I want to apologise for the terrible audio! Serves me right for trying to get this up whilst still away on holiday because of my excitement to release it! Please forgive me, accurate captions will be up asap
In Danish we call it mistbænk (mist from German for manure, bænk for bench), much like the French “couche de fumier” (bed of manure). The Germans are slightly more poetic with frühbeet (early beds).
In my area (southwestern Pennsylvania) the old timers would stack a layer of straw bales with an opening in the center for the horse manure and cover the opening with old glass window sashes. Then, when they were done starting their seeds, they would spread the manure and rotted straw in the garden and the only thing they would have to store was the window sashes.
@bina nocht Yes, you understood it! Fresh grass clippings will make heat if you don't have access to manure but it can be difficult to regulate the heat. Good luck!
@bina nochtif you pause it at the one minute mark you get a perfect shot of the cover: Author is Jack First How to grow early crops using the age old technique HOT BEDs. If you check thrift books or Alibris for the author and hot beds you may be successful finding a used copy…hope that helps! Now, I want to see the video Huw mentions doing with him…
I experienced/discovered this concept completely on accident this winter when my 5 gallon open compost bin sprouted 100 bell pepper seedlings voluntarily in December (zone 8) and kept them all healthy through two cold snaps! This video gives me context for what I've experienced and I plan to intentionally utilize this trait of Mother Nature in the future. Thank you for the excellent content!
Our horse manure pile was bountiful with pumpkin plants this past fall.We had tossed an old pumpkin out behind where we dump the wheel barrow.Harvested about 10 nice sized pumpkins.🙂
Something we discovered a few yars ago is that horse, cow and goat manure can be a real garden killer because much of the feed they are given have been treated with a weed killer that goes through the animal and ends up in their manure and urine. We had great gardens going and then it took about 3 years to overcome the effects of the weed killer. We had somewhat the same experience with hay bales. Nothing seems to grow wherever we stacked them or spread them along our garden paths.
Oh my. I wonder if that's a problem in Europe too. I do think my neighbours horses mainly graze the fields. But I guess in winter they get some feed...
It is a broad leaf weed killer sprayed on fields to keep only grass growing. It stays in the grass and passes through the animals. Hot composting helps break it down but not great either way. Grain has cut grass in the pellet, so no one can be sure what is what anymore.
@@kurtcurtis2730 Not too far from my house is a horse field where I got a bunch of contaminated manure. The horses have been gone for about a year now and everywhere they pooped or peed is a dead zone. It will be interesting to watch and see how long it takes to come back. Four years ago I had a load of goat manure brought in. Where I had it dumped remains dead. Not even weeds grow there. I'm surprised that the gardens have come back to 90 percent of their first year yield.
In the early 1900s my maternal grandfather made a hot bed by digging a square pit about 2.5 feet deep he layered a foot of horse manure and straw, 1x12 boards, and a foot of soil. He grew cauliflower and cabbage seedlings which he sold to neighboring families. He covered the pit with planks which he removed on warm days. He also made sauerkraut for everyone from the cabbages they bought and raised. Clever man and a prolific gardener and rancher.
My grandmother, just like all other people in rural Transylvania, had a hot bed every year, made with manure from their own cows. I live in Wales and I hope to make one next year. Thanks for reminding me of this technique
A fascinating and educational video Huw. Thanks very much. I think that I’ll build one now on my allotment in north east Scotland. Our last frost date here is the end of May so a hot bed would work very well. Don’t worry about the acoustics too much it all came over very well. You are a natural presenter and grower.
A true cold frame has a deep layer of fresher materials, composting under your enriched soils. I am planting cold weather crops this week. My last frost day will be the end of May. They work astounding. Try it! I did have to dig a foot deep, but, nothing worthwhile is free.
I love these! The hot part doesn’t have to be that deep either. I’ve had success with digging and putting the manure below ground and the growing bed on top
@@SpringNotes About a foot, then approximately six inches of manure, with soil on top…of course it depends on how hot and long you want the manure to last and how big of plants you’ll be putting in the bed
I think I'm going to lift up the mattress in my bedroom and fill the box frame underneath with horse manure to make it a hot bed to keep me warm for sleeping the winter nights.
I have a natural Geyser in my backyard I'd rather just use to build a hot bed over top, to grow my veggies. That way I can irrigate, heat, grow, and boil my veggies all in one go.
Nice to know I've been doing something similar already. This is only my 3rd year of growing my food, but a lot of people ask me how I get started so early and now it makes sense! I figured I was essentially just making mini green houses for them, and I just use materials I already have at home. It's been a joy learning about these. We are supposed to move this year, and a big backyard is on the list so that I can actually have space to build more customized homes for my plants.
We live in snowy California where we currently have about 10 ft of snow. We utilize hotbeds in our unheated greenhouse. It's a brilliant method. Good luck with yours. It looks beautiful!
Thank you for your feedback! We recently moved from a coast to the colder part of California and I am really struggling with long cold springs with freeze and hot above 100F summers. And lack of water🙂. How do you transition from spring to hot summer?
@@IvonaKonecny88 Where I live the summers are not too hot. But we remove the side panels from the greenhouse to let the air flow better, and we use shade cloth during the hottest part of the day. This year with all the snow, we will have lots of water. We are fortunate enough to be able to water our garden from a creek. I hope my answer helps some.
Well this has to be the best things I've seen in a while! Although it's one of those "well duh" moments for me. So simple it plumb evaded me. I get regular deliveries of wood chips from local tree companies. This is going to totally change my gardening strategy/design. Thanks!
I live in pontypridd and I'm doing veg gardening seriously for the first time this year, even sowing indoors today infact. I'm brand new to this and I have already crunched through so many of your videos every day for the past month lol. I grew a nice bushy cherry tomato plant last year without much trying, but I was surprised of how many tomatoes I got from it, even though some of them split. That gave me the confidence to learn as much as I can for this year, and your vids have been so incredibly helpful! You've given me new skills and opened my mind in so many ways, I'm confident I can grow up to 7 different crops both outside and in a greenhouse for the first time. Cheers Huw!
@bina nocht, I can identify with you. I’m in Northern Wisconsin, north central US, at 45° north. March 6th and we’re getting 4” of snow today. I don’t start on my small garden (even with mini greenhouses) until the beginning of April, so I’m planning now. I’m jealous of southerners.
How deep does it need to go? I have a bed of two pallet frames, and I'd love to give it a shot.. Norway is cold, and I realize a bigger bed with thicker wood would probably be better.. But I have to use what I have!
My father always had a hot bed going in the spring for growing tomato and pepper plants in the 1930’s and 1940’s when we had no electric power or water to the garden. We were fortunate to have power to our home in the country as the power lines had only just come down our country road.
@@SpringNotes It was a real hot bed below ground with hot water poured over the lowest level before adding more material, this was in the 1930’s and 1040’s.
He started tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, etc. in his hot bed each spring. Had a three acre garden that produced much of our food. We also had a cow, chickens, turkeys, ducks, guineas, pigs, etc. so bought very little except coffee, flour, sugar and fish for Fridays. Oh, and ice cream on Sundays!
What zone did your father do his hot beds? I'm in 6 but I've gardened in 4 and tried to do hot beds. It didn't turn out well. I guess I have a brown thumb.
I’d really like to try this! I have one compost bay taking up space I want to use to maybe this is a good place to try it. (Incidentally, Farmer Jessie on No Till Growers just did a whole video about spinach and said they hate heat and light when germinating. He puts his into cold store in the dark. Maybe that’s what did for yours!)
Love this, thank you! This is definitely something I have been looking into lately since we are below freezing for half the year over here in eastern Washington state (US). I’d like to build a hot bed utilizing our chicken and duck manure next winter.
Look at what dirt patch heaven (YT) is doing in northern Idaho. She's got it dialed in for your climate. Her hot bed rabbit system is great and made from pallets. I'm in the Puget Sound region, and we don't get as cold but don't get as much light either. Also look to Verge permaculture as a resource. They are a little north and east of you, Calgary I think. They've got the short days, cold winds off the mountains, and serious cold front after summer temps dialed in too. Their coverable trellising system for hail storms is a delight! Won't save acres of corn but will save your tomatoes and peppers.
Yes, I agree and has been a desire of mine to set this up. Alternatively search for videos where a VERY large pile is made just outside of the greenhouse with hose coiled inside of the pile and a pump to run water through and into the greenhouse to extract the heat before recirculating back through the composting pile.
Haha same here! I've just built a hotbed in my polytunnel with manure and straw. My biggest problem is wheelbarrowing the manure uphill because my horses live at the bottom of a steep hill and the garden is at the top! If it wasn't such hard work I'd have outdoor hotbeds too. I have way more manure than I know what to do with, and that's with only two horses!
What a great idea I'll try this with one of my compost piles that need to age more. You always have some new fun thing to try out, thanks for the great videos.
Is there a danger that too much heat might be created and the seedlings could fry in the high temps? I'm in New England and we've had some exceptionally cold temps off and on this winter, and March is supposed to be unseasonably cold at night so finding a way to keep things between 40 and 70F (4.4-21.1 C) while getting sufficient light without electricity would be a dream. Does the course you referenced explain strategies for modulating the heat to keep it within and acceptable range? Many thanks for this video!!
May I recommend a book, "growing under cover" as a resource. The author thoroughly goes through all of the methods, expecting you to have a "we grew a bean in school" level of knowledge, so terms are defined, great illustrations, yet still explains why each system works enough you can figure out how to do it from what you have at hand. Think book about cooking vs a recipe book.
@@ArthurTheLibraryDetective Yes I know what creates the heat, but I want to know if it can be kept within an acceptable range. My sense is it would be incredibly tricky but it would be the Holy Grail if I could find a way to get sunlight on my seedlings outside in winter while keeping temps between 40 and 70 F and not depending on electricity. I'd love to think it was possible.
@@lindajones9191 I went and talked this through with a friend because I have a TBI making communication spotty at time. The short answer is yes it will work. I've done it in the mountains of Northern Idaho and Western Montana as well as the Maritime Pac NW. Learning about composting is your starting point as that is your heat source. You are using the biology to do the work instead of electricity, so you need to know the difference between a hot and cool pile, how to heat it up or cool it down, and how to make it in the first place so you don't have to futz about with it later. Spend this growing season learning to finesse compost. The second part of this system is the covered bed, the coat you use to protect and maintain the environment. So play with season extenders, from plastic and glass plates, to repurposed plastic and glass containers, and green house films. You need to understand how this works. A plastic milk jug with the bottom cut out and placed over a plant in the ground will loose more heat and let through less light than glass. Learning which works how when is important. Once you have done both of these things then you can put them together into a hot bed. The book I recommended is close to 300 pages I think and hot frames are one of the more advanced techniques in there. It's only tricky to do if you are trying to follow a recipe instead of understanding how the system and it's elements work. Sometimes a bread recipe will fail even though you followed it exactly. The yeast cold be a little weak, so it needs more time, the flour could be drier, so you need more liquid, or the protein content of the flour is different so the kneading times will be different. When you understand how the elements work to make bread, you can tell when the dough is hydrated enough, when the gluten is developed, when the yeast has proofed enough, thus adjusting as needed in your situation. Contact you county extension service and ask for help from your areas master gardeners and the ag college people. If you would be ok with it, could you narrow down your climate and conditions a bit. New England covers as much as the Maritime Pac NW, and what works in Seattle, may needs adjustment if you go 50 miles in any direction and will need adjustment going 200 (Portland, Vancouver BC, the coast, or the other side of the Cascades). If you can tell me the closest larger city or college town, I may be able to direct to to actually people or organizations. Hope this helps.
I am enjoying the inspiration to keep improving the garden. Our PNW has had a very slow start to our early plantings, temps, well below average. This hot bed would be so helpful in these unpredictable climate times. We hover around zone 8. Thank you!
The Roman Emperor learned this trick from his horse. I live in a very cold and snowy environment. Whenever I muck out the barn and dump it out in the horse pasture, guarantee you within an hour one of the horses has collapsed and is taking a nap on that nice warm heap:)
I was like, when did this video come out? How did I miss a new one? And then I noticed I wasn’t subscribed….but I’ve been subscribed and following you for years!🤔
Typical bought it yesterday and paid full price 🙄 😒 it's abit overpriced at £30 for the amount of content in there hopefully more will be added as time goes on.
How do you prevent things being ready to early to transplant? Were not frost free until end of April/ early May. Or do they remain in the hotbed to grow fully? Thanks
After you try it once, you should have a really good idea on timing for the following year. I would work your way backwards from May 1. Subtract normal germination time and seedling growth and maybe add a week or 2.
@huwrichards I’m trying to get away from wooden edging as it provides hiding spots for SLUGS! Do your tops keep these voracious visitors from entering or do have another method to prevent them or maybe you don’t have as many as we do in the west coast of Canada ;) 🐌🐌🐌
Thanks for sharing Huw, great to see you share your own hotbed. Looks like an allotment plot on a tiny scale 😊 Most importantly the technique you have used and lessons you have learnt along the way, really inspiring 😊
As always, the problem is getting materials for , in your case, the hot bed, and for our no dig hero, the mulch for beds. If you use fuel to transport it , you should consider a warming cable.
I have a 20 watt heating pad and a 15 watt well spread little grow light and do my seed starting indoors. Unless I got the hotbed materials for free... I think I'll start with my little system for now. Eventually I will get one though... the rich compost afterwards would be a nice bonus.
I made 2 hot beds out of 1 ton grain bags I got for free from the brewery where I work. I made them 3 days ago in -20°C out of dead leaves, straw, spent brewer's grain, and trub (yeast and sediment that collects at the bottom of beer fermenters), all of which I got for free. I've been monitoring temp in the larger bed, first day it was too low for my thermometer to read (below 0°C), second day the pile was up to 2°C, today it hit 38°C. Temps are supposed to drop overnight to -32°C where I am so I'm curious to see how warm it will be tomorrow morning.
Great video! Lovely idea hotbeds (so useful, practical, helpful) and really inspiring. That guy Jack looks like a great partner in your videos too with all that experience
I’ve been thinking about how I could use something like this within a greenhouse to help produce a little heat. I’m trying to figure out things that would work grid down.
My parents, grandparents, and other relatives did this here in Canada every spring when I was a child in the 1970's. It was a normal thing for me to see being prepared. They brought that information with them, or rather my great, great, grandparents did, from Russia where they were they left due to persecution as pacifists at the end of the 1800's. I honestly thought it was a well know gardening technique everywhere! Sadly have only managed to set this up a handful of times, and sure hope we can accomplish this soon. Plan to try with goat manure and bedding as that is what we have an abundance of ongoing. The piles we make from fall through spring as we clean out stay heating, steaming, and melting off a metre or more of snow to stay bare all winter long from the hot composting action. So should be enough heating for a hot bed too if layered correctly!
@@wendyburston3132 it might be worth a try. Get a composting mix with browns and greens. Someone else on here said it runs hotter initially so maybe lay a slightly deeper compost layer. I always start my compost/worm bin early because I know the new heat once it gets going will see it through the last of our winter here in the uk
@@cherieuk4488 I think it will work. If we get our small pickup truck repaired soon, then I can take a drive to the farm of a friend who gets huge loads of wood chips dumped there by a tree service company. It would provide a bit more of the carbon needed to balance the goat bedding and manure. We only use the left over hay they don't eat after picking through it all, and limited amounts of some barley straw more recently. Just enough to keep a dry layer for them to lay on, but the pellet 'berries' tend to filter through to lower layers. Makes it a bit nitrogen heavy especially as urine filters down to the under layers. We add wood stove compressed hardwood pellets on the bottom to absorb liquid and it helps balance the compost somewhat.
@@wendyburston3132 We are in the south-east part of BC but the warmer half of the region. Further east toward the Alberta border is typically 10C colder most of the winter then we are. I believe we are more like a zone 6b now. Used to say zone 5b, however learned later the Canadian zones are rated differently then when I first learned the system back in the 1990's, and weather patterns have changed as well. Kitchen scraps are too wet, will still need lots of brown/carbon material to combine them with to create the heat. Raked up fall leaves, pine needles perhaps in a smaller quantity, straw are other possible options. The bags of wood stove pellets might be an option if you are really stuck. Much cheaper then the wood shavings used for animal bedding. If you find damaged bags, stores will sometimes reduce the price on these as well. We do that for a bottom layer in our goat house and stalls and add to the poultry bedding in the coop as they absorb SO much moisture.
My grandfather had what he called a coldframe. would that be considerd the same? His was only about 1 ft. high in the front, sloping up to about 18 inch's in the back. Southern full sun exposure.
Hi Huw, I am keen to know more about hotbeds and will be signing up to this course. Can I just check that if I enroll now all the material (films etc) will still be available to me in Dec 23 and jan 24 when I will actually be building the hotbed?
I would love to give this a go - im thinking I could grow my salads and germinate seeds, grow peas or dwarf beans along the side, then plant a pumpkin in the middle for the rest of the season.
I have a horse farm near me that has piles of 1+ year aged manure for free. I was already going to fill my garden beds with it but this is a very interesting idea. Will have to go over my planning again now. Cheers
What region are located? Province, or state etc. Would give a way to compare the type of winter you experience to see the possibility for the region where I and others are. Thanks.
Awesome video! I had a thought, instead of using a wood frame around the bulk compost, what if you used hay/straw bales (since its going to decompose anyways and its great mulch even half composted.)
Very true, though there must be water present in the system (if youre intending to grow at least) and the bales act as a water resevoir that can passively provide moisture to the mound within. This is why, I personally, use bales as the structure for my compost mounds. It works amazing in my experience, and i live in a hot and often earthenly dry climate. Underneath them you can also run a rubber hose in a long spiral and have a hot water heater. This is also assuming that manure is your base. Yes, any decomposer will produce heat as a biproduct, whether it be fungal or bacterial. Different microbes have different heat profiles and timeframes they work under.
Also the hottest manure is fresh manure, and in most if not all cases, you would never want to use fresh manure to grow for several reasons, not just too much heat. Better to let it cure for a few months at least.
I am an aficionado of hot beds - uses a lot less sturm und drang in amount of plastic, are beautifully accessible. We basically need it for germination and creating seedling. Thank you.
This is terrific! Could you say a bit more about what it means that the radish went leggy and how to prevent that? Was that a time thing? A temperature thing?
Thanks, Huw. These are some really outstanding ideas. We sold our home and will be renting for a year or two while the market dives, and have been trying to figure out how to extend our growing season on a rented property that lacks the space and landlord tolerance for a greenhouse or walipini. Although I've known the value of cold frames for years, your hotbed idea steps up the amount of heat we can produce for seedlings early and late in the year here in Utah, USA. Thanks!
If anyone is on the fence about getting a Veg Trug, get them! I have 2 on my patio. They are fantastic! Nice and deep and you can grow so much in them 😊🌱 (Huw has them in his store.)
@@anamagalhaes7117 The septic system works on bacteria breaking down the material in the underground tank and heats the ground above it. It’s usually the first place the snow melts in the winter.
Dirt patch heaven on YT is in Northern Idaho and has had great success with hot beds. She has some in a high tunnel where she over winter's her rabbits. Just note, in cloudy maritime climates, use hot beds to overwinter your veg. Here in the Puget Sound region of Western WA (US), we do not get enough light to stop seedlings from getting leggy. I will succession sow indoors under lights and instead of repotting into 2.5" pots, they go out into the hot beds in the spaces left from harvesting the over wintered veg. I will put out cucurbits and melons transplants mid June in my outdoor garden, and the nightshades in the high tunnel as soon as the temps are right, usually May. The hot beds in my high tunnel are 3/4th buried into the ground terracing a south facing hill side. This allow for enough height to trellis. The green house plastic is removed once we get our heat (July/August) and replaced when fall night temps return (September/October). Our temps will hit low 20's high teens F (zone 7b/8a) about 50%of the time and I can some fresh veg between all the various techniques (winter gardening in a maritime climates and growing under cover are the two books in my currently packed library -names may be slightly off). Our primary issue is light. Between Nov through February, we will go weeks without enough light to keep my chicken fence Energizer charged, so things go dormant. It not cold enough to stockpile grazing, so my hot beds help to feed my livestock too.
I've watched DPH videos/channel as well, and want to so these things. I finally got a cattle panel hoophouse made last year. I'm still unsure about putting a hot bed in it, worried about toxic gasses building up in there, which I'd walk into... . Any knowledge to pass on or which expert to trust or whatever ? I'm in NW Wisconsin, and so could really use this. At this point, I'm thinking of just putting it outside, with straw bale sides and make a cover w my spare greenhouse plastic.
Fascinating, thank you. I had heard the term but never knew exactly how they were produced. I am currently getting beetroot modules warmed in front of the aga. Have been thinking of bringing my sack of compost into the kitchen too!
Great video! However, one should be cautious about using pallets in the garden. Many of them are treated with highly poisonous chemicals especially those used for international shipping to prevent spreading pests across borders. I’m no expert but after googling a bit apparently pallets mark H/T are heat treated and may be okay to use. I don’t have room for a garden but I think I would not use a pallet wood in my garden.
My hotbed is warming up as I write thanks to your course :) So lucky to have horse stables next door lol. I'm definitely gonna sow some seeds next week. :) and then come May plant peppers in it! it's so exciting!
very awesome! I'm starting my garden on barren land and will make huge amounts of compost, and the idea to just use the heat by a hot bed is such a fantastic idea! i also plan using the heat for heating a greenhouse in the future!
I want to hear this so badly but there is literally no sound when I play it… based on comments others did not have this problem! What do I need to do to get the sound track?
In Deutschland nennen es warmes Frühbeet, in dem das erste Aussagen eben früher gezogen werden können. Es wird eine spatentiefe Grube ausgehoben, die mit ca 20 cm Mist gefüllt wird und die ausgehobene Erde wieder oben drauf kommt. Drumherum natürlich der Frühbeet- Kasten, dessen Rückseite etwas höher ist als die Vorderseite, die zur Sonne hin zeigt und mit einem entsprechenden Glasdeckel, etwa 1-2 alte Fenster, geöffnet werden kann. Das ist alles. Man kann ihn auch später noch als ganz normales, kaltes, Anzuchtbeet benutzen, was ja nützlich ist, da es abgedeckt werden kann😉 Man benötig dazu also nicht einen Haufen Material, wie bei einem Kompost-Meiler, den ich wahrscheinlich eher in ein Gewächshaus zum Erwärmen stellen würde.
Of course! Of course! THE idea to lengthen one's growing season! This hadn't occurred to me before. So, thank you so much for this fantastic tip! And I shall definitely get that book! I will tell my friends about this too!❤
Unless you live right in the middle of a large city there is horse manure available. Within a mile and a half from my house in Wolverhampton horse manure used to be £1 a bag; then 50p a bag and now the stables are begging people to take it because there is so much of it.
People just need to be sure what's been fed to the horses. Some people have had their growing space killed off for years because of something the horses were fed, that passed through and into the manure. It's great stuff, but definitely worth people asking before getting some for the first time from a new place.
As a follow-up to the above, at the stables I got talking to the owner. He showed me a horse walker. As the horses walked round and round their shod hooves shredded their manure deposits to a fine dust. As the horse walker was inside a barn the manure dust remained dry. My stepson and I agreed to collect this every week and it mixed well with other composting material. No great lumps two years down the line. Assured by Graham, the owner, that no herbicides were used on the farm.
I like this idea.. I basically do container gardening and this idea is primarily an extra lg. container of sorts.. I dont have access to manure, but I do utilize the leaves, grass etc... this may be something I can try..thanks for another option..
So I’m thinking long term in advance. What happens to your growing beds after all the compost material has broken down and no longer produces heat? Do you dig it all up and start all over? What are you to do with all of the extra compost if this is the design that you’re doing? I know some of it could be used as a top dressing in your beds and around other areas of your garden but that’s going to turn out a lot of compost. Correct? I’m just curious if this project would require a lot of work later.
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I want to apologise for the terrible audio! Serves me right for trying to get this up whilst still away on holiday because of my excitement to release it! Please forgive me, accurate captions will be up asap
Very motivating :)
Not to worry. Thanks again for another wonderful and helpful video!
Your best bet would be to re-upload it with correct audio levels before too many people view it
It's fine 🙂 no worries.
In Danish we call it mistbænk (mist from German for manure, bænk for bench), much like the French “couche de fumier” (bed of manure). The Germans are slightly more poetic with frühbeet (early beds).
In my area (southwestern Pennsylvania) the old timers would stack a layer of straw bales with an opening in the center for the horse manure and cover the opening with old glass window sashes. Then, when they were done starting their seeds, they would spread the manure and rotted straw in the garden and the only thing they would have to store was the window sashes.
I found that book years ago - I love it!
To add: he has some amazing trials of using all kinds of creative materials…
@bina nocht Yes, you understood it! Fresh grass clippings will make heat if you don't have access to manure but it can be difficult to regulate the heat. Good luck!
@bina nochtif you pause it at the one minute mark you get a perfect shot of the cover:
Author is Jack First
How to grow early crops using the age old technique HOT BEDs.
If you check thrift books or Alibris for the author and hot beds you may be successful finding a used copy…hope that helps! Now, I want to see the video Huw mentions doing with him…
Peeing on the straw speeds up breakdown.
Thanks! Trying this
I experienced/discovered this concept completely on accident this winter when my 5 gallon open compost bin sprouted 100 bell pepper seedlings voluntarily in December (zone 8) and kept them all healthy through two cold snaps! This video gives me context for what I've experienced and I plan to intentionally utilize this trait of Mother Nature in the future. Thank you for the excellent content!
thats so cool. I love it when things just grow by themselves!
that says a lot about the heat generated...
keep an eye out for Christ' HEALING hidden manna
Our horse manure pile was bountiful with pumpkin plants this past fall.We had tossed an old pumpkin out behind where we dump the wheel barrow.Harvested about 10 nice sized pumpkins.🙂
I made cheap wood frames and stapled bubble wrap in for "glass" works amazing. Can get too hot so something you can play with to figure it out.
@@andrewsmith1735 Thank you! I will have to try that at some point
Something we discovered a few yars ago is that horse, cow and goat manure can be a real garden killer because much of the feed they are given have been treated with a weed killer that goes through the animal and ends up in their manure and urine. We had great gardens going and then it took about 3 years to overcome the effects of the weed killer. We had somewhat the same experience with hay bales. Nothing seems to grow wherever we stacked them or spread them along our garden paths.
🕵😎..aha!! I thought i mem 'Hot Manure' being an Issue...last few years..
Oh my. I wonder if that's a problem in Europe too. I do think my neighbours horses mainly graze the fields. But I guess in winter they get some feed...
It is a broad leaf weed killer sprayed on fields to keep only grass growing. It stays in the grass and passes through the animals. Hot composting helps break it down but not great either way. Grain has cut grass in the pellet, so no one can be sure what is what anymore.
Yes! It’s called “ Graze On”. Ruins the soil
@@kurtcurtis2730 Not too far from my house is a horse field where I got a bunch of contaminated manure. The horses have been gone for about a year now and everywhere they pooped or peed is a dead zone. It will be interesting to watch and see how long it takes to come back. Four years ago I had a load of goat manure brought in. Where I had it dumped remains dead. Not even weeds grow there. I'm surprised that the gardens have come back to 90 percent of their first year yield.
In the early 1900s my maternal grandfather made a hot bed by digging a square pit about 2.5 feet deep he layered a foot of horse manure and straw, 1x12 boards, and a foot of soil. He grew cauliflower and cabbage seedlings which he sold to neighboring families. He covered the pit with planks which he removed on warm days. He also made sauerkraut for everyone from the cabbages they bought and raised. Clever man and a prolific gardener and rancher.
My grandmother, just like all other people in rural Transylvania, had a hot bed every year, made with manure from their own cows. I live in Wales and I hope to make one next year. Thanks for reminding me of this technique
Yeah, but how bad was the Vampire problem in Transylvania? 🦇😂
@@ZuluLifesaBeech- how very dare you!😂✌️
@Lavinia - Loredana Spargo
This comment is awesome on so many levels 😄👍🌱
She likely grew garlic.
A fascinating and educational video Huw. Thanks very much.
I think that I’ll build one now on my allotment in north east Scotland. Our last frost date here is the end of May so a hot bed would work very well.
Don’t worry about the acoustics too much it all came over very well. You are a natural presenter and grower.
Amazingg, so its actually a cold frame with organic material as a heat mat!
A true cold frame has a deep layer of fresher materials, composting under your enriched soils. I am planting cold weather crops this week. My last frost day will be the end of May. They work astounding. Try it!
I did have to dig a foot deep, but, nothing worthwhile is free.
I love these! The hot part doesn’t have to be that deep either. I’ve had success with digging and putting the manure below ground and the growing bed on top
That is how my parents and grand parents did it.
Exactly how my grandfather grew cucumbers every year. We always had tons of them!
@@KootenayOrganics which part of the Kootenays? I have family there.
Amy, how far do you dig below ground for the manure ?
@@SpringNotes About a foot, then approximately six inches of manure, with soil on top…of course it depends on how hot and long you want the manure to last and how big of plants you’ll be putting in the bed
I think I'm going to lift up the mattress in my bedroom and fill the box frame underneath with horse manure to make it a hot bed to keep me warm for sleeping the winter nights.
Didn’t you watch the video? You don’t need to use horse manure, you can use wood chips! 😂
😂🤣 Great idea! I wonder if a similar method could be used to capture the heat from my husband's nighttime gas...?!🤷
@@cynthiafisher9907I'd say wood chips would be kinder on the old nose than horse manure.
🤣😂🤣
I have a natural Geyser in my backyard I'd rather just use to build a hot bed over top, to grow my veggies. That way I can irrigate, heat, grow, and boil my veggies all in one go.
Nice to know I've been doing something similar already. This is only my 3rd year of growing my food, but a lot of people ask me how I get started so early and now it makes sense! I figured I was essentially just making mini green houses for them, and I just use materials I already have at home. It's been a joy learning about these.
We are supposed to move this year, and a big backyard is on the list so that I can actually have space to build more customized homes for my plants.
We live in snowy California where we currently have about 10 ft of snow. We utilize hotbeds in our unheated greenhouse. It's a brilliant method. Good luck with yours. It looks beautiful!
Thank you for your feedback! We recently moved from a coast to the colder part of California and I am really struggling with long cold springs with freeze and hot above 100F summers. And lack of water🙂. How do you transition from spring to hot summer?
@@IvonaKonecny88 Where I live the summers are not too hot. But we remove the side panels from the greenhouse to let the air flow better, and we use shade cloth during the hottest part of the day. This year with all the snow, we will have lots of water. We are fortunate enough to be able to water our garden from a creek. I hope my answer helps some.
Well this has to be the best things I've seen in a while! Although it's one of those "well duh" moments for me. So simple it plumb evaded me. I get regular deliveries of wood chips from local tree companies. This is going to totally change my gardening strategy/design. Thanks!
I live in pontypridd and I'm doing veg gardening seriously for the first time this year, even sowing indoors today infact. I'm brand new to this and I have already crunched through so many of your videos every day for the past month lol. I grew a nice bushy cherry tomato plant last year without much trying, but I was surprised of how many tomatoes I got from it, even though some of them split. That gave me the confidence to learn as much as I can for this year, and your vids have been so incredibly helpful! You've given me new skills and opened my mind in so many ways, I'm confident I can grow up to 7 different crops both outside and in a greenhouse for the first time.
Cheers Huw!
You should have a look at Martin Crawford as well.
@bina nocht, I can identify with you. I’m in Northern Wisconsin, north central US, at 45° north. March 6th and we’re getting 4” of snow today. I don’t start on my small garden (even with mini greenhouses) until the beginning of April, so I’m planning now. I’m jealous of southerners.
@bina nocht Hi, Bina. Mint is pretty easy, too... My mother bunny likes to nest in my mint/oregano patch! And the babies are adorable!!!
Hi Ponty! How’s the eisteddfod going?
Thanks for keeping things un- complicated for the newbies! I love all the information that I can apply to my small garden this year! !👍
Another great video! I absolutely love the camera work and truly appreciate the wisdom you share. Thank you 😊
Oh man! I have had a horse manure powered hot bed 4 years! Ask me anything!Jack First is my hero!
How deep does it need to go? I have a bed of two pallet frames, and I'd love to give it a shot.. Norway is cold, and I realize a bigger bed with thicker wood would probably be better.. But I have to use what I have!
Does it smell? I'd love to build one of these, but I live in town and don't want to be a nuisance to my neighbors.
My father always had a hot bed going in the spring for growing tomato and pepper plants in the 1930’s and 1940’s when we had no electric power or water to the garden. We were fortunate to have power to our home in the country as the power lines had only just come down our country road.
Frances, was is similar to this, or was the hotbed below ground ?
@@SpringNotes It was a real hot bed below ground with hot water poured over the lowest level before adding more material, this was in the 1930’s and 1040’s.
He started tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, etc. in his hot bed each spring. Had a three acre garden that produced much of our food. We also had a cow, chickens, turkeys, ducks, guineas, pigs, etc. so bought very little except coffee, flour, sugar and fish for Fridays. Oh, and ice cream on Sundays!
What zone did your father do his hot beds? I'm in 6 but I've gardened in 4 and tried to do hot beds. It didn't turn out well. I guess I have a brown thumb.
Zone 7
I’d really like to try this! I have one compost bay taking up space I want to use to maybe this is a good place to try it. (Incidentally, Farmer Jessie on No Till Growers just did a whole video about spinach and said they hate heat and light when germinating. He puts his into cold store in the dark. Maybe that’s what did for yours!)
Love this, thank you! This is definitely something I have been looking into lately since we are below freezing for half the year over here in eastern Washington state (US). I’d like to build a hot bed utilizing our chicken and duck manure next winter.
Look at what dirt patch heaven (YT) is doing in northern Idaho. She's got it dialed in for your climate. Her hot bed rabbit system is great and made from pallets. I'm in the Puget Sound region, and we don't get as cold but don't get as much light either.
Also look to Verge permaculture as a resource. They are a little north and east of you, Calgary I think. They've got the short days, cold winds off the mountains, and serious cold front after summer temps dialed in too. Their coverable trellising system for hail storms is a delight! Won't save acres of corn but will save your tomatoes and peppers.
It seems that having a hotbed(s) in a winter greenhouse would help heat the greenhouse for the other plants, too.
Yes, I agree and has been a desire of mine to set this up. Alternatively search for videos where a VERY large pile is made just outside of the greenhouse with hose coiled inside of the pile and a pump to run water through and into the greenhouse to extract the heat before recirculating back through the composting pile.
Charles Downing has a RUclips channel and he does this.
@@donnacochran3335you beat me to it :-)
Dirt patch heaven channel has been doing this for several years.
I had a chuckle about horse manure. Its my most abundant resource. Will trade for dried seaweed...😀
Haha same here! I've just built a hotbed in my polytunnel with manure and straw. My biggest problem is wheelbarrowing the manure uphill because my horses live at the bottom of a steep hill and the garden is at the top! If it wasn't such hard work I'd have outdoor hotbeds too. I have way more manure than I know what to do with, and that's with only two horses!
Ancient growing technique in our neck in the woods was fish and straw for fertilizing.
I had my left headphone off for a good three minutes before I realized something was wrong
I'm in Minnesota ! Thank you! Enough said.
What a great idea
I'll try this with one of my compost piles that need to age more. You always have some new fun thing to try out, thanks for the great videos.
Always something I’ve thought I should build, did a small one in a packing crate once and worked really well, interesting video 👍
Is there a danger that too much heat might be created and the seedlings could fry in the high temps? I'm in New England and we've had some exceptionally cold temps off and on this winter, and March is supposed to be unseasonably cold at night so finding a way to keep things between 40 and 70F (4.4-21.1 C) while getting sufficient light without electricity would be a dream. Does the course you referenced explain strategies for modulating the heat to keep it within and acceptable range? Many thanks for this video!!
May I recommend a book, "growing under cover" as a resource. The author thoroughly goes through all of the methods, expecting you to have a "we grew a bean in school" level of knowledge, so terms are defined, great illustrations, yet still explains why each system works enough you can figure out how to do it from what you have at hand. Think book about cooking vs a recipe book.
🕵😎..didnt he say 'Decaying Organic Matter' create The Heat?? im a lil.confused..🙂
@@ArthurTheLibraryDetective Yes I know what creates the heat, but I want to know if it can be kept within an acceptable range. My sense is it would be incredibly tricky but it would be the Holy Grail if I could find a way to get sunlight on my seedlings outside in winter while keeping temps between 40 and 70 F and not depending on electricity. I'd love to think it was possible.
Yeah this is why hot beds are used in cold climates?
@@lindajones9191 I went and talked this through with a friend because I have a TBI making communication spotty at time.
The short answer is yes it will work. I've done it in the mountains of Northern Idaho and Western Montana as well as the Maritime Pac NW.
Learning about composting is your starting point as that is your heat source. You are using the biology to do the work instead of electricity, so you need to know the difference between a hot and cool pile, how to heat it up or cool it down, and how to make it in the first place so you don't have to futz about with it later. Spend this growing season learning to finesse compost.
The second part of this system is the covered bed, the coat you use to protect and maintain the environment. So play with season extenders, from plastic and glass plates, to repurposed plastic and glass containers, and green house films. You need to understand how this works. A plastic milk jug with the bottom cut out and placed over a plant in the ground will loose more heat and let through less light than glass. Learning which works how when is important.
Once you have done both of these things then you can put them together into a hot bed. The book I recommended is close to 300 pages I think and hot frames are one of the more advanced techniques in there.
It's only tricky to do if you are trying to follow a recipe instead of understanding how the system and it's elements work. Sometimes a bread recipe will fail even though you followed it exactly. The yeast cold be a little weak, so it needs more time, the flour could be drier, so you need more liquid, or the protein content of the flour is different so the kneading times will be different. When you understand how the elements work to make bread, you can tell when the dough is hydrated enough, when the gluten is developed, when the yeast has proofed enough, thus adjusting as needed in your situation.
Contact you county extension service and ask for help from your areas master gardeners and the ag college people. If you would be ok with it, could you narrow down your climate and conditions a bit. New England covers as much as the Maritime Pac NW, and what works in Seattle, may needs adjustment if you go 50 miles in any direction and will need adjustment going 200 (Portland, Vancouver BC, the coast, or the other side of the Cascades). If you can tell me the closest larger city or college town, I may be able to direct to to actually people or organizations.
Hope this helps.
I'm thinking about doing a small one inside a greenhouse.
Your buddy Charles Dowding has been doing this for years.
Thank you for the info, really appreciate you. But the music is annoying… too much
I am enjoying the inspiration to keep improving the garden. Our PNW has had a very slow start to our early plantings, temps, well below average. This hot bed would be so helpful in these unpredictable climate times. We hover around zone 8. Thank you!
The Roman Emperor learned this trick from his horse. I live in a very cold and snowy environment. Whenever I muck out the barn and dump it out in the horse pasture, guarantee you within an hour one of the horses has collapsed and is taking a nap on that nice warm heap:)
I was like, when did this video come out? How did I miss a new one? And then I noticed I wasn’t subscribed….but I’ve been subscribed and following you for years!🤔
I would love a hard copy of Jack's book. Amazon only has a kindle version. Any ideas about where I might be able to buy it?
Typical bought it yesterday and paid full price 🙄 😒 it's abit overpriced at £30 for the amount of content in there hopefully more will be added as time goes on.
How do you prevent things being ready to early to transplant? Were not frost free until end of April/ early May. Or do they remain in the hotbed to grow fully? Thanks
My guess is you could start them later.
After you try it once, you should have a really good idea on timing for the following year. I would work your way backwards from May 1. Subtract normal germination time and seedling growth and maybe add a week or 2.
@huwrichards I’m trying to get away from wooden edging as it provides hiding spots for SLUGS! Do your tops keep these voracious visitors from entering or do have another method to prevent them or maybe you don’t have as many as we do in the west coast of Canada ;) 🐌🐌🐌
Thanks for sharing Huw, great to see you share your own hotbed. Looks like an allotment plot on a tiny scale 😊 Most importantly the technique you have used and lessons you have learnt along the way, really inspiring 😊
As always, the problem is getting materials for , in your case, the hot bed, and for our no dig hero, the mulch for beds. If you use fuel to transport it , you should consider a warming cable.
I have a 20 watt heating pad and a 15 watt well spread little grow light and do my seed starting indoors.
Unless I got the hotbed materials for free... I think I'll start with my little system for now.
Eventually I will get one though... the rich compost afterwards would be a nice bonus.
Huw, what type of borders do you use for your garden beds? 4x6 untreated lumber? Any specific type of wood?
I made 2 hot beds out of 1 ton grain bags I got for free from the brewery where I work. I made them 3 days ago in -20°C out of dead leaves, straw, spent brewer's grain, and trub (yeast and sediment that collects at the bottom of beer fermenters), all of which I got for free. I've been monitoring temp in the larger bed, first day it was too low for my thermometer to read (below 0°C), second day the pile was up to 2°C, today it hit 38°C. Temps are supposed to drop overnight to -32°C where I am so I'm curious to see how warm it will be tomorrow morning.
Wow impressive! What a great idea. Hot bed is on the to do list - thank you 🙏🏼
Great video! Lovely idea hotbeds (so useful, practical, helpful) and really inspiring. That guy Jack looks like a great partner in your videos too with all that experience
I’ve been thinking about how I could use something like this within a greenhouse to help produce a little heat. I’m trying to figure out things that would work grid down.
Charles Dowling has his in the greenhouse too
What a power plant*!
Composting, seeding, propagating, growing.
* Pun intended.
My parents, grandparents, and other relatives did this here in Canada every spring when I was a child in the 1970's. It was a normal thing for me to see being prepared. They brought that information with them, or rather my great, great, grandparents did, from Russia where they were they left due to persecution as pacifists at the end of the 1800's. I honestly thought it was a well know gardening technique everywhere! Sadly have only managed to set this up a handful of times, and sure hope we can accomplish this soon. Plan to try with goat manure and bedding as that is what we have an abundance of ongoing. The piles we make from fall through spring as we clean out stay heating, steaming, and melting off a metre or more of snow to stay bare all winter long from the hot composting action. So should be enough heating for a hot bed too if layered correctly!
Where in Canada? What zone? I'm North of Toronto in zone 5a/b. I don't have wood chips or manure. Will kitchen scraps work?
@@wendyburston3132 it might be worth a try. Get a composting mix with browns and greens. Someone else on here said it runs hotter initially so maybe lay a slightly deeper compost layer. I always start my compost/worm bin early because I know the new heat once it gets going will see it through the last of our winter here in the uk
@@cherieuk4488 I think it will work. If we get our small pickup truck repaired soon, then I can take a drive to the farm of a friend who gets huge loads of wood chips dumped there by a tree service company. It would provide a bit more of the carbon needed to balance the goat bedding and manure. We only use the left over hay they don't eat after picking through it all, and limited amounts of some barley straw more recently. Just enough to keep a dry layer for them to lay on, but the pellet 'berries' tend to filter through to lower layers. Makes it a bit nitrogen heavy especially as urine filters down to the under layers. We add wood stove compressed hardwood pellets on the bottom to absorb liquid and it helps balance the compost somewhat.
@@wendyburston3132 We are in the south-east part of BC but the warmer half of the region. Further east toward the Alberta border is typically 10C colder most of the winter then we are. I believe we are more like a zone 6b now. Used to say zone 5b, however learned later the Canadian zones are rated differently then when I first learned the system back in the 1990's, and weather patterns have changed as well.
Kitchen scraps are too wet, will still need lots of brown/carbon material to combine them with to create the heat. Raked up fall leaves, pine needles perhaps in a smaller quantity, straw are other possible options.
The bags of wood stove pellets might be an option if you are really stuck. Much cheaper then the wood shavings used for animal bedding. If you find damaged bags, stores will sometimes reduce the price on these as well. We do that for a bottom layer in our goat house and stalls and add to the poultry bedding in the coop as they absorb SO much moisture.
Doukhobor?
Hot beds are well known in England too, new generation "rediscovering" these things (while older gardeners have been doing it all along).
What a fascinating and uplifting video. Thanks very much to you and Jack.
Nice the way you gave reference to your teachers
And, now I understand the term "hot bed" used metaphorically!
Hi Huw! Can you please do a video on rhubarb forcing pots? I saw them on Instagram lately and I wonder why and for what other crops it can work?
I've been telling people to heat their greenhouses with compost for ages.
My grandfather had what he called a coldframe. would that be considerd the same? His was only about 1 ft. high in the front, sloping up to about 18 inch's in the back. Southern full sun exposure.
No. That’s like a mini green house. This has manure under it.
The only thing different between a cold frame and hot bed is that the latter has a heat source.
Maybe grow chillies or peppers in the hot bed once the frost has stopped?
Just wondering why you are using shop bought compost when you are producing so much of it yourself. Love your vlogs very interesting.
Your videos are always great. The audio panned left for vo and right for music doesn't work. Make sure vo is centred
Great! I have more horse manure than I know what to do with.
Hi Huw, I am keen to know more about hotbeds and will be signing up to this course. Can I just check that if I enroll now all the material (films etc) will still be available to me in Dec 23 and jan 24 when I will actually be building the hotbed?
this is what the dutch used to do with horse/cow manure mixed with straw to start their crops early
my left ear enjoyed this video
I would love to give this a go - im thinking I could grow my salads and germinate seeds, grow peas or dwarf beans along the side, then plant a pumpkin in the middle for the rest of the season.
Thinking about the reusing theme, what do you do with soil after harvesting?
I have a horse farm near me that has piles of 1+ year aged manure for free. I was already going to fill my garden beds with it but this is a very interesting idea. Will have to go over my planning again now. Cheers
Yes! Hotbeds let me sow lettuce any time in winter. I put a video on it And how i ensure they sprout.
We've been eating gobs of lettuce all winter!
(The secret is the boards i use)
(I call it "waterboarding")
What region are located? Province, or state etc. Would give a way to compare the type of winter you experience to see the possibility for the region where I and others are. Thanks.
@@KootenayOrganics could you ask on my video? [pretty please 😃]
Awesome video! I had a thought, instead of using a wood frame around the bulk compost, what if you used hay/straw bales (since its going to decompose anyways and its great mulch even half composted.)
I think you will have to be very careful you dont start a fire with hay bales as manure can get quite hot and its not uncommon.
@@yvonneb.4535 good input, thanks!
Very true, though there must be water present in the system (if youre intending to grow at least) and the bales act as a water resevoir that can passively provide moisture to the mound within.
This is why, I personally, use bales as the structure for my compost mounds. It works amazing in my experience, and i live in a hot and often earthenly dry climate. Underneath them you can also run a rubber hose in a long spiral and have a hot water heater.
This is also assuming that manure is your base. Yes, any decomposer will produce heat as a biproduct, whether it be fungal or bacterial. Different microbes have different heat profiles and timeframes they work under.
Also the hottest manure is fresh manure, and in most if not all cases, you would never want to use fresh manure to grow for several reasons, not just too much heat. Better to let it cure for a few months at least.
I am an aficionado of hot beds - uses a lot less sturm und drang in amount of plastic, are beautifully accessible.
We basically need it for germination and creating seedling. Thank you.
This is terrific! Could you say a bit more about what it means that the radish went leggy and how to prevent that? Was that a time thing? A temperature thing?
Thanks, Huw. These are some really outstanding ideas. We sold our home and will be renting for a year or two while the market dives, and have been trying to figure out how to extend our growing season on a rented property that lacks the space and landlord tolerance for a greenhouse or walipini. Although I've known the value of cold frames for years, your hotbed idea steps up the amount of heat we can produce for seedlings early and late in the year here in Utah, USA. Thanks!
If anyone is on the fence about getting a Veg Trug, get them! I have 2 on my patio. They are fantastic! Nice and deep and you can grow so much in them 😊🌱 (Huw has them in his store.)
I have had a similar idea for years, but rather to place palettes over the septic area with a cold frame above. Glad to know it was rather intuitive.
What do you mean with septic area? Leach/draning area?
@@anamagalhaes7117 The septic system works on bacteria breaking down the material in the underground tank and heats the ground above it. It’s usually the first place the snow melts in the winter.
Dirt patch heaven on YT is in Northern Idaho and has had great success with hot beds. She has some in a high tunnel where she over winter's her rabbits.
Just note, in cloudy maritime climates, use hot beds to overwinter your veg. Here in the Puget Sound region of Western WA (US), we do not get enough light to stop seedlings from getting leggy. I will succession sow indoors under lights and instead of repotting into 2.5" pots, they go out into the hot beds in the spaces left from harvesting the over wintered veg. I will put out cucurbits and melons transplants mid June in my outdoor garden, and the nightshades in the high tunnel as soon as the temps are right, usually May. The hot beds in my high tunnel are 3/4th buried into the ground terracing a south facing hill side. This allow for enough height to trellis. The green house plastic is removed once we get our heat (July/August) and replaced when fall night temps return (September/October).
Our temps will hit low 20's high teens F (zone 7b/8a) about 50%of the time and I can some fresh veg between all the various techniques (winter gardening in a maritime climates and growing under cover are the two books in my currently packed library -names may be slightly off). Our primary issue is light. Between Nov through February, we will go weeks without enough light to keep my chicken fence Energizer charged, so things go dormant. It not cold enough to stockpile grazing, so my hot beds help to feed my livestock too.
I've watched DPH videos/channel as well, and want to so these things. I finally got a cattle panel hoophouse made last year. I'm still unsure about putting a hot bed in it, worried about toxic gasses building up in there, which I'd walk into... . Any knowledge to pass on or which expert to trust or whatever ? I'm in NW Wisconsin, and so could really use this. At this point, I'm thinking of just putting it outside, with straw bale sides and make a cover w my spare greenhouse plastic.
Looks brilliant but I am worried about using treated pine in the veggie garden.
Should I be?
Fascinating, thank you. I had heard the term but never knew exactly how they were produced. I am currently getting beetroot modules warmed in front of the aga. Have been thinking of bringing my sack of compost into the kitchen too!
How do you get the angle to the low winter sun just right?
Any idea when the seed trays will be restock for the USA? I’ve been wanting to buy so trays but I see they are out of stock.
Bootstrap Farmer has amazing high quality seed trays here in the US. I got some and can tell they will last a lifetime.
My grandfather made hotbeds to start cantaloupe.
Great video! However, one should be cautious about using pallets in the garden. Many of them are treated with highly poisonous chemicals especially those used for international shipping to prevent spreading pests across borders. I’m no expert but after googling a bit apparently pallets mark H/T are heat treated and may be okay to use. I don’t have room for a garden but I think I would not use a pallet wood in my garden.
I trued this but the slugs found my seedlings.
It’s the information we want 👍 so thanks for sharing 👏👏🇬🇧
My hotbed is warming up as I write thanks to your course :) So lucky to have horse stables next door lol. I'm definitely gonna sow some seeds next week. :) and then come May plant peppers in it! it's so exciting!
vocal track only in left channel. Not sure if its what you were going for. thanks for the content. keep up the good work!
Great video ! I will definitely be trying this out myself, thank you Huw
Wouldn’t it be perfect if Hot Beds was written by Jack Frost-which when I skimmed it I thought it said at first 😂
very awesome! I'm starting my garden on barren land and will make huge amounts of compost, and the idea to just use the heat by a hot bed is such a fantastic idea! i also plan using the heat for heating a greenhouse in the future!
Do you have a supplier that will ship your seedling trays to the EU?
I want to hear this so badly but there is literally no sound when I play it… based on comments others did not have this problem! What do I need to do to get the sound track?
would be a great place to grow melons
Dirt patch heaven uses these very successfully!
In Deutschland nennen es warmes Frühbeet, in dem das erste Aussagen eben früher gezogen werden können. Es wird eine spatentiefe Grube ausgehoben, die mit ca 20 cm Mist gefüllt wird und die ausgehobene Erde wieder oben drauf kommt. Drumherum natürlich der Frühbeet- Kasten, dessen Rückseite etwas höher ist als die Vorderseite, die zur Sonne hin zeigt und mit einem entsprechenden Glasdeckel, etwa 1-2 alte Fenster, geöffnet werden kann. Das ist alles. Man kann ihn auch später noch als ganz normales, kaltes, Anzuchtbeet benutzen, was ja nützlich ist, da es abgedeckt werden kann😉 Man benötig dazu also nicht einen Haufen Material, wie bei einem Kompost-Meiler, den ich wahrscheinlich eher in ein Gewächshaus zum Erwärmen stellen würde.
Such a wonderful channel 😁
Thanks for sharing 😊👍
Of course! Of course! THE idea to lengthen one's growing season! This hadn't occurred to me before. So, thank you so much for this fantastic tip! And I shall definitely get that book! I will tell my friends about this too!❤
Spinach and radishes like cooler climates maybe that’s why they aren’t doing well.
Unless you live right in the middle of a large city there is horse manure available. Within a mile and a half from my house in Wolverhampton horse manure used to be £1 a bag; then 50p a bag and now the stables are begging people to take it because there is so much of it.
People just need to be sure what's been fed to the horses. Some people have had their growing space killed off for years because of something the horses were fed, that passed through and into the manure. It's great stuff, but definitely worth people asking before getting some for the first time from a new place.
As a follow-up to the above, at the stables I got talking to the owner. He showed me a horse walker. As the horses walked round and round their shod hooves shredded their manure deposits to a fine dust. As the horse walker was inside a barn the manure dust remained dry. My stepson and I agreed to collect this every week and it mixed well with other composting material. No great lumps two years down the line. Assured by Graham, the owner, that no herbicides were used on the farm.
Excellent segment, thank you. Your videos are the best on gardening.
Thank you so much :)
I like this idea.. I basically do container gardening and this idea is primarily an extra lg. container of sorts.. I dont have access to manure, but I do utilize the leaves, grass etc... this may be something I can try..thanks for another option..
Pallets are free, and easily dismantled. There are several vids demonstrating methods that don't involve saws.
So I’m thinking long term in advance. What happens to your growing beds after all the compost material has broken down and no longer produces heat? Do you dig it all up and start all over? What are you to do with all of the extra compost if this is the design that you’re doing? I know some of it could be used as a top dressing in your beds and around other areas of your garden but that’s going to turn out a lot of compost. Correct? I’m just curious if this project would require a lot of work later.
Also, are your poly tunnels heated?
We have a greenhouse, but it freezes in there in the winter.
Defo trying this. I'll do my own video but be warned it won't be anywhere as good as this. Thanks for making ,