Have you ever though about using live moss in place of mulch? I've been growing moss gardens, and it dawned on me that moss is the perfect mulch. It doesn't have any roots, so it can't leach nutrients from the ground, it conserves moisture in the ground, helps keep ground cool in summer, and also acts as a moisture indicator to know when the top few inches of ground are drying up. Weeds wont grow in it if packed tightly. It also grows ontop of itself as its underside dies, which puts nutrients back down into the ground. Moss gets all its nutrients from the sun (photosynthesis) and water, so it's extra nutrients going straight into the ground over time. Moss also has no known pests. To add compost to the ground under moss is also very easy, just peel back the moss to expose the ground, lay down compost, then replace the moss back over the compost and press down lightly so as to get solid contact but not compact the ground too much below. I'm going to experiment using Star Moss ( Tortula Ruralis) with the no dig and compositing methods. I think it will be the ultimate solution for eliminating weeds, ground/soil health, and water conservation. The Tortula Ruralis/ Star Moss species grows everywhere, and can survive years without water, but can also be completely submerged in water for 3 months before dying. So it will work well where you want a lot of moisture, but equally well where you don't want a lot of moisture. I think gardening with the right kind of moss as mulch is going to be next level gardening!
Nice idea, should be tried out. One point though, nothing can get nutrients from the sun and water. Nutrients are, first, carbon contained in CO2 from the air, and then everything else comes from the soil, or nitrogen fixing bacteria which also get it from the air/exchange with fungal network. The sun and rainwater do no hold any nutrients (ask poor carnivorous plants that)
This is something i've been learning this year too. It's incredible the amount of food you can get from a plant and how much mainstream gardening encourages us to waste on a plant.
I use the outer brassica leaves to make dolma/dolmades. Just blanch them, remove the stems and wrap around a filling then steam and serve with a garlicky greek yoghurt. They also freeze well.
Great video Another thing I use the broccoli leaves for is to make cabbage rolls using the leaves instead of cabbage. Large kale leaves also work Thank you for always be so inspiring
We have panic grass in the area (around the yard here) where harvester ants don't kill it off. Harvester ants in Arizona are black, red, of bi-color. All are fire ants. The desert is ant paradise to a colony can go from a few to a river of workers over the summer. Best thing is a ground grain. When the colony is weakened enough, sugar with some borax in it. 1 in 3 colonies need it because other colonies will raid the dying one and carry off the borax to kill their gardens. Then, seeds thrive to become food or cover. Ant, not overgrazing, is what destroys range land.
A bonus thing for radishes, though this one's for early spring. As you're thinning out the radish section of your garden, don't toss the radish sprouts! They're perfectly edible, and already contain plenty of radish flavor, so they're great on sandwiches or in a salad!
Waste not ...want not! Knowing all of the edible parts of plants is a great skill to learn for sustainability . I was just reading about using sweet potato vines in a stir fry recipe and it looks tasty ! Thanks for all the valuable info!
1 of my favorite video's you ever put out. Specialy about the Radish. I found that out myself but everyone should try those radish beans they are delicius. 👍 add to that, thank you for showing all the other eatable things most have forgotten or simply do not know. 👍👍👍
Please help with some advice. It is October, and my pumpkins are just starting to produce, the fruit is of the size of a golf ball. They started producing too late last year as well. Could it be due to growing in containers? My cucumbers produced 2 fruits per plant, and this happens every year. They are grown in an open air setting. I'm not giving up, but would appreciate some advice. Thank you.
This year (2022) here in Queensland, Australia; we experienced a LOT of rain. I really dont think the rain hurt my veggie patch at all! I decided to grow a crop I didnt know a thing about. Enter Tatsoi (Brassica rapa var. narinosa) = what a beautiful surprise! The broad flat leaves are wonderful raw or cooked. When the plants bolted, I thought - gee those stalks look like small young broccoli! They are so tender and magnificent as both a cooked vegetable and raw. The flowers smell heavily of honey and attract masses of bees, so I left many plants to seed, but to my surprise, the plants that I cut away but left the root in the ground, have begun throwing out more LEAVES! Such a brilliant and versatile plant! My seeds are drying off and the next season of Tatsoi will be bigger and better than this year, thats for sure!
As soon as I learned about the radish pods, I always let some go to seed. We also forage a ton of flowers and pods from the wild radishes that grow along the dirt roads here in Californa! So tasty!
Mustard seeds from the supermarket spice rack grow into pretty yellow flowers and have crisp edible pods too! Fresh in salads or cooked! Yummy! 😋 Hmm. doesn't wild aniseed/fennel grow along roadsides in Californy? Edible seeds too, but don't mistake for hemlock! lol
@@zuditaka Yes, the fennel is all over too! Love the way it smells but not a fan of licorice so I havent tried it. I did have roasted fennel bulb on pizza one time though, and it was really delicious!
Celeriac! The leaves can be harvested and eaten as celery during the summer and in fall you harvest the root as well. And the taste of the root is so mindblowingingly different than what you buy in the store. It is much milder and a bit funkier with hints of artichoke. "Alternative" crops are one of the greatest bonuses of being a kitchen gardener. For one, you get more yield and also you get to enjoy so many more tastes and textures. So many good tips in this video, thanks!
Dear young man i wach your videos since yoh were a boy very usefull interesting video i have allotment in north london uk this video is your best video ever thank you
Brassica stems are great in homemade broths/soups/stews/stoups/gravies/savory sauces of all kinds. Carrot greens cooked with turmeric, different sea salts, black and white pepper make the most wonderful green broth ever!
ln the Philippines we eat the young leaf tips of yams (not sure if oca tips can sub for it) in salads. Leaves of chiles and bitter gourd are also edible and used in soups
Yes! Filipinos use chili leaves. Try making a chilli leaf, corn soup. (We use chicken stock but easy to make vegan). Sweet potato leaves, bitter melon leaves, are also very good.
Maximise your leek harvest by dehydrating and powdering the green parts. The waste of leek greens has always bothered me. Sure, they go into the compost heap, but it’s still a waste of all the resources that went into their growth. Mak8ng leek green powder is easy, and it retains the lovely leek flavour. I do the same with greens from transplanted onions and shallots, and from spring onions.
I grow Dunn peas as a green manure, on vacant veg beds, in our winter (temps down to minus 7C) and they provide pea shoots for salad and stir fry all winter
In brazil there's a researcher that came up with the acronym PANC (plantas alimenticias não convencionais), meaning non-conventional edible plants, but can also mean non-conventional edible parts, to refer to parts of plants. He extensibly promotes a culture of discovering and utilizing everything that plants can offer in order to achieve greater self sufficiency, healthy and varied diet, eco-friendly cultivation, and social justice . I'ts a really good word to encapsulate all that sentiment, and we pronounce it just like 'punk' in portuguese, which is even cooler and makes for good puns.
Hello! Thank you for the useful information. I especially liked the idea with flowers and leaves of zucchini and pumpkin, I'll take note of it. And beet and carrot leaves are actually very tasty! Happiness to you👍🌻💙
hi is there anyway that you can do a video on the different vegetable plants that go to seed with their flowers etc chart ?.. i have some that are flowering and I do not know what the plants are ?
I don't like radish pods because they are a little tough for me, so I use the flowers in fritters.. They taste great! And we use pumpkin leaves in beef soup!
omg thank you so much for this video, we have so many crops in our garden that we didn't know we can actually eat.. until now! 😍 The only flower I know we can eat is squash flower 😁
Thank you, Huw- great information about important food we had no idea we can eat. I don't like radishes by the flowers might be an option, I grow them for critter control. Thanks again!!!
just in relation to the zucchini plants... mine all failed here in NSW Australia.. all the plants had mildew on them and no fruit on the plants... I have noticed no bees around here either... any suggestions please.
Same! Much more food from the leaves and stems than just the flowering head. I love the looser flowering broccolis, because their florets are also delicious and they have a lot.
Huw, a question about the Nature of food book. It looks great, but I eat only plant based food so would it contain many recipes relevant to my way of eating?
There is so much to eat in our gardens that most often gets thrown out or composted. And almost all of it is (or can be) quite tasty. This video is a great intro … just don’t eat nightshade leaves. Research first, before eating.
Pumpkin leaves are edible, however, they do need a bit of processing to eat them. Like stripping out the the veins and will require a catalyst like bicarbonate to make them less tough. Its a bit of a science but one we understand very well from our part of the world.
Very, but most people are. I just enjoy my squash flower soup and try to remember that I can be a bit judgmental about things too and not hold it against them 😅
I have to say it is nice to hear that I am not the only one with staring neighbors, lols. I know that a lot of people have experienced neighbors who are curious, nosey, judgmental and more. But sometimes it seems like you're the only one when harvesting in your garden 😅 I wonder your neighbors are just curious about your garden? I have found that a lot of people really know very little about gardening for food.
I love your channel, it has realy inspired me but you didn't answer the question that many people have asked you and that is. What happens to all of the produce from the garden? Instead, you avoided the question and mentioned a recipe book and crowd funding. Please tell us what happens to all of the produce from the garden. Thanks.
Local nursery told me that not many grow commercially because the leaves get all tangled up in each other! And he didn't even grow them this year. Thankfully they are so prolific I have enough of last year's harvested seeds to last for a LONG time! This year I'll gather more. They are by far the most delightfully colourful large flowers left in the garden (22 Oct) - a tumble of golden yellows, oranges with a few dark reds! So beautiful
Weird request, but can you include your face in your thumbnails? As im scrolling I keep missing your videos because I don't recognise that they are from you. Thanks :)
You are so knowledgeable and I have enjoyed watching your videos for years. They were very inspirational. But sadly I've just unsubscribed. You've become too commercial for my tastes. Rather than answer what you do with all your produce (give it away, sell it, preserve it) you promoted a book which might give the answer, but we have to buy it to find out. So sorry. You have been great, but have become too commercial promoting your ever expanding products and services for a home gardener like me. Good luck to you in all your endeavors.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Have you ever though about using live moss in place of mulch? I've been growing moss gardens, and it dawned on me that moss is the perfect mulch. It doesn't have any roots, so it can't leach nutrients from the ground, it conserves moisture in the ground, helps keep ground cool in summer, and also acts as a moisture indicator to know when the top few inches of ground are drying up. Weeds wont grow in it if packed tightly. It also grows ontop of itself as its underside dies, which puts nutrients back down into the ground. Moss gets all its nutrients from the sun (photosynthesis) and water, so it's extra nutrients going straight into the ground over time. Moss also has no known pests. To add compost to the ground under moss is also very easy, just peel back the moss to expose the ground, lay down compost, then replace the moss back over the compost and press down lightly so as to get solid contact but not compact the ground too much below. I'm going to experiment using Star Moss ( Tortula Ruralis) with the no dig and compositing methods. I think it will be the ultimate solution for eliminating weeds, ground/soil health, and water conservation. The Tortula Ruralis/ Star Moss species grows everywhere, and can survive years without water, but can also be completely submerged in water for 3 months before dying. So it will work well where you want a lot of moisture, but equally well where you don't want a lot of moisture. I think gardening with the right kind of moss as mulch is going to be next level gardening!
Nice idea, should be tried out. One point though, nothing can get nutrients from the sun and water. Nutrients are, first, carbon contained in CO2 from the air, and then everything else comes from the soil, or nitrogen fixing bacteria which also get it from the air/exchange with fungal network. The sun and rainwater do no hold any nutrients (ask poor carnivorous plants that)
This is the first video of this kind I have seen, well done Huw 😀
Thank you!!
This is something i've been learning this year too. It's incredible the amount of food you can get from a plant and how much mainstream gardening encourages us to waste on a plant.
Yeah exactly! We can enjoy so much!!😍
I use the outer brassica leaves to make dolma/dolmades. Just blanch them, remove the stems and wrap around a filling then steam and serve with a garlicky greek yoghurt. They also freeze well.
I love that idea of using them thank you so much for sharing! I'll have to give it a go
Great video
Another thing I use the broccoli leaves for is to make cabbage rolls using the leaves instead of cabbage. Large kale leaves also work
Thank you for always be so inspiring
I used Swiss chard leaves this year!
We have panic grass in the area (around the yard here) where harvester ants don't kill it off. Harvester ants in Arizona are black, red, of bi-color. All are fire ants. The desert is ant paradise to a colony can go from a few to a river of workers over the summer. Best thing is a ground grain. When the colony is weakened enough, sugar with some borax in it. 1 in 3 colonies need it because other colonies will raid the dying one and carry off the borax to kill their gardens. Then, seeds thrive to become food or cover. Ant, not overgrazing, is what destroys range land.
How do you process your quinoa?
A bonus thing for radishes, though this one's for early spring. As you're thinning out the radish section of your garden, don't toss the radish sprouts! They're perfectly edible, and already contain plenty of radish flavor, so they're great on sandwiches or in a salad!
You've answered so questions in this episode that I have wondered about for years! An immense "thank you", from Wisconsin, USA.
Oh I'm very pleased to hear Darren!!😊
Waste not ...want not! Knowing all of the edible parts of plants is a great skill to learn for sustainability . I was just reading about using sweet potato vines in a stir fry recipe and it looks tasty ! Thanks for all the valuable info!
Awh thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the videos and find them helpful! I think I have to finally give sweet potatoes a go next year 😊
1 of my favorite video's you ever put out. Specialy about the Radish. I found that out myself but everyone should try those radish beans they are delicius. 👍 add to that, thank you for showing all the other eatable things most have forgotten or simply do not know. 👍👍👍
Please help with some advice. It is October, and my pumpkins are just starting to produce, the fruit is of the size of a golf ball. They started producing too late last year as well. Could it be due to growing in containers?
My cucumbers produced 2 fruits per plant, and this happens every year. They are grown in an open air setting.
I'm not giving up, but would appreciate some advice. Thank you.
For those who feel they only have a tiny to small area to garden, you have just been shown how to just about double your harvest.
I love kale flowers and purple sprouting broccoli leavesxx
Me too! :)
This year (2022) here in Queensland, Australia; we experienced a LOT of rain. I really dont think the rain hurt my veggie patch at all!
I decided to grow a crop I didnt know a thing about. Enter Tatsoi (Brassica rapa var. narinosa) = what a beautiful surprise!
The broad flat leaves are wonderful raw or cooked.
When the plants bolted, I thought - gee those stalks look like small young broccoli!
They are so tender and magnificent as both a cooked vegetable and raw.
The flowers smell heavily of honey and attract masses of bees, so I left many plants to seed, but to my surprise, the plants that I cut away but left the root in the ground, have begun throwing out more LEAVES! Such a brilliant and versatile plant!
My seeds are drying off and the next season of Tatsoi will be bigger and better than this year, thats for sure!
As soon as I learned about the radish pods, I always let some go to seed. We also forage a ton of flowers and pods from the wild radishes that grow along the dirt roads here in Californa! So tasty!
Mustard seeds from the supermarket spice rack grow into pretty yellow flowers and have crisp edible pods too! Fresh in salads or cooked! Yummy! 😋 Hmm. doesn't wild aniseed/fennel grow along roadsides in Californy? Edible seeds too, but don't mistake for hemlock! lol
@@zuditaka Yes, the fennel is all over too! Love the way it smells but not a fan of licorice so I havent tried it. I did have roasted fennel bulb on pizza one time though, and it was really delicious!
Thank you for sharing and getting the word out there. And for teaching me a few things!
My pleasure!
Celeriac! The leaves can be harvested and eaten as celery during the summer and in fall you harvest the root as well. And the taste of the root is so mindblowingingly different than what you buy in the store. It is much milder and a bit funkier with hints of artichoke. "Alternative" crops are one of the greatest bonuses of being a kitchen gardener. For one, you get more yield and also you get to enjoy so many more tastes and textures. So many good tips in this video, thanks!
Pea shoots and pasta It's been a staple in Italian kitchens for hundreds of years.
Niceeeeee
Brilliant advice, especially in these times. Thank you
My pleasure Andy!
Your beans are amazing! I think the flowers are the best part of the harvest.
I agree😍
Pea shoots are one of the tastiest greens ever! So earthy!
YES!!
Dear young man i wach your videos since yoh were a boy very usefull interesting video i have allotment in north london uk this video is your best video ever thank you
Awh thank you very much for your long support!! I hope you have an excellent growing season 🌱
I love beet leaves and how the centre stem tastes like beet. A nice way to add more flavour 👍
Oh definitely 😍
Thank you for this Huw. It is good to know that we can eat more of a plant than just the fruit of it.
Thank you
Thanks 😊
Brassica stems are great in homemade broths/soups/stews/stoups/gravies/savory sauces of all kinds. Carrot greens cooked with turmeric, different sea salts, black and white pepper make the most wonderful green broth ever!
I grow radish just for the seed pods , tasty little radish like green bean. (Rat tail radish will grow just a bush of the seed pods, no root) .
ln the Philippines we eat the young leaf tips of yams (not sure if oca tips can sub for it) in salads. Leaves of chiles and bitter gourd are also edible and used in soups
Oh cool! Thank you for sharing Michael, especially regarding the leaves of Chillies when cooked!
Yes! Filipinos use chili leaves. Try making a chilli leaf, corn soup. (We use chicken stock but easy to make vegan). Sweet potato leaves, bitter melon leaves, are also very good.
Great teaching, thanks!!!
Amaranth leaves and sweet potato leaves are very edible!
Maximise your leek harvest by dehydrating and powdering the green parts. The waste of leek greens has always bothered me. Sure, they go into the compost heap, but it’s still a waste of all the resources that went into their growth. Mak8ng leek green powder is easy, and it retains the lovely leek flavour. I do the same with greens from transplanted onions and shallots, and from spring onions.
Oh a wonderful tip thanks as I also have access to a dehydrator too😊
I use all the green parts for adding to my beef broth, it adds a lovely depth
Coincidence or not, thank you for covering this subject. Made my day!
If you left a comment recently about this I think it was the think that reminded me of this video idea far down my ideas list, so thank you😂
Hi do you have recipes for the crops you grow 👍
I grow Dunn peas as a green manure, on vacant veg beds, in our winter (temps down to minus 7C) and they provide pea shoots for salad and stir fry all winter
Ooh good recommendation thank you
In brazil there's a researcher that came up with the acronym PANC (plantas alimenticias não convencionais), meaning non-conventional edible plants, but can also mean non-conventional edible parts, to refer to parts of plants. He extensibly promotes a culture of discovering and utilizing everything that plants can offer in order to achieve greater self sufficiency, healthy and varied diet, eco-friendly cultivation, and social justice . I'ts a really good word to encapsulate all that sentiment, and we pronounce it just like 'punk' in portuguese, which is even cooler and makes for good puns.
Hello! Thank you for the useful information. I especially liked the idea with flowers and leaves of zucchini and pumpkin, I'll take note of it. And beet and carrot leaves are actually very tasty! Happiness to you👍🌻💙
Thank you! :)
Thankyou for your wisdom 👋🏼
My pleasure!:)
How long will my mint last in winter? I am brand new to a very cold climate in southern Minnesota in the United States.
hi is there anyway that you can do a video on the different vegetable plants that go to seed with their flowers etc chart ?.. i have some that are flowering and I do not know what the plants are ?
Very helpful information 🕊
Thank you Barbara:)
I don't like radish pods because they are a little tough for me, so I use the flowers in fritters.. They taste great!
And we use pumpkin leaves in beef soup!
Flower Fritters and Pumpkin leaves in soup! Beautiful! :)
omg thank you so much for this video, we have so many crops in our garden that we didn't know we can actually eat.. until now! 😍 The only flower I know we can eat is squash flower 😁
Thank you, Huw- great information about important food we had no idea we can eat. I don't like radishes by the flowers might be an option, I grow them for critter control. Thanks again!!!
So helpful😮🌱
Thank you 🥬😊
You are so welcome! :)
just in relation to the zucchini plants... mine all failed here in NSW Australia.. all the plants had mildew on them and no fruit on the plants... I have noticed no bees around here either... any suggestions please.
No bees in central Nevada...so had to learn about hand pollinating,😶
I live in France and I've had the same problem with zucchini this year. Powdery mildew in spite of it not raining for months.
Wow! Who knew? Another great video
Thank you Lydia😊
I grow my broccoli for stems and leaves. They just reseed themselves
Fab!
Same! Much more food from the leaves and stems than just the flowering head. I love the looser flowering broccolis, because their florets are also delicious and they have a lot.
Epic man👌👌👌
Thanks!
Huw, a question about the Nature of food book. It looks great, but I eat only plant based food so would it contain many recipes relevant to my way of eating?
95% of the recipes are plant based!:)
There is so much to eat in our gardens that most often gets thrown out or composted. And almost all of it is (or can be) quite tasty. This video is a great intro … just don’t eat nightshade leaves. Research first, before eating.
Pumpkin leaves are edible, however, they do need a bit of processing to eat them. Like stripping out the the veins and will require a catalyst like bicarbonate to make them less tough. Its a bit of a science but one we understand very well from our part of the world.
Where can we find the link for the crowdfunder book?
Oops sorry here it is! www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-nature-of-food#/
My neighbors laughed at me for harvesting squash flowers!! I honestly didn't realize that people were unaware that squash flowers were edible 😅
Wow they sound judgemental;)
Very, but most people are. I just enjoy my squash flower soup and try to remember that I can be a bit judgmental about things too and not hold it against them 😅
Yes even my neighbors would stare when we harvest the flowers
I have to say it is nice to hear that I am not the only one with staring neighbors, lols. I know that a lot of people have experienced neighbors who are curious, nosey, judgmental and more. But sometimes it seems like you're the only one when harvesting in your garden 😅
I wonder your neighbors are just curious about your garden? I have found that a lot of people really know very little about gardening for food.
I love making stuffed squash flowers!! I like fried stuffed squash flowers too!!
Great
You have everything but garlic on your website lol. I was hoping to purchase garlic to plant in October
Sadly we can't sort a supplier out for this year:)
I love your channel, it has realy inspired me but you didn't answer the question that many people have asked you and that is. What happens to all of the produce from the garden? Instead, you avoided the question and mentioned a recipe book and crowd funding. Please tell us what happens to all of the produce from the garden. Thanks.
You didnt mention you can also eat borage leaves. You sautee them and like courgette leaves they lose their spikyness
Yes Borage is great!
how to reserve seeds!
❤❤❤
Hi young man 😘
Hi huw I am early this time
I cant understand why nasturtium is not grown commercially.all edible.grows well,no waste
It's great! More people need to grow it for themselves :)
Local nursery told me that not many grow commercially because the leaves get all tangled up in each other! And he didn't even grow them this year. Thankfully they are so prolific I have enough of last year's harvested seeds to last for a LONG time! This year I'll gather more. They are by far the most delightfully colourful large flowers left in the garden (22 Oct) - a tumble of golden yellows, oranges with a few dark reds! So beautiful
So what was your favourite? 🙈
Weird request, but can you include your face in your thumbnails? As im scrolling I keep missing your videos because I don't recognise that they are from you. Thanks :)
If I can grow beans I don’t grow anything else
Plant leaves are full of defense chemicals. Even though they are edible they are not healthy. You should probably go pick up a nice ribeye steak.
You are so knowledgeable and I have enjoyed watching your videos for years. They were very inspirational. But sadly I've just unsubscribed. You've become too commercial for my tastes. Rather than answer what you do with all your produce (give it away, sell it, preserve it) you promoted a book which might give the answer, but we have to buy it to find out. So sorry. You have been great, but have become too commercial promoting your ever expanding products and services for a home gardener like me. Good luck to you in all your endeavors.