After such a tough season for so many gardeners across the globe I thought I would share some of my thoughts and approaches to seeing out the season on a high and the key things I am focusing on in August in order to do that. I also invite you to share your biggest lessons/solutions to the challenges we have faced this year so we can all help one another as much as possible. Stay cool!
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Hiya guys
It's the first time I'm trying to grow crops over winter on my allotment. Ideas for what I can sow now please?
We're in the South East of England so all our grass is dead. I have run out of green grass to compost or mulch with. The heatwave has been a struggle – it baked a lot of my plants and my poor tomatoes have needed so much tlc. I suspect my lettuce is going to bolt now, too, so I need to get in and sow some more to replace it. We also have a hosepipe ban. It's meant a lot of extra care (moving pots into shade etc), but most of my plants have made it. So I'm looking forward to a bit of a rest from the heat to enjoy what survives. We're hoping the forecast weather next week doesn't cause flooding. Good luck everyone.
Is there a reason why you're not growing cover crop between everything?
Great advice on how to help insulate the soil during a heatwave. It’s just simple common sense but it did not run through my brain until I saw this video. Thanks Huw.
I love your channel! It is always so informative, and the tips always lean towards practicality. I live in Colorado, USA and man it's been a hot, dry and challenging season here too. Not throwing in the towel though, no way.
As far as mulch goes, I work as a carpenter in a wood shop so I've been bringing home lots of Aspen shavings. It's a very light wood both in color and weight, it seems to be working very well so far. It is also a great addition to compost. If any of you know of a local cabinet shop, saw mill, or general wood shop I'm sure they would be more than happy to give away shavings from planers, shapers etc… Just ask for the contents of their dust collector bags.
Thank you Huw its a lovely vlog as lve had a good harvest in my poly tunnel toms cucumbers and sweet peppers but my raised beds are worn out with the hot weather and using tap water as the rain water has been used up But your vidio has got me up and running again thank you and lve ordered Charles Dowding book and l have your books too thank you for your advice xx
One thing I always have to remind myself of this time of year is that the least expensive part of gardening is the seeds. It’s worth it to sow more at the risk of them not reaching maturity because if they DO it was only pennies worth of input with potentially a good amount of food.
Next year I'm going to start drip irrigation system on my raised beds
Here in North Scotland the heat wave is a blessing, 20-27 deg C. Tomatoes might actually ripen in time, Early potatoes in bags did well as they ripened before the heat, took 30 pounds up.
Main crops not so much, starting to yellow now, a bit early. Sneak peeks indicate heavy common scab on the white ones, but the reds seem ok thus far. Onions suffered bolting, but got a decent ammount although small bulbs. We hav a crazy ammount of wasp activity, this may account for the lack of cabbage moths? Leeks ready to plant out into the potato spaces when the temp cools a tad. Broad beeans diong fine, runners slow but still in flower from a foot upwards. Second peas 6 ft tall, first pods forming, 3rd peas in ground, pre germinated on wet tissue.
Super harvest of strawbs and currants, all jammed and jared. Great advice on Huws channel as ever.
It's very reassuring to hear that others are struggling at the moment to deal with the increasingly difficult weather conditions! I have found that by following the principles for soil health of keeping the soil covered and planted as much as possible, is really helping to minimise evaporation, which is in turn keeping my plants happier
I so appreciate your videos! Thanks so much!
One thing I've tried this year is allowing more ground cover type weeds to just grow – only pulling them if they're in the way of planting. I have chickweed and self heal happily coexisting with my veggies, and keeping the ground well covered, cool and moist.
I love Charles Dowdings books too but I'm in Zone 5b here in Ontario, Canada so I've relied on Niki Jabbours Year Round Gardening book – lots of ideas to extend the season and what to plant and how to protect plants from harsh winter conditions. Have you seen it? It's excellent!
We’re going into the rainy season here in Jamaica and I’m both happy and anxious depending on how much rain we get this year. Last year way got way too much rain for weeks on end and then a week of blistering sun shine, poor veggies couldn’t handle it and died…
Huw I actually love you
Thank you for this wonderful encouraging video! I am in US zone 6a and we have about 60 days left before estimated first frost. The positive part to the drought we've been in is that our tomatoes have no disease at all! It was a tough year for squash, the bugs were brutal and potatoes are so tiny because of the lack of rain. Perpetual spinach is amazing, it grows through anything, I've been harvesting the same plants since Spring and they are going strong, thank you for that recommendation. We use it to make fritters and now I'm going to start freezing some for winter soups. The other thing that grows amazingly well is spring onion or bunching onion, I overwinter some and then plant successions through the year. I use them fresh, make onion powder and freeze a ton of them for winter. I was able to save seed from the overwintered ones as well.
Huw, the intro music sounds like acoustic BedHead from Manchester Orchestra
My hero crops are bush beans, cucumbers and beets. If my butternuts make it through powdery mildew and squash bugs …I have 19 fruits for winter eating. I love them because they are so easy to store.
Huw, a lesson from an Aussie who is used to 40+C desert-dry heatwaves: water the soil, not the leaves. Sprinkling from a watering can like you're doing at 14:05 has several detrimental effects.
The water on the leaves acts like a magnifying glass and concentrates the sun's rays, burning your plants.
All the water on the leaves evaporates instead of going into the soil, wasting your water supply.
It doesn't wet the soil.
The best way to water is only a couple of times a week. You need to get the water INTO the soil (I love the soaker hoses made from recycled rubber that seep all over, but slotted ag pipe or even just a bucket poured into a hole or channel will do [you could half bury some pots or soft drink bottles with holes and fill them with water and let it soak out]). A shallow sprinkle forces plants to grow their roots at the surface where they are more prone to heat and drying out. Water heavily so the full depth of the raised beds is moist. The roots will go down, seeking the cool moisture as the surface dries a bit. If it's over 40 for a week I might water every 36 hours, but that's extreme.
Also, water when it's cooler – early morning or dusk.
You are right about mulch, but probably need more. 2-4 inches of straw or sugar cane mulch is considered normal around here. If you're using grass clippings, straw, cane, or bark chip, crumble in some old manure as well to balance the nitrogen levels. Also note that water needs to soak through the mulch and wet the soil. Just wetting the mulch is not enough. Where I use the seeping hoses I lay them under the mulch.
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Have you tested with a compost thermometer that you are actually cooling the soil?
You can actually find the thermal conductivity of soil online and do the calculations to find out what happens when you remove anything "shading" the soil.
It will essentially heat up to the same temp as the surrounding environment within a matter of minutes.
Especially the top few inches where your seedlings will be planted.
I think you will be better off erecting a shade cloth over the patch you wish to reduce the suns effects on.
How long would you wait to replant something over a crop you have left the roots in?
I’ve always pulled things up roots and all because my thinking is that the roots of the new plants would get all tangled up, I’m guessing you would also plant next to the roots that were left in, not directly on top?
Timely and authentic. I don't want to rubbish the opposition BUT for years I've been frustrated with mainstream TV gardening programs which did not acknowledge in a timely fashion, that gardeners were having to work with, say, dry conditions. The first mention would come at THE END of a month, when they would say something like "dryest July for 20 years" Too late! That's where You Tube and your excellent contribution score highly. Ta!
Last summer we used waste sheeps wool as a mulch for corn, pumpkins and zucchini. It reduced evaporation so much that basically didn’t water all summer. If you’re near a rural area, you can often source it free.
We’re not in the depths of an extremely wet Southern Hemisphere winter – with the opposite set of challenges. Localised flooding on our property today.
Sadly, climate changes is moving faster than even the most pessimistic of us anticipated. The future focus will need to be very much on adaptation. In our gardens, microclimates and water/energy/nutrient capture and storage will be a big theme. That’s essentially what you’re doing by using your old leafy greens as a mulch on another bed. Water, energy and nutrient captured by the plants in previous months is relocated and redistributed as it breaks down.
Love your videos Huw. You and the other young gardeners on YouTube really give me hope.
Where do you buy your seeds?