will certainly consider this. Rosemary is very hardy though, so may grow best outside. So long as the soil/potting mix is well drained.
@@GrowVeg I could give it a try, but I've never heard of a rosemary that could survive a climate as cold as mine.
Cape gooseberries / Physalis peruviana over winter well in the poly tunnel. A rich source of vitamin c for the winter 🙂
So many great ideas! Thank you
love your videos!
Another really useful video, many thanks.
Growing purple sprouting broccoli for the first time, my plants went into the ground a couple of weeks ago, they make yours look like exhibitions specimens but seem to be settling so I’m hopeful. For the first time my spring sown courgettes did nothing, just too wet and cold I think. As I had seeds I sowed again in August without much hope but those plants are amazing, still growing and cropping beautifully.
So called summer fruiting raspberries are only now forming berries so will be interesting to see if they ripen before the frost arrives. Really hope that next year is kinder for gardeners but at least we can always find motivation through your weekly videos to keep us trying. Thanks again for all of the advice shared.
It has been a bit of a tough year. Next year will be better I'm sure! :-)
So great ❤❤❤
love your channel !
It's always a good watch, Ben. I think this growing season has come to a sudden end.😢 But the potatoes in the greenhouse are flying.😅 It's been too wet for my raspberry they've got mould 😢 cheers, my friend 👍 🐟
Glad the potatoes are flying at least. 😀
It also helps if you have a huge garden !!
There's lots you can grow in pots and containers too: ua-cam.com/video/JQNrfMT8Dhw/v-deo.htmlsi=6nn3h8zczHIdR9Jz
I found a decent little Sun Joe chipper/shredder at a thrift store. It's been great for compost and mulch. My jerusalem artichokes gave me about 20 gallons worth. Next year I'm planning on growing corn and sorghum and shredding the stalks in that thing. Not too bad for $25 USD and easier than whacking them with a shovel. 😁
I've stopped bothering with a compost bin. I just chuck kitchen scraps in grow bags and top them with soil, or I send bigger stuff through that chipper. There's going to be a lot of canna lily and moringa going through it here in the next few weeks I suppose.
That's a great find - and such good value! :-)
I love it 😻 😊!.
Hello brother 👋 very good 👍
Thank so much. :-)
We make Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations out of our corn shocks--and then compost them later.
What a fab idea. :-)
Unfortunately, Japanese wineberry is a major invasive here in Eastern Pennsylvania :( someone planted it on our property years ago and it's such a battle to get rid of it!
Greetings from Chile, South America ! New subscriber here and starting to enjoy all your videos! Hope using some of your tips as well, lol
Thanks so much for subscribing - a very warm welcome to the channel! :-)
Just found you via Charles Dowding - I hope to grow more veg varieties next year and not have a glut of runner beans and tomoatoes like this year. I have been composting for years but only just discovering why mine has been so wet in the past. !!! Keep up the interesting videos -- plenty to catch up as i am a subscriber
Thanks for finding us - and a very warm welcome to the channel! :-)
Good video as always! Someday could you do a video on how to keep rosemary alive indoors over winter? I've always had it die.
Rosemary likes very well-drained soil. It likes good sun too, so it may be too dark indoors.
All good stuff as ever , mate.
(Except that for my physical ,and more especially ,mental health ,I need to spend as long as possible in the garden!........If work commitments are too much...work less!
Childcare commitments?....extra hands in the garden!)
Best Wishes..
Get them helping in the garden, definitely! :-)
What I realized after cleaning our freezer is we don’t need to grow so much anymore. I have identified many varieties of our favorites that do well here and concentrate time on those vegetables only. I definitely hit the best bean varieties this year and had to finally let them go after over a dozen harvests.
As far as storage, it’s getting increasingly warmer and for longer into end of season and finding a cool space is non existent. This year’s harvest was ready 2 weeks earlier also.
Fantastic video Ben! Can you tell us which varieties of tomatoes and corn you have used that are resistant to blight and wet summers like this past one? Thanks! ❤
I used the variety 'Swift' for the corn - it's an early variety, so more resistant to poor summers. For blight-resistant tomatoes I used 'Crimson Crush', but others are available. :-)
@@GrowVeg thanks a lot! I will try them next summer :)
78 minutes and plenty of land!
You can grow vegetables in very compact spaces also of course: ua-cam.com/video/JQNrfMT8Dhw/v-deo.htmlsi=AESkq_W4FWAAu2-1 and ua-cam.com/video/_Dkz8AGRY0s/v-deo.htmlsi=63R7LVgSunqjZjZW
Yes you can grow veg in compact spaces. But to feed a family I would have thought something akin to an allotment would be needed?
4:25 good one ben
I enjoy your videos. American viewers should know that wineberry is probably not the best thing to grow in their gardens. It is a highly invasive non-native species in North America that easily escapes cultivation and displaces native species. It is actually illegal in parts of the Northeast. (reposted bc prev was from work account - oops)
Thanks for this warning - yes, very important not to plant it if it's invasive/illegal in your area!
For me, working with my hands and [weather/situation depending] bare feet in the garden acts to recharge my own energy batteries and I could not care less whether that is a psychologically prompted benefit or because of earth energy. I gather that there is a suggestion from investigation of ancient sites that ''earth energies'' were utilised and wondered if you had an opinion on this newly imagined electro culture because the odd bit of copper does seem, perhaps, to make a difference - if nothing else to slugs.
This year I wandered past your excellent green tomato suggestion to a soup - roasted with onion, peppers etc and liquidized and now have family members begging me to grow green tomoatoes next year. I'm also trying green tomato wine because I have fallen into the obsessional pit of home wine making. handy to give people in exchange or as gifts since I couldn't possibly drink more than a nip of it. I am now far less bothered by the awful weather we've had this year - everything has been used and stored in one form or another - but I still ache for another polytunnel!
Thank you for your videos - I love the enthusiasm. I would sign up but qr code things are far beyond me, or my ancient phone.
I would love to know how the green tomato wine turns out. What a fantastic experiment! I’m sure it will be delicious! :-)
@@GrowVeg It bubbles even as I write. I have only recently become hopelessly addicted to winemaking, when I wanted to make a country wine for an elderly neighbour because it [dandelion] reminds him of his mother, and these things are important, I feel. Now I can't walk past anything without whipping out a demijohn and not being a drinker I will end up with plenty to give away. I am happy to send you a bottle if you want once it has finished doing its mystical stuff.
Toads don't live in water constantly. Only in spring they mate in the water. After that they live out of water. So I'm not sure that toad can climb out of that deep plastic olla. I would take it out of there, or make a tiny toadstairs of a plank or so..
Thanks for the heads up. I popped in a rock for it to use as a ladder to get out. When I returned he was gone! :-)
@@GrowVeg that's great!
Thanx man. I am specifically interested in the Japanese berry you talked about, similar to Raspberry. I’ve never heard of them but would love to plant them in my garden. I am in Canada in Zone 6b
Do u think I could grow them here?
I could likely grow where you are, yes. But exercise caution. In a lot of the US it is banned as it's very vigorous. I don't know what the situation is where you are in Canada - but I'd definitely check. :-)
Thank you! Quick question: why are you removing the roots from the soil before removing? Wouldn’t leaving in the roots add additional compost/nutrients? Thank you for your answer!
I’m not sure why I did that. Generally leaving the roots in place - like I did with the spent corn - will help to add additional organic matter, you’re right.
@@GrowVeg Thank you so much for your response! It is much appreciated!
One of the things I like(d) about your channel are the videos emphasizing how to garden inexpensively and especially the importance and ease of seed starting. In fact you've developed a program around seed starting.
I was truly disappointed by this video to learn that you did NOT start your own tomato plants but rather purchased hybrid plants.
Not only did you buy them versus start them yourselves, but they're not even heirloom so you can't save the seeds. Well you can, but you won't get true plants.
Definitely not what I expected from your channel.
"Transcript
3:32 Not only that but I bought them as young, grafted plants
3:36 to give them extra oomph behind them that's saved starting these from seed
and ensured I've got this really, really vigorous growth."
You should lead by example.
Why bother having a workshop on seed starting, talking about seed saving and talking about ways to garden frugally if you're going to spend money in a nursery buying hybrid plants to save time in the garden? That's not what gardening is about. The time is well spent as since it is very mentally therapeutic, the time spent is healing.
Just never expected that from you.
I bought a couple of plants like this for growing outside - others (in the greenhouse) were grown from seed. I see absolutely no problem or conflict of interest in buying seeds and plants - most gardeners do this. The grafted hybrid plants are NOT GM plants or anything like that. And they've performed really well outside - our summer has been truly awful, with temperatures struggling to get about 68 Fahrenheit a lot of the time. I consider paying a small amount for robust, outdoor tomatoes a good tradeoff. :-)
Great video, as always. That was a very interesting and surprising little planting of corn. How many plants were there? How wide were the rows and how far apart in the row? What variety was it? Thanks!!
They were roughly 35cm (14in) or so apart in both directions. I think there were around 25 plants in total.
How many do you feed from your garden? There are only two of us but we often make up a veg box for out daughter, any left over we take to the local food bank
There's just three of us in our household. The garden doesn't suppy absolutely everything of course, but keeps us well stocked with plenty of fresh veggies and fruit. :-)
Hi Ben I'm new to gardening and hoping to start a herb garden next year and I was wondering what herbs are perennials in the uk
This is fantastic to read! Most herbs are in fact perennials. Great for growing in the UK would be thyme, rosemary, lavender, sage, oregano, marjoram, chives, mint of all types, lemon balm - and so many more. :-)
@@GrowVeg thank you for the advice
Another amazing guide to sustainability! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🍀🫶🏻🌻
If I hear the words save time once more I'm going to go mad, This man gives the impression that it's all about as little time as possible. He is duping 800 000 plus people.
But lots of the methods shared here really do save time - that 's the point of the video, to share a few ideas that may help to shave a few minutes off the schedule for busy gardeners. :-)
@@GrowVeg👏🏾👏🏾🇺🇸
You watched a video about saving time in the garden and are upset that he talked about saving time in the garden?
What are the green fruits hanging in your greenhouse on the lower left side of the screen when you are talking about Ollas? Next to the watering can.
On the left-hand side of the greenhouse I'm growing cucumbers and also lemongrass, planted directly into the borders. There are also a few aubergine/egg plants in there, and some potted peppers. :-)
@@GrowVegmaybe it’s green eggplant. There are 7 green fruits hanging down and I thought it looked like a citrus tree, lemon or lime maybe, but I’ve never grown them so I’m not sure.
0:47 to 1:41 It seems that planting them in buckets makes it easier to harvest the potatoes.
I saw some neighbors planting non-root vegetables in planters instead of directly on the ground. They put the planters on the ground. Is there any point of doing so ?
It could be worth it if the soil was compacted or hard to plant into or something. But generally, I reckon it would be best to plant straight into the ground for non-root crops like that.
Can the potato plant be repotted to produce more after you take away the potatoes?
Yes, you could certainly reuse the pot, though I'd caution reusing the potting mix, unless the potatoes are pristine, in which case you could try, perhaps refreshing it by adding some organic fertiliser to restore the nutrients lost.
Ooh Ben so good but I have 3 questions. Hope that's not too many!
I have just got 3 pallet collars. Did you treat yours and if so what with? Or did you just leave them untreated?
The 2nd is the wine berry. I dug my raspberries out because they suckered all over the place. Does the wine berry sucker do you know?
Finally your potatoes you placed in the shed. How do you know if there are any rotten ones?
Thanks Ben. Love your videos and tips, Shoshanah
No problem. :-)
I didn't treat my pallet collars - they just went in as they are.
So far the wineberry hasn't suckered, but the stems it throws out are very long and pretty epic! So probably a bit more brutish than raspberries on balance. But very vigorous and plentiful.
With the potatoes, it's really just trusting that they'll be good to be honest! You won't know till you empty the bucket. But my potatoes rarely last that long as we go through them quite quickly.
@GrowVeg Thanks Ben for taking the time out to answer my questions 😊🥔🍆🍅🌽🥒🥬🥦
I've heard a lot about leaving the roots behind. Is that only for certain things??
Yes, many crop roots you can just leave in the ground to rot down, where they'll add extra organic matter to the soil. This is especially worth doing with harder-to-dig up crops like corn.
Where do you get your seeds. You mentioned blight resistant outdoor tomatoes and sweet corn to grow in a bad summer
I buy most of my seeds from Kings Seeds. :-)
Where was all this rain and dampness you mention? Spring was rather damp here in London, but summer was almost completely dry and I wasn’t able to provide plants with the water they needed.
Definitely wetter where I am (Cotswolds).
Are potatoes worth it compared to buying relatively cheap ones? Even many uncommon varieties at farmers markets aren't that expensive.
Maybe not as a money saver, but I think the ones I grow are much better taste wise.
Definitely not worth growing potatoes to save money, but a very satisfying thing to do and the taste is always better. :-)
What's the name of your general purpose fertilizer that you put back in the dirt if you don't mind? Thank you
It was just blood, fish and bone - a powdered organic fertiliser that's widely available. :-)
@@GrowVeg thank you
Hi Ben, what seed catalogue do you use?
I tend to browse catalogues online. My go-to seed company is Kings Seeds for value and quality.
Great tips, but @11:36 YIKES! Looks like the very invasive Asian wineberry that's a real pain in my yard. The birds eat the seeds and these brambles pop up everywhere, very much like I've heard the British talk about blackberry patches. Be careful!
I wondered the same about wine berry. We have an area that spread a picky low growing, spreading mess. I have come to the conclusion it is some kind of wild wine berry after research. It’s awful!! The neighbor doesn’t take care of their acreage and the wine berry and buckthorn I battle and the other side buckthorn and black walnut trees. It’s a Battle! Those wine berry leaped across a path and the rhizomes are racing everywhere! Maybe I should send my brush killer bill to both neighbors🧐.
@@dustyflats3832 Wineberry was brought to Pennsylvania, USA from Asia in the 1890s to for hybridization with cultivated raspberries. I believe it when you said they leapt across a path. I had some the birds planted under the shade of my saucer magnolia, and it grew at least 10 feet of cane weaving in and out of tree branches to find the light. Geez. I don't have any wild yards next to me and have been having luck cutting, digging and/or regularly mowing to control the wineberries I've worked on so far. I, too, have problems with black walnuts, but at least they're native. Squirrels hide and forget about the nuts in the worst places and as you know one chop doesn't keep the tree from coming back. I'm in Maryland, USA, and don't have buckthorn that I know of, but I found that's non-native too, so sorry about that! Good luck with the battle!
I think the wineberry is less of a thug in my climate, but I’ll definitely keep a close eye on it!
I also grow pretty much everything too but I qualify it as "how I feed my family - vegetables", and vegetables are only a portion of what we eat, although i see a lot of YT titles like yours. I dont grow any grains, and no longer milk my house cow (because we're both getting on in years) although I am privileged to raise our meat and eggs. Clearly my veg garden doesn't completely "feed my family"
No, you're right. The garden supplies many of my veggies and fruits, but that's it. Would love to grow grains and keep chickens some day. :-)
Nasturtium leaves can b eaten… taste a bit like horseradish 😊
Please honestly tell when you harvested these many veggies at the end of September??😊
I took all my green tomatoes indoors by the dnd of August 😅.
My tomatoes are still ripening in the poly tunnel (South Bucks). It is going to get colder next week, so I'll probably bring the uprooted vines into a shed to ripen over the winter. 👍
This was filmed maybe two weeks ago. Still stuff growing but it’s slowed down a lot in the last week.
@@GrowVeg thanks 😊 it makes sense.
what is the big cut on your leg
I hadn't noticed! I often get cuts from brambles in my garden and don't notice till I'm back indoors!
Thanks for the video. Notice you appear to be using Sylvagrow compost - how do you find it? I've found it awful! I've done a number of vegetable, herb and flower seedling/ growing on trials comparing it to Fertile fibre general purpose peat free compost and in every single case the difference is massive. The fertile fibre produces haelthy vigorous plants but not the Sylvagrow, I think it's down to the moisture absorption. The FF sucks it up within a couple of minutes when watered from below but not Sylvagrow.
I'm not that impressed by Sylvagrow. I use it as it's what's sold in my local garden centre, but I do think I need to look at alternatives for next year!
Can anyone tell me how you deal with foxes and grey squirrels?? I want to plant more, but foxes and squirrels dig or munch everything 😢
try black pepper, should work for the squirrels, not sure about the foxes
Having land helps
When do you like to cut your asparagus back?
I cut mine back when the stems have gone brown.
The stems are cut back later in autumn once the stems have completely yellowed/browned.
I'm def no expert, but I heard you never want to use night shade soil on other plants, as they harbor things they can handle, but others can not. You might want to use that soil only on tomatoes/potatoes.
What was the sweetcorn variety?
I always do well,even in poor summers with F1Swift.
@@tenners3258 I must have sown about 3 lots first didn’t even germinate 2nd lot got eaten and 3rd lot grew but not enough time for the cobs to form
They're Swift F1 from memory. :-)
why cut down corn when it can provide a canopy to protect the soil over winter ????
Yes, you could do that, but I wanted to clear the ground for my sprouting broccoli plants, which will need the extra space and light.
@@GrowVeg fair enuff
❤🙏🥰😻
Can anyone tell me why at 00:20 Bens legs are the most formidable things I've seen all day?
Really?! 😱
@@GrowVeg Haha.. Yes!! Have a look at that flex....
Do you buy the seed potatoes every year or did you self save them? I self saved them this year...... worst harvest ever!!😅
I by them new every spring, though I have one bed of volunteer potatoes that comes up time and again!
@@GrowVeg Yh I saw that lots and lots of poeple saved their own tried it... nope!
10 minutes is different where I'm from.
You tell us the potatoes took 10 minutes. But u used potting mix and a pot. You had to buy that, so go to the garden centre, to your land. I reckon that takes 30 minutes?
Okay, well I was calculating it from having everything in the garden. But point taken! :-)
@@GrowVeg I apologise for my tone. But I just found everything takes so much more work than being told on these youtube videos. Some people don´t have a car and have to bicycle to the store, spend money, go back to the land, which is not at home - this is 1 hour easily and not 10 minutes, for potatoes only.
Pea aphids? Grow vetch.