In this video I share with you a new method that I am following in order to increase the productivity of my vegetable garden. The fantastic thing about growing food is that there are so many options available to us in order to improve yields, but this method may not be quite what you’re expecting. I really hope it gives you some great ideas and inspiration to give this a go yourself so you can get closer to reaching your permaculture/no dig/vegetable gardening goals.
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The Gardening Journal is becoming one of my Best tools so many seemly small things that were so important I would have forgotten. Glad I read your Book telling others about that. they can`t believe they did not know about it /:-)}}} Awesome Insight from Florida.
Learning so much thank you from Canada
If there's something I use as a go to, I let a bit go to seed so I can get that variety to acclimate to my specific region to make it that much more prolific
I am curious as to what the twigs were for you were inserting in the ground at the last of the video? Like this idea of trying different varieties !
Hi Huw, I have been following your channel for a short while now and love your approach to diversity. Taking your advice, I have transformed my lower garden (bindweed and all) into 14 raised beds (4 are 6m x 1.2m and 10 are 3m x 1.2m)Again taking your advice, have created 2 compost bins at the top of the garden as I have a 1:19 slope. Variety I have found here living in middle France is a must. Cannot get British Bio seeds here at the moment due to Brexit so I am having to adapt. Fortunately, have three excellent seed companies in France & Germany supplying heritage seeds etc. It is a must to plant at least 5 varieties of Radish/Cabbage/Carrot (orange, yellow, white etc)/Beetroot/Tomatoes/Peas/Onions & the numerous varieties including Prizewinner of Runner Beans & French Haricot 3m high and dwarf varieties. We have a weekly fresh food market and I am looking to tap into the gaps in the local home grown Bio produce. At 74, I never thought I'd be doing this when I moved to France 5 years ago – Thanks for giving me the inspiration to utilise my time into doing something that is utimately enjoyable.
Hi Huw. A great idea. I’m always trying new varieties but not in such a controlled way as you suggest. My concern would be having enough space to try several of each plant varieties. You’d also need to take account of the recommendation of the seed packets as to the spacing between each row and plant. Take care. Nick
When I moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey, I planted many varieties of things because I knew that what worked well in NJ's long warm growing season and its sandy soils was going to be very different from what worked well in NH's coll short season and its heavy clay soils. I planted eleven types of tomatoes, a half dozen types of bush beans, and so forth and the differences between the types was amazing. Of the eleven tomatoes for example, only three thrived. Some of them barely grew at all, never getting above a foot tall.
It turned out that a carrot from North Africa excelled up here, likewise it was a cucumber from Germany that was best. The pole bean that I had spent years developing in NJ wasn't worth growing up here, but a couple of very old varieties that I bought from the grocery store as dried beans for cooking excelled. It has been a lot of fun learning how to garden in this new climate and soil.
It's easy growing lots of food in a small space when you have lots of space. I know that's counterintuitive but us with small spaces don't have to think about what we grow with what, we have to think about how we crop rotate and prevent disease. It's easy to do in a big space, even if you compartmentalise that big space. Not so easy with a small space. That is the biggest issue with small spaces, but people just tell us to do things that can only be done in big spaces and say do it in your small space,
Quick question about your brassica seed starting bed, would you start swede off in it and transplant them too?
I bought your book on Amazon Canada!
DIVERSITY WINS. Cotswold Seeds tests and sell seeds for cover crops for farmers. They tested with one, or MIXES of cover crop plants (2 up to 12). These plants are grown between the cash crops, or most of the time BEFORE cash crops like wheat, barley, corn, or soy ……are planted.
Those covers are either meant as mulch in combination with the main crop (for insteand ground cover for corn).
Or they are shreddered and superficially worked into the soil to decompose. Some are sown in fall, grow in a little bit, fix the soil over winter and are ready to go into growth as soon as it gets warmer again. After they they were worked in (green manure), the main crop (that typically comes when it is warmer, and reliably so) is sowed on them.
They compared the biomass that they got from cover crops.
Result: a mix is even better than only planting the most efficient cover crops. (One aspect that has to be considered is what the seeds cost ! the stars may cost more while others have decent performance at a low seed price)
The more varied the better. They have different functions, some have deep roots, others fix phospor or nitrogen. And should one variety not do well, there are still many others to stand in and take up more space.
Some are clearly better in one function than most. but the performance of having a mix of 6 or 12 was always better than only concentrating on the star for one job (like being deep rooting or nitrogen fixing. Farmers do not have to pay that much for the more expensive seeds but give them a boost with help of many other more affordable seeds, plus there is a variety of functions that will be covered.
Red Ursa Kale. Best there is.
I have made quick raised bed by some left over concrete steps in top of my garden’s brick floor. Deep of the bed is around 8” . I have planted my beetroot seedlings. It would be enough deep for my crop to fully matured?
Huw. In an earlier video, you gave us a tip, for making plant labels out of yoghurt carton's. Another way to get plant labels,is from milk cartons.
Kindest regards Geoff Maddison
very good job guys
I feel fortunate to live in Australia where our local seed companies have taken a different approach. They sell small seed packets for small prices, which means I can buy alot of different varieties to try and find the ones I like best. It's what I've been doing from the very start, it's so much fun to try different varieties you can't get in the supermarket, and if you don't like it, well, you only spent $1.25. I hope other countries will adapt that business model because it seems to really work. 🙂 I am growing 6 varieties of Kale this winter, I'm doing my own kale experiment.
amen, brother. variety is what it's all about — and seed saving / self-sowing where possible, super productive. I collected varieties before I even knew how to grow crops properly, lol
3:02 imagine
???? Great idea for an experiment. How do you keep the brassica loving insects in check?
Your garden is so tidy