As the temperature rises, Nikki has been continuing her planting – but she’s also managed to replace her greenhouse cover AND plant it up for the growing season.
These informal, unscripted vlog-style videos are a chance for the team to share some of the fun things happening in their respective gardens – and are filmed without a teleprompter in a single take.
Read the full transcript there
Hey everybody, happy Sunday. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you are safe, you are well, and you are with people you care about who also care for you.
I know it’s been a tough couple of weeks for so many people, and I hope that we are at a point where things will soon get better.
So let’s share some of my garden joy, because I have plenty this week. So right here you will see a little trailer full of plants. This time last week it was literally full all the way around with loads and loads of different tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatillos, all kinds of cool plants. Now we’re down to this collection of tomatillos, we’ve got some tomatoes, we’ve got some peppers, and we’ve got some sunflowers. Nobody has taken my sunflowers — the sunflowers are looking a little dry. Don’t worry, I will water them after I have finished filming.
But look, I set this up. I put the trailer at the corner of the driveway and it’s worked really well. Also, check out my potatoes — these are just ridiculous, right? These are my volunteer potatoes. They have been volunteering very well. I am NOT going to muck around with them because they are happy and they are growing, and if I can get some free — I’m calling them free potatoes because they’re from last season or the season before — so, yay.
Also in here, these are all the potatoes that I intentionally planted this season. They are also doing really well. And then here we have another volunteer potato that I have not taken up. With the parsnips, you know, the rest — they’re all really good at this time of year.
And it’s just really nice to be out and about in the garden now. This time last weekend we had really, really high temperatures. I think Sunday it was ridiculously hot, and then on — I think Monday it cooled down significantly, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it’s been pretty cool. It’s only just started to warm up this afternoon.
But let me show you this, because this is fun. This is the tail end of a double tulip that I had here. It did finally bloom and it’s sort of just about finishing. I think I have some poppies growing up there, and there’s a maple that I need to move, that was completely self-seeded at the front of the garden.
I finally put my irrigation system in, and last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I spent a large amount of time in the garden because I wanted to catch up and get ahead. So I put a new irrigation system here. So these are my lupins — they’re coming through right now. You can see, look at that lovely kind of pinky colour. They’re gonna be there — there’s plenty of heads on it this year. My strawberries are doing great here. They’re finally coming up and being happy because I’ve got this drip irrigation set up at last. They do now have a fairly decent watering system.
So I’m gonna check on the chickens. We’ve got some water down there, I will be giving them some more a little later on.
But this is the big thing from this week — my greenhouse. As you might have seen from the image, we finally got the QuicTent cover replaced. So you remember back in December/January time, I wrote to QuickTent, who were the manufacturers of this greenhouse, and went, “Hey guys, I have one of your greenhouses and it’s starting to look a bit ratty. Could you help me out?” And QuickTent were like, “Yeah, yeah, fam, we got you.” I think I paid like a hundred and something, and I got a new cover sent my way, and it fits. And over the last weekend, my lovely other half and I fitted it. We just pulled out the old one, pulled it off, and then fitted the new one with working windows and everything else. And everything is fine and happy.
Although — are you a fly? Yes, you are a fly. I have one hole already that I need to patch, which is somewhere around here. But it’s certainly better than the massive holes that we had on the old one.
And as you can also see, I have planted my cucumbers and my tomatoes. So we’ve got the heat-friendly cucumbers down that end, and coming down here the less — the less intense heat requirements towards this end, and then here we have some of our less heat-intensive tomatoes, and then right at the end here we have the tomatillos. And yes, I’ve got some sunflowers that are trying to break out — so many sunflowers. I thought that people would have some flowers this year from my little plot, but apparently not. So I’ve got some sunflowers in there.
Those are the courgettes, or the zucchini, that I planted on camera a couple of weeks back. And then on this side we’ve got more tomatoes. This is our corn, looking really good, and then in that far corner we have peppers. And as you can see, everything is now properly in the ground, everything is properly getting watered, and everything is growing really quickly.
Unfortunately, I am on my own this weekend for reasons I won’t go into, but we’ve had a bit of a family emergency. So it’s just me — my wife has had to travel last minute — and so I will probably be stuck in the garden this weekend. And I say “stuck in the garden” with a smile on my face, because that’s actually where I quite like to be — in the garden, growing things and doing things.
So, just as a bit of a side note here — while those are — oh, no, they’re motorbikes. They are actually motorbikes. I thought they were going to be side-by-sides.
We’ve got the two lettuces that are growing — these are the ones that I bought in the store, you know, the reusable lettuce pots — and they are doing incredibly well. Meanwhile, my beans are really going from strength to strength. And I’m just going to tuck you in here.
Same thing with my peas — they’re looking really good and growing really nicely. I still haven’t put the twine up for the peas. I haven’t done their twine yet. It is on the list of things that I need to do. And then this weekend I’m hoping that I can get in here and tidy up a little bit, and I can get in here and tidy up a little bit — just make the rest of the garden look a little bit more tidy than it was previously. It does depend on the temperature. I’m not going to come out if it’s super hot, and as I’m going to be on my own, I also need to make sure that I don’t overdo it because of my health conditions.
So we’ve got some strawberries here — they’re doing great. The raspberries are coming up nice and strong. I actually need to think about some raspberry structures. And I also need to go and buy some more soil to put on my potatoes. Unfortunately, because my pickup truck is in the shop getting the accident repair done — this is from the accident we had in — oh goodness, it would be — we were hit in February, early February — it’s not going to be back home for another week. So I can’t go and get any soil, which I find very frustrating.
But check out my strawberries! Look at all the strawberries I have — isn’t that amazing? I’ve got those two strawberries that are not very happy because they were transplanted a couple of weeks back, but all the other strawberries, they are maximum effort and they’re looking really freaking amazing. And I cannot wait to have some lovely fresh strawberries. That’s the best bit about this time of year — the strawberries coming in, all these cool things.
The hens are doing well. I let them out at the weekend, and I do let them out when I’m out and about doing stuff — because why not.
And because the side of the house is now getting watered with this irrigation system, they’re doing a lot happier. They’re a lot happier than they were.
Also, I just want to show you down here — look at this. Doesn’t that look pretty? Doesn’t that look amazing? So my irises are out, I have a sunflower coming up here. I’ve got to do some sunflower planting, and there’s just so much else happening.
So tell me what’s going on in your garden. Are you finally starting to see the signs of spring and summer? Are you still stuck in cold, wet, and horrible? Let me know in the comments down below. And of course, if you’re in the southern hemisphere, I guess you’re getting ready for winter now — so tell me down below what’s going on with you.
Thanks to the amazing list of people scrolling by on either side of me right now — they are the reason we are still here. 2026, I am NOT gonna lie, has been a terrible year. I’m only — halfway — not even halfway through it. We’re only like four, five months through it now. So were it not for the amazing people on the list scrolling by, I don’t know where we’d be. And I just want to say thank you, because without you we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. So, thank you. And if you’d like to join them, you can do so from $1.50 a month.
Remember to be kind. Remember to tell the important people in your life that they are important to you, because you may one day not be able to. And I will see you this time next week. Keep evolving.
Comments are closed.