Growing a Vegetable Garden - Day 1 to Day 150
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 22 май 2023
- I made a vegetable garden and this year I'm attempting to grow lots of food. I've been doing the odd bit of gardening for the past few years and it's so rewarding being able to pick fresh fruit and veg from a garden. This is an ongoing series so stay tuned for part 2 where I'll show you how much food we can harvest.
For more regular updates check out my Instagram - / alex_smith1809
Support the Just Alex Channel on Patreon - / justalexsmith
TikTok - / justalexsmith
Watch me live on Twitch - / justalexsmith
Business enquiries - alexfordhamsmith@gmail.com
Use me as "Make more gardening videos" button
wish i could like more than once lol :D
@@AutumnApril1989 i'll do it for you don't worry
and bees! like which flower do they like and so on
@@Charlie.1066 me too
sure
I applaud your Father. Knowing he's a gardener who spent so many years getting his garden the way he wanted, he not only allowed you to dig it all up but helped you do it too!
You are a wonderful Dad, and you've raised wonderful sons too. Looking forward to see all your veggies grow and the meals you make with them.
I hope my dad reads this. If not, I’ll read it to him. :)
Totally agree, your dad is a legend.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Tip Top Dad you've got there Sir!
I agree, too, even in your older videos in your old place. Your dad helped you out then too, even with your hives, he tries his best to help. A lot of people wish they had that 😅😂
agree. although it's surely a wonderful thing when your son shares your passion. and you encourage it - even if you have to sacrifice a bit of your garden
Can you tell your dad thanks for us? This was amazing, and it's so great that he was willing to support your project!
I'm sorry babe, I can't come over. Alex uploaded.
😂 this is me
This is so true. Nobody talk to me while I’m mesmerised and fixed in to an Alex video
From fishing to mushroom hunting to beekeeping and now veggie growing!!! All enjoyable videos! I would still love to see another camp/catch and cook.
This type of influence is needed more than ever in this social media driven society your content is GOLD keep up the good work thank you Alex
Wow... Your work ethic, and passion in everything i've seen you do, is something to behold. I've been struggling with a shitty depression for a little over a year now, but your video's give me a needed break from my head, and a bit of hope that maybe one day, i'll find that same passion in life. Thank you for being you, Alex. It may sound sad, but your channel means a lot to me
So happy to hear that the videos help 😊 Best wishes to you
Silas, you might follow Alex's lead and try planting and tending a garden as a way to relieve your depression. It's worked wonders for me. There's something about watching plants grow and then eating the produce that helps our brains understand that there is good on our earth. It will boost your feelings of gratitude, and fight your depression.
I tried to create a healing mantra of sorts: when I enter the garden, I remind myself that it is a place of healing and gratitude and wonder. No matter how poorly some of the plants might do, depression is banished from the garden.
May you be safe, healthy and find peace in your heart, my friend!
Just want to tell you, Alex, my 4 year old son and I discovered your channel recently and he just loves watching. I'm sure he's not your typical demographic, but you've really gotten him excited about nature, gardening, and beekeeping. And it's just been a great way to bond with him, learning about plants and nature together. Thanks for sharing your journey and know that you're making an impact even on the smallest of us. Can't wait to see how far you go!
For your slug issue:
You can make a mixture from dicing an entire red onion, dicing 4 garlic cloves. Add both items to a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper powder and then add about 2 cups of water. Let this mixture sit in the fridge for about 12 hours. Strain mixture into a spray bottle and spray this onto your plants to keep the slugs/snails away. Good luck.
or just do a beer trap.
I commented below suggesting egg shells but yes beer traps work really well
Hi Alex! I'm a trained gardener, and your videos are absolutely a joy to watch. Here are some tips from what i've observed:
- Lettuce seeds need light to grow, so if you covered them over with soil, that's why they didn't germinate.
- Since egg cartons are compostable, you can separate the cups along with the seedlings you've sown in them and plant the whole thing in the ground. The cardboard will decompose over time and add some nutrients to the soil, and since it gets really soft when moist, it doesn't obstruct the roots from growing through it.
- I'm not an expert on potatoes, but from what i understand, there are different varieties, ones that form the tubers on the stem that grows upwards, and ones that form the tubers from the root system downwards. So depending on your variety, earthing up may or may not be necessary.
- What you said about corn plants is absolutely correct. Each strand on the ears of corn actually connects to a potential kernel, so for a full ear of corn, every single strand needs to be pollinated. So the more corn plants you have in one area, the denser the area of pollination is. You can also try to help them along by gently shaking the stem to make the pollen fall, or breaking off a slower stem and dragging it over the strands on the ears.
I hope these tips are helpful to you. Again, it's been a joy to watch, and i really admire your determination to learn so many new skills. I think we could all benefit from becoming just a little bit more self-sufficient if we can. Good luck with your garden!
Thanks so much for all your info! Appreciate it!
@@just_alexwe plant corn in blocks. 2 varieties for good cross pollination. We also bag the pollen and later use a dry paintbrush to pollinate the silks. You could just plant tightly and let the wind take care of the rest!
Snails can indicate an iron deficiency. We sprinkle iron sulfate around plants which seemed to attract snails and that helped. Also we hear others use a small dish of beer in between plants. Snails seem to be attracted to the beer rather than the plants but we haven't tried this yet.
Hey there, thank you so much, you have really truly helped me out!!!
There are determinate and indeterminate varieties of spud. The indeterminate ones are the ones that you earth. I never bother myself. Tomatoes are the same, some need to be pruned, some don't, depending on whether they're determinate or indeterminate.
I am loving your videos, Alex. You have such an enthusiasm for life - it's so refreshing to find a young man who is so in awe with the world around him. You have a genuine and calming vibe, there is definitely no pretension with you and you have a character that really draws people to you. Your videography and production is awesome. The first of your videos I watched was the 3-hour one - to watch a video that length was a first for me. Your family seems so well-balanced and nurturing. Thanks for taking us along on your journey of world and self-discovery. Keep on being you Alex, you're awesome!
ahh, so kind of you to say, thanks! Means a lot! :)
@@just_alex a tip for you slug/snail problem is vaseline if you put it on the rim of the pot the snail wont go past it
So much work goes into capturing that much content 😊 I can’t imagine the time that went into editing all of this. It’s really nice to see the whole process and not just the before and after. Thanks Alex
Some wholesome goodness before a horrible work day. Thank you
Just a couple tips. 1.Try having a fan running next to the seedlings. This helps send a signal to the plant to make stronger/thick stems and it assist with hardening off. 2 lettuce does better doing winter sowing in larger containers than smaller ones. Get like a milk jug cut in halfand put the soil in the and scatter the seeds on top make sure to use the top of the jug to hold in moister and just keep the jugs outside in the sun. They need to be cold stratified. You can also do it by spraying a papertowel put the seeds on them with a tad bit od cinnamon and put it in a ziplock bag and throw them in the fridge for however long they need cold stratified. 3 to keep slugs out the garden put in a bunch of eggshells ion the top the soil they hate it and if they try it kills them. Love your videos btw! Cheers!
Yes! Alex you are definitely one of the best RUclipsrs ever ❤ always enjoy your vids
He totally is!
Instead of buying “seed potatoes” just grab a bag from the supermarket and plant them. Same with garlic. I’ve been doing it for years. And the spring onions, treat them as a cut and come again. So they keep growing. Best way to get rid of snails is going out at night with some salt.
This kid gives me hope for the next generation... Great work! 🎉
I have a entire garden
I absolutely love your videos, is amazing the effort and the patience you put on them, waiting 5 months to upload the footage wow!
Great work ❤
I want to plant some mangos but isn’t the right temperature for them
Bravo young man growing a garden Refreshing ! Your Dad is smart to let you contribute to the groceries, by sharing his garden! Also he is contributing to your increase knowledge By the way I love the nerdy garden dirt results!!!😎 wow this 64 y/ senior gardener is truly impressed!
I think what is so inspiring about you, Alex, is that you're just a guy. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you're a great guy, and we only get to know what you show us, but in general, you're fairly mundane. You don't come from crazy wealth, you don't have a big background in gardening (it seems). What's remarkable is that you simply decided to start on new projects and better yourself and your surroundings, simply to do it and to learn. I think that's what's so inspiring - the fact that any and all of us can do it too.
I agree 👍
Hi Alex, I am on a similar journey but with much less space to work in as I'm on a balcony. Actually transplanting my sugar baby watermelons today. It all started last year. One of the first plants I bought for my balcony garden was a scrawny blueberry bush that came to life in February. It is now producing fruit.
Have fun with your garden. I'll be looking forward to more videos.
Hello Alex I love your videos. I am in the United States and been a beekeeper for over 10 years myself and love planting vegetables and fruits now that I am retired from work. It is really wonderful to see a young person learning to provide for yourself. Your garden looks great. Keep up the good work! Vegetables and fruits you grow yourself taste better than anything you can buy in the store.
Perfect content for a morning with a brew ☕️
14:56 Homegrown also taste much much better than shop bought.
highly entertaining and educational if you know nothing about gardening like me, thanks Alex
Strength to strength Alex - Brilliant that you showed the whole process . You’ll inspire many to give it a go themselves on whatever scale they can manage. You are an every man for everyone - Top job buddy 👌🏻🏴🍺
Thanks Mic ❤️❤️❤️
Fantastic Video!
You've done it again, Alex. You've proven you have all the makings of a self sustaining farmer/ gardener/ homesteader! Your garden looks fantastic. GREAT JOB!
[Sorry this comment is long].
It is also fantastic that you are sharing your experiences so others can learn from you. Then they will get encouraged to do their own adventures. A community of one helping another!! It's great.
Whoever said an Oompa Loompa can't be a great gardener is dead wrong.
[1] Special thanks to your father. Both for letting you use the space, and for his hard work. WELL DONE DAD!
[2] I've been putting in 10 hrs /day for the past month, getting our land planted up. I have about 10 acres of potatoes planted, and 20 acres of corn. 100 Acres is Barley and Hops [for micro breweries]. Then the rest of the 388 acres is all vegetables, of about 1-2 acres each variety. It's a long process, so without my planting equipment, not sure how I'd manage.
[3] Regarding your planter fountain/tower. You're wasting too much soil. IF you took the large pot, and inserted the next smaller size upside down, fill the outer ring with soil and plants. Then for the next level you repeat with another pot upside down in the center of that one, soil and plants around the outside, and so on! It saves so much soil. With the upside down pot on each level it will help bare the weight of each upper levels.
With just soil, they keep sinking down into the soil from the weight which can cause them to tip over. OR the pressure from the upper pots is to much on the roots and kills them.
I will email you a rough sketch of the design. We use them all along one the sides of a couple of our greenhouses.
[4] A homemade sifter for Soil and Compost is a total necessity. Your small sieve is fine for light weight stuff, but heavy work, you need a heavy duty one,,especially for Compost and rocks.
I will also email you an example of the kind we've made to use all over the farm They work really great for getting rocks out of the soil.
[5] Put everything you can find in the compost bins. Kitchen and garden waste; Grass clippings,; leaves; shredded newspapers; letters; envelopes etc [just remove the plastic windows]; anything that comes in a cardboard box like pasta, biscuits, etc. All the paper packaging inside delivery boxes,, shred it and compost it. Any paper product can go in there, but just shred it up as small as you can. Ask people who follow you to bring you their grass clippings and leaves. Or a lawn service to bring some over. You will need 3-4 times what you made previously, PER YEAR! Honestly you can never have enough compost.
[6] We cut all our potatoes. Just make sure you have at least 2-3 good eyes.
[7] Your slug issue. GARLIC POWDER, OR the outer skins of garlic while cooking,, etc. just put them around the tops of the seedlings. Slugs HATE Garlic. IF that doesn't work, a spritz of White vinegar around the outer rims of the pots should do it. Always keep the skins from garlic just for this purpose.
[8] Soil testing. Did you sent native soil or did you send in your amended with compost soil? With Compost it would compromised the results. I have a home test kits to keep checking our fields each spring.
[9] Never seen a Chayote look like that before with the spines on it. Also is that the seed? Looks like the whole plant with the seed inside.
[10] Celery Varieties can be tricky. Try a different variety or brand.
You could always get celery at the market,, take all the outer leaves off, leaving only the inner light green-yellowish stalks, and plant them. Celery will keep growing until it bolts.
THANK YOU so much for your insight, and influencing others to live outside their box. Tis a noble thing you are doing Alex.
Thanks for all the helpful information! Sounds Like you’ve been way more busy than me!!!
thanks for the great and inspiring videos alex. you and your brother remind me a lot of my nephews (30y and 26y now) and hope you dont fight like they do sometimes 😀😀. the chayote squash you have, thats the variety i dont buy in asian stores cause of the spikes, the one with smooth green surface is more commonly found in lots of food stores here in the us. a sister in omaha nebraska tried planting them twice but the summer season there was too short. it died before it can have fruits. hope yours will go further than hers. and to answer ms farmgirl q. that was the whole fruit, the seed is tucked inside near the bottom and it looks like one large white bean.
I love to see your dad helping you; God bless him!
God the amount of passion you have for your videos.. I can feel it through my screen and it just puts a smile on my face!
I also wanted to wanted to praise your father and your mom for the support that they have for you.
I love watching your videos. They give off such a cozy vibe. I love how open you are to trying new things and that your family lets you use the garden and space inside the house in order for your projects to be as successful as possible :) I look forward to following your journey with the garden beds :) Lots of encouragement and admiration from Norway! this sounded like a letter or a postcard lol
Thanks so much! :)
10:10 the BEST thing against snails is raddish!
Plant a good barrier around anything you want to keep. The snails will try the outer boundry and then turn away. Double win! 😉😉
Well done, please continue
I never want your videos to stop. 30 mins goes way too quicky! Thanks for all you do Alex. Another superb Job! You know what I am looking forward to the most? When you get your own place, that day is going to be awesome as it will open up a whole new world of content. I love how your family supports your journey today, but when you get your own property, that's going to be a game changer.
So pro tip, for the fig tree, dig a huge hole for it and put a layer of dirt in the whole(fertile dirt) . Put the tree in the middle, a little past the root ball, and then fill the pit, use the extra less fertile dirt to make a ring around it to hold water :). Keeping it in that clay pot means it will
1) never get big
Or
2) damage the root ball severely when trying to get it out
I always get told fig trees produce better with restricted root growth. I have mine in the ground and did as you have said but have not had any figs yet. It's only had good growth in this, it's 4th year! My neighbours have an old potted fig which produces abundance every year. Even their cuttings have had amazing growth in just 1 year being pot bound.
Grass and leaves are a great mulch.
Potatoes, peas, beans, lentils. Good first crops. They condition the soil. Potatoes grow well even in poor soil.
Plants can often be planted much closer than you think. Especially plants that are quick growers. Radishes for instance, over-sow. Pull them and eat the younger sprouts/smaller plants, let some get bigger. Lettuce too. Square foot gardening is a good guideline to get maximum use of your space in small spaces.
If you choose your crops carefully. You can offset half your yearly grocery bill even in a space as little as about 500 sqft. Especially if you start doing succession planting.
Beans can grow up the side of your house and put off flashy flowers. Scarlet runner is a good example. Great way to get a bit more use out of your space, just need a wall that gets light.
Slugs can be dealt with with copper. copper wire around your plants keeps slugs off them. Can't be insulated, bare copper. Also, just having things that are unpleasant for them to crawl on also works. They don't like crawling up too high, and having to crawl over sidewalk blocks or bricks, or even gravel that's edging your garden will make them hate it. Just make sure there's no area's around the garden where they can hide and you can almost entirely get rid of them in just a few years.
You can also purposefully GIVE them a hiding spot to go into. A long wood plank, and every day just pick it up in the heat of the day, and take the slugs and smoosh them. They'll hide under, be easy picking for you.
Save seeds whenever/whereever you can. You will save hundreds saving seeds. Not all seeds are true to type. But most plants are.
For compost. If you make this a regular thing. Try to talk to a farmer near you that has cows or horses, or sheep.. or even goats. Some will deliver, others will require you to come pick it up. You can get an entire truck worth of compost for like, 50 bucks. Sometimes even free. I get about 5000 pounds of it each year from a horse breeder that lives maybe 15 minutes outside of my town. Completely free.
Wow we are in the middle of doing just the same! It's so much fun! And yes it's overwhelming but I love the journey love from Chester and here we have the same many questions it's our first year too we have a quarter of an acre but it's two of us. We lucky as our dad (my father in law) did beautiful paths, 3 greenhouses outdoor building etc he was a builder so he made a great job and it reminds us of him everything. And yes compost best thing ever
I saw a good radish growing technique on Charles Dowding's RUclips channel, on growing multisown radishes. So you basically sow around 3 seeds together, and one of them takes out most space and nutrients and grows faster than the others. You would gather the biggest radishes giving space for others to grow. Thus by sowing radishes once you'll get at least three harvests:)
Haven't tried this myself but found it very interesting!
I love Charles Dowding’s videos!
Nice! Slugs are also my main problem 😅 in the south of England .
For me copper tape stopped them and copper mesh. On my raised bed. Maybe make your veg patch a giant raised bed and put the copper tape on it . I'm 12 by the way.
Thank you for sharing your great tip , I am 67 by the way
@@mailywong9612 thanks
I very much hope your parents are proud of the person you are and keep supporting you along the way. I love watching these Videos and they make me wanna do stuff like this also.
Really enjoyable.❤
Invite some hedgehogs, they love slugs.
The last time I saw Alex on RUclips, he was fishing. Props on the new focus!
Hi Alex. Cool project. If you are having trouble with slug and snails; try a fixture of either brewed coffee and water, or coffee grounds. You can put it in a perimeter around your beds. Looking forward to your next video 🙂
Thanks for the info.
When sowing celeriac, don’t cover the seed with compost. There is still time to sow more, you’ll just harvest later in the year. Also start sowing in June for crops you want to harvest in winter 2024.
You are an amazing young guy, your videos are wonderful, you put so much work into them. You're an inspiration!
25:03 pots like that on the corner are so partly to disadvantage slugs and snails, so try buying pits like that if you want to avoid slugs as much as possible.
Oh I long for the day I have a garden. For now my balcony will have to do. Good luck with your corn!
Make more gardening videos,everyone loves them.😀😀
I hope you’ll try the 3 sisters method of growing plants! A Native American wisdom of planting together peas, corns, and pumpkins! It seems really interesting and seems like a good idea since you’ve started planting peas and corns as well!
At least in middle Europe that doesn't work because the temperatures are too low/the season too short to let the three plants work together. For example the corn is not big enough when the legumes need something to grow up on and so on. But maybe in southern England it could work!
Ever since I saw one of your videos I can’t stop watching thank you so much
Thanks for creating this content bro! I truly enjoy gardening, observing, and learning while watching things grow. Peaceful.
This is your first gardening season and you managed to figure out all that? I'm impressed. You must absorb information like crazy! Well you did a damn good job
This life is the life of my retired self❤
Me to but now
What a nice video. It reminds me of when my wife and I started gardening together back in 2016. Unfortunately she died of cancer last year at only 36... but this year gardening really did work as a therapy for me.
This is the typical kind of video we would have enjoyed watching together on a rainy autumn day.
Cheers mate, and greetings from Switzerland.
Damn. It's already May again? Almost half of the year over. The Garden looks like a personal paradise
Honestly obsessed with this channel, watch the 3 hour road trip yesterday, it was very inspiring
I wish I had a farm 😭 living on a farm looks so much fun
Hey Alex! I also became a beekeeper, inspired by your videos! Keep making awesome videos:)
I admire how authentic you are in your videos.
Midnight in the states, another Alex video. Always makes my day/night.
Hi Alex!
From what I could see in the video, you might have done earthing up on potatoes too early. We grow a lot of potatoes (not like those huge farms, but we plant like 50-80kg every year) and we always earth up when plant is around 15cm tall, so we don't cover any leaves.
Earthing up benefits depend on how deep you plant the potatoes. If you plant them deep, you don't need earthing up, but the potato plant will need longer to start. So we plant them shallower to make them grow earlier and then earth them up.
I am sorry if I mispronounced anything, but English is not my native language.
Greetings from Slovenia!
I went in to the rabbit hole and stumbled on your channel while looking at bee videos (dont even lnow how i got there.)
Since then i have been looking forward to seeing your new videos.
You are such a driven young man, and I'm sure you will live a fulfilling and happy life! Keep it up Alex, please keep exploring !
Much love from Denmark.
Instead of buying all that compost you could buy a bunch of mulch to put on top of your garden. it will help keep the weeds down, retain moisture inside the soil, add insulation against frost for your plant's roots and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting at the moment. Just beware that if you want to use straw as your mulch you specifically want straw and not hay as hay will contain seeds and then you could add to your weed problems hahaha
Stops splash from rain that can carry diseases also.
Awesome work by your dad recognizing the value of giving up some of his garden.
I'm building my homestead specifically how I want it. When my sons are older it would be undoing years and years of work if they wanted a chunk. If they want it, it's worth it though! Gardening is amazing!
Upload a mushrooms video for 300k Alex
Good luck🖤❤
Alex keeps saying that he is not a scientist, but..
He reads the available literature, conducts an experiment, documents it and measures variables. He is a scientist!
Literally, if his observations were just a tiny bit more precise, he would be able to write a paper on it.
haha thanks! :)
Gardening is hard work but also a purposefull exercise and you get to harvest your fruits of labour in many ways 🌱🌞
Well done Alex. I love your sense of adventure. As someone who has recently become obsessed with vegetable gardening I understand you desire to delve into it. I applaud your father for allowing you to undertake these creative endeavors. I look forward to seeing how the garden progresses. Happy gardening!
Loving the video already. I’d love to see you get an allotment and do a series of Alex and his allotment
The waiting lists are often years and years long.
@@samuelgarrod8327 Some areas are awful aren't they. I was on a waiting list and got offered one just as I was about to move areas which was a shame
@@RetroSammie In my folks home village there were some that stood derelict for ten years or more because of prepaid fees. It was only about 20 quid a year then. I live in Great Yarmouth now and every plot is well tended. The Borough council is really quite strict and the cost has increased considerably. 👍🥬🍅🌶️🧅🥕🥦🍓
Where to live in Kent every village around us has between 1/3 bits of land for allotments, very strict but looks good when you drive past to see it actually in use
What a beautiful garden. Keep up the great work!
Seeing how you work is truly inspiring. The way you talk about your father is also great. In the middle of busy days listening and watching your videos is really comforting. Planting trees is a way to nourish the soul, I really think so after watching it. Thank you for sharing.
No, I did not get bored with the scientific stuff! I love learning about that!
I’m sorry babe I can’t come over Alex uploaded
Well Done! Supporting parents are BEST! Gardening it's not only saving money - its harvesting ORGANIC food, takes you out from the room into fresh air, working in the garden HELPS for your lungs to work better, brain gets more Oxygen, mental support from gardening probably is the biggest benefit. the Benefit list is long... Well Done!
I also started my own garden this year its super exciting and rewarding so far
Watching my potatoes grow is one hell of a feeling
Hey! I really love your videos and always look forward to you posting again. Cant wait to watch your video after school🙃.
Greetings from Germany!
Thanks man, land is expensive where im from. rural looks big chill n wholesome
We watch your contents and keep it up
Looking forward to see all your veggies grow and the meals you make with them
I love all your videos Alex but imo this is the best so far. It's like second hand gardening for me. I used to have a lovely big garden and greenhouse but had to give it up as I got older, so your videos really resonate for me. Keep up the good work it's really appreciated.
I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so we also get a lot of cool and damp weather. Slugs have been the bane of my existence this year. My raised beds are untouched but everything in ground has been getting decimated. My solution? Plant twice as much and cover seedlings with cloches made from plastic bottles at night. Next year I'm going to wait until my seedlings are a little bigger before putting them in the ground.
You have a Loverly family ,your dad so supports you and your brother ! It’s nice to watch he must be so proud of you both ❤️
I like your video Alex! I've seen a lot of gardening vidoes but yours is one genuine and non-prentensious one and you have one the naive character that draws greenhorn gardeners and experts alike. Continue making videos of great vdieography and production!
Ive grown loads of wild flowers been amazing watch them grow and see the bee's enjoy them starting a veg garden asap to.
Thing I love about potatoes is that, most of the time, they don't go off when mold appears but instead when they start trying to grow more of themselves
Hi Alex, thanks to you I also started growing vegetables. What i learned is that if you brake up their rootsysthem, when transfering in the bed, it encourages the roots to grow more. Anyways, love your videos, keep up. :)
The amount of work and planning that goes into these videos is amazing. Watching while sat in my shed. Regarding the amount to grow, for examples, on average how many onions do you grow each week then x 52 weeks and add an extra 10 to cover any failures.
I haven't eaten plants in ages but I love my garden and grafting trees especially
I love gardening it helps me when I’m not having a good time. It helps me with my depression, I don’t have time to plant this week. The reason for that is even though I’m 21 I like to plant but my stepmom has been busy.
Alex, here's a suggestion for creating more compost: in autumn, when your neighbors rake up leaves and mow their grass for the last time, go round your town and collect your neighbors' leaves and grass clippings. Take them home and build a pile, alternating them in roughly equal layers. You can, of course, add the remains of your garden plants as you harvest. Manure would be good as well, if you have a source nearby.
It's an easy way to increase your compost supply by collecting lots of material over a few days when it's readily available in autumn. If you want to speed the breakdown, here's another suggestion: find a local restaurant or coffee shop that will keep their coffee grounds and vegetable cuttings for you, as well as food scraps. You'll need to make a habit of collecting the scraps each day after dinner time, since the restaurants won't want to leave your buckets sitting around in the way, and they certainly won't want to allow the buckets to grow rancid. Add those to your compost by simply digging a hole into the top of your compost pile each day and dumping in the coffee grounds and food scraps, and covering the hole. Then, after you've done this for a couple weeks, get out your compost fork and fork the whole pile into a new pile. Turning the pile speeds the breakdown of the contents.
i've been growing vegetables for a few years and the best advice i can give is each time before you water, inspect the area and pull out any weeds before they grow larger. If they do grow large, it's not a huge problem, the vegetables can still thrive especially since you're growing in the ground and not a container that has limited nutrients, but you will 1000% get a shit ton of weeds because you dug the soil so much but no problems
oh and also the whole 'hardening off' thing, is a bit of a myth, it's not necessary, plants will be shocked for a few days and then fine again. As long as it's not extreme weather, no need for it at all
I love growing potatoes! What my dad taught me was each eye on the potato can be used as an individual potato plant. My favorite potato is purple viking!
I LOVE watching this guy so much.
Can’t beat growing your own food best thing ever
So satisfying. You inspired me to continue with my Channel 🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
Perfect breakfast video!
Thank you Alex for a looong awaited video that didn't disappoint!! Tried out the 'snail flying' this evening, so satisfying (made sure they were landing on soft land with plentiful food on the 'other side'!!) Can't wait to see your bounty grow, your planting was also beautiful, keen to see how your spuds grow around the tree, you may have started a new trend!! Take care, keep being you 😊
your positivity is so infectious, as you was explaining things i felt excited myself.
Just found your videos and you’re doing an amazing job!
We garden grow veggies and fruit too - your radish leaves can be cooked and eaten - I like to fry them with eggs for a breakfast wrap or in your pasta maybe? 😊
You can also succession plant radish seeds - 1 line every week for a constant supply.
Your fig tree probably won’t get a harvest for 2 or 3 years - food gardening is all about patience 😂. Our patio trees (2 apples, 1 pear, 1 plum, 1 cherry) did nothing the first year. We got 3 apples on each tree in autumn 2023 but the others didn’t do much yet except blossom.
Slugs are definitely a problem. Try burying some plastic pint cups in the garden and half fill them with cheap beer (about half a can for each cup). Should get rid of quite a few. Slugs also tend to go for young plants. Once they’re large enough they should ignore your peas (you can keep them under jars or the bottom of plastic bottles like a cloche/mini greenhouse but much cheaper 😅)
Growing food is definitely a Labour of love - I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Your dads a legend for lotting you up rote his garden. But a big tip for you and promise this works. You alrady have the pond, Build a few little damp boggy log toad houses. how the toads find the i dont know , but they do. And hey presto, slug problem never again. love you vlogs x
You are a good young man and you have a good father! ❤
Love the gardening videos. There is something so satisfying about growing your own organic vegetables.
Yeah, such a great feeling!