In this live I’m going to be sharing all of the things to do to plan and get ahead of the 2026 growing season because the more that you prep now the easier is to hit the ground running in spring and it saves you a lot of guesswork. Plus winter is the unique opportunity where you can explore as many ideas and thoughts as possible because there really isn’t that much to do. There aren’t any urgent jobs in winter, but it’s also important to know exactly what jobs you need to do over winter.
How to Grow Food: https://geni.us/HowToGrowFood
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21 Comments
Can't wait to see the calendar. Even though I am in South Africa, all your content is valuable. Thanks Huw.
Im watching from Washington state, city of Ryderwood, a 55+ community. Im working on gardening completely around my home.
I justbplanted a bunch of garlic. First I sprouted the entire bulbs to root. Then broke apart the bulbs to plant. Now that I have cedar shavings for mulch for the winter.
Next im planting onion sets.
Fruit amazing BUT should have THINNED OUT our apples!!!!
Great tips!! Biggest bottleneck for me right now is infrastructure 😅 as house renovation is taking precedence. But hope to remedy that this next year…probably will be copying your fenced garden for one area
REAL SEEDS are the BEST and Kings give BIG discounts for allotment holders
Get those perennials growing and lots of veggies as well. We're all going to need food to endure what's going to happen soon
I've got your self sufficiency garden book out to plan ahead
Your videos are so inspirational and informative! As a Canadian, our food increase here is expected to go up 4-6 % in 2026. It’s so important to be more self sufficient and do the best we can with what we have whether it’s seed saving or just a few pots of kale. It all helps makes a difference.
Bit late watching this but I would love to know more about succession planting.
Hello from Chantal (USA)
So I keep pretty good records on all my seeds/plants – dates of sowing, germinating, transplanting, harvesting, pest or disease pressure. I keep track of weather, especially in spring and fall for high and low temps, first and last frosts. I kind of evaluate as I go along which varieties I want to keep growing, which don't seem to do well in my garden, which do I want to try again but change something in how or where I planted them. I also keep records on what I planted in what bed. I always try a few experiments each year with new varieties, spacing, location, successions, companions and use those results to help with the next year's plan. For instance, I really pushed the envelope on late planted beans this year, but even with a warm fall and late frost, they really didn't produce well, I think mostly because of the lessening light and also the gradually falling temps, especially at night – I was a bit lazy about covering them on the cooler nights. Already put in a seed order to take advantage of the black Friday sales. My biggest obstacle is my ability to spend long stints in the garden now that I am in my mid-70's. My back and energy are definitely in a different place than they were even 5 or 10 years ago, although I am in generally very good health. Moving large amounts of materials around would not be possible if we hadn't invested in an UTV a few years ago – it seemed like kind of a splurge at the time, but it has proved invaluable as my husband and I are aging, especially since our property is in the foothills of the Rocky Mtns. so mostly on a slope and challenging to walk up and down on multiple times a day. Will say my knee replacements were also crucial, couldn't really do anything if I hadn't had those done. My plans are always bigger than my ability to complete them, but I remain ever hopeful each year that everything will come together and I know that there will be much joy to be had no matter what happens.
Can you squeeze in another visit to Joshua Sparkes again next year too…he was great! 🙏
Limits – money, mulch, good soil. (limestone soil makes everything more difficult)
Missed the live stream, but watching from Kansas USA. Very good info, thank you!
My allotment at the moment doesn't produce anything like even 4kg per metre squared. I think it is more like 2kg. This year I grew just over 200kg and this was heavily driven by twice my normal fruit harvest!
Stay keto, or definitely low carb 🩷
My main bottle neck for next year is fears over pests. You got me all excited for leeks and every single one had caterpillars in them. Brassicas I managed to save but there were cabbage butterflies. Flea beetle i think also seemed to nibble away at things. Trying to plan for next year but also hoping that next year is year three and hoping predators find the garden!
wanted to add my 2 cents for topics…someone mentioned energy-more specifically "ageing" and the other is "money" although I think you show us many things already :). I love how you help us organize/plan how to move forward once we identify the issues holding us back..as you say that's important in all aspects of life. TBH without this livestream I don't think I'd be contemplating this so much about the garden….I get quite overwhelmed and frustrated and it's a race to manage…taking this time and these livestreams will be great to keep me thinking about this -thank you 🙂
Winter is the gardeners summer holiday definitely rings true! Been a manic year with customers, my allotment and my garden at home. preserving, dehydrating, endless jobs! Prep work in winter saves a ton of valuable time! ive been tidying the garden today to avoid doing it in spring!
Have a flame weeder to try out too. Might make weeding fun!!
Top video as always`!
What is this "life outside of gardening"?