We all wish we had more time to do our gardening. Well, it need not need to take as long as we may think. With these handy tricks of the trade, we can grow more food for less effort; feed our family with less money and less precious time.
In this week’s episode Ben walks us around his garden and show us his typical workflow; the jobs he does habitually that make his life easier. In fact, Ben reckons that in only just over an hour a week, he can cover all the essential tasks he needs to cover to ensure bumper crops and full bellies in his household. Now that’s what we call efficient!
For our video on installing and using ollas, watch this next:
This Ancient Watering Technique will Save Your Plants
And here is our video on starting a pumpkin patch:
The Lazy Gardener’s Guide To No-Dig Pumpkins!
Want to know more about growing perennials?
5 Must-Grow Perennial Vegetables: Harvest Year After Year… 👩🌾
For more on growing berries (for free) watch:
Grow Healthy Berries For Free! 🫐
Want more bugs? For our pollinator special
Pollination is Important: Here’s Why
Or if flowers are your thing, watch this one:
These Magic Flowers Will Repel Pests and Feed Your Plants
And enjoy a no-obligation, completely free trial of the Garden Planner here:
www.GrowVeg.com/planner
To receive more gardening videos subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/GrowVeg
And for your completely free abridged version of Ben’s book, click here:
https://www.growveg.com/grow-book-download
44 Comments
Dear ben your videos are always very interesting and contagiusly entusiastic after the summer we had in north london i m going to plant corn like yours i did very well with sweet pepper in green house they grow much bigger than usual thank you
Please honestly tell when you harvested these many veggies at the end of September??😊
I took all my green tomatoes indoors by the dnd of August 😅.
0:47 to 1:41 It seems that planting them in buckets makes it easier to harvest the potatoes.
I saw some neighbors planting non-root vegetables in planters instead of directly on the ground. They put the planters on the ground. Is there any point of doing so ?
Another great tip , I can’t believe how many potatoes you harvested out of one Pot Ben .Fantastic tip.I got myself a large Trog basket recently too.Can’t wait for a summer harvest to use it! .All the digging in a garden with Potatoes you get double the harvest in a pot. Then you reuse the potting mix !Cheers Ben from Australia 🇦🇺 Just love your tips 😂
What I realized after cleaning our freezer is we don’t need to grow so much anymore. I have identified many varieties of our favorites that do well here and concentrate time on those vegetables only. I definitely hit the best bean varieties this year and had to finally let them go after over a dozen harvests.
As far as storage, it’s getting increasingly warmer and for longer into end of season and finding a cool space is non existent. This year’s harvest was ready 2 weeks earlier also.
Can the potato plant be repotted to produce more after you take away the potatoes?
When do you like to cut your asparagus back?
You always find a way to present new, unique tricks and ideas in your videos – thank you!
Wonderful video! Thanks so much! Now to go work in my garden!🐕🐸🦎🐛🦋
Wow your garden looks huge and plentiful, thanks ben great tips brilliant video ❤
Can anyone tell me how you deal with foxes and grey squirrels?? I want to plant more, but foxes and squirrels dig or munch everything 😢
love your channel !
why cut down corn when it can provide a canopy to protect the soil over winter ????
I installed a solar watering system in my poly tunnel & asparagus bed in August – saved me so much time, I will be investing in more for the rest of the allotment & the garden.
Cape gooseberries / Physalis peruviana over winter well in the poly tunnel. A rich source of vitamin c for the winter 🙂
Another really useful video, many thanks.
Growing purple sprouting broccoli for the first time, my plants went into the ground a couple of weeks ago, they make yours look like exhibitions specimens but seem to be settling so I’m hopeful. For the first time my spring sown courgettes did nothing, just too wet and cold I think. As I had seeds I sowed again in August without much hope but those plants are amazing, still growing and cropping beautifully.
So called summer fruiting raspberries are only now forming berries so will be interesting to see if they ripen before the frost arrives. Really hope that next year is kinder for gardeners but at least we can always find motivation through your weekly videos to keep us trying. Thanks again for all of the advice shared.
For all that I THINK I know about growing food, I learn something new from you from every video. Thank you for everything you give.
It also helps if you have a huge garden !!
Do you buy the seed potatoes every year or did you self save them? I self saved them this year…… worst harvest ever!!😅
Thanx man. I am specifically interested in the Japanese berry you talked about, similar to Raspberry. I’ve never heard of them but would love to plant them in my garden. I am in Canada in Zone 6b
Do u think I could grow them here?
Ben, you have consistently great videos! Clear, succinct, and I ALWAYS learn something valuable. In this video, I particularly appreciated the focus on perennial veggies and your use of the ollas (did I even spell that right?). Keep up the great work!
Unfortunately, Japanese wineberry is a major invasive here in Eastern Pennsylvania 🙁 someone planted it on our property years ago and it's such a battle to get rid of it!
Just a shout out to Ben and appreciation for everything he does for us. The world right now is utterly mad beyond mad and this site is a much needed escape from all that madness!
Little and often is the key for me, don't overdo it. Staying positive too!
We make Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations out of our corn shocks–and then compost them later.
Thanks I appreciate your teaching it’s like watching PBS! (public broadcasting station)
Good video as always! Someday could you do a video on how to keep rosemary alive indoors over winter? I've always had it die.
Hi Ben, what seed catalogue do you use?
78 minutes and plenty of land!
Greetings from Chile, South America ! New subscriber here and starting to enjoy all your videos! Hope using some of your tips as well, lol
I'm def no expert, but I heard you never want to use night shade soil on other plants, as they harbor things they can handle, but others can not. You might want to use that soil only on tomatoes/potatoes.
I enjoy your videos. American viewers should know that wineberry is probably not the best thing to grow in their gardens. It is a highly invasive non-native species in North America that easily escapes cultivation and displaces native species. It is actually illegal in parts of the Northeast. (reposted bc prev was from work account – oops)
Hi Ben I'm new to gardening and hoping to start a herb garden next year and I was wondering what herbs are perennials in the uk
I found a decent little Sun Joe chipper/shredder at a thrift store. It's been great for compost and mulch. My jerusalem artichokes gave me about 20 gallons worth. Next year I'm planning on growing corn and sorghum and shredding the stalks in that thing. Not too bad for $25 USD and easier than whacking them with a shovel. 😁
I've stopped bothering with a compost bin. I just chuck kitchen scraps in grow bags and top them with soil, or I send bigger stuff through that chipper. There's going to be a lot of canna lily and moringa going through it here in the next few weeks I suppose.
What is absolutely priceless is the pleasure of working with my hands, the enjoyment of learning about how nature works, and the satisfaction of getting delicious food for my efforts. Having an abundant harvest to share is a welcomed bonus too! A potato from my garden is worth at least 10 potatoes from the grocery store in my eyes.
Just found you via Charles Dowding – I hope to grow more veg varieties next year and not have a glut of runner beans and tomoatoes like this year. I have been composting for years but only just discovering why mine has been so wet in the past. !!! Keep up the interesting videos — plenty to catch up as i am a subscriber
Good video as always! Someday could you do a video on how to keep rosemary alive indoors over winter? I've always had it die.
10 minutes is different where I'm from.
Fantastic video Ben! Can you tell us which varieties of tomatoes and corn you have used that are resistant to blight and wet summers like this past one? Thanks! ❤
Nasturtium leaves can b eaten… taste a bit like horseradish 😊
what is the big cut on your leg
LOVE LOVE LOVE this channel! Thanks so much! Learning loads from you!
I've heard a lot about leaving the roots behind. Is that only for certain things??
If I hear the words save time once more I'm going to go mad, This man gives the impression that it's all about as little time as possible. He is duping 800 000 plus people.