Gardening can take up valuable time and effort… but it doesn’t have to! Join Ben on a tour of his early summer garden as he shows you a few tips and tricks that will help you save precious effort in your own garden. A low-maintenance garden can be both incredibly productive and outrageously beautiful.
Discover how to set up a raised bed using scavenged organic matter from around the garden. It’s cheap and easy to do: https://youtu.be/s6SwoBgUjnM
Why not make your own comfrey feed and save money on store-bought fertilizers. Here’s how: https://youtu.be/2RtclAsnMgM
If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers: https://www.GrowVeg.com
https://gardenplanner.almanac.com
https://gardenplanner.motherearthnews…
and many more…
To receive more gardening videos subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/growveg?…
If you’ve noticed any pests or beneficial insects in your garden lately please report them to us at https://BigBugHunt.com
45 Comments
As always you have the best time and money saving tips. You show how to make the most of your space, tools/equipment and time often with items you already have; nothing fancy but very organic. I always learn something new on each video. Your garden/beds are beautiful, productive and efficient. I especially appreciate tips for planting in succession as one crop matures and what to replace that space with. As you, I am planning next year's improvements already. Thank you, Ben!!
When tying the tomatoes, try a figure of 8 tie, it allows the stem
Flexibility but still provides strength
The little sprouts we pick off of tomato plants, those little tomato "armpit hairs", can be propagated into another tomato plant. Small tomato plants sell like hotcakes at the Farmers Market for really good money. Let them grow on, just a bit longer, then pinch them out, drop them water as you prune tomatoes, and root them up like any cutting. Near the end of the growing season this is very important, because if you have the warmth, you coddle the small plants on, maybe set them by the stove with artificial light, then planted out as soon as the greenhouse warms up in the earliest spring, you will be the first with tomatoes every year.
Thanks.
Wow thanks for that amazing tour! Fresh garlic is my favourite as well and it is what I grow most in my limited space garden. 🧄
Also fighting a mostly losing battle with vines!
Could you please share where you bought your bean arches?
Potato peels in my compost started growing, so this year I have potatoes!! So far 2 lbs 9 oz.
Your garden is looking great! What do you do with all the food? Does your family eat it all, or do you sell/give away some?
I have a problem with beetles eating the leaves of my pole beans but I'm already harvesting beans so I can't use a pesticide. Also I have what I think is a rabbit eating the leaves of my cucumbers and beets. Any suggestions on these fronts?
Your garden looks fabulous and I love learning new tips and tricks from you! Looking forward to setting up a couple of new beds in the fall and filling up with nature's yummy leftovers. Thanks for all you share and your enthusiasm has motivated me this Sunday morning to get off my butt and go trim back my tomatoes 🙂
How do you prevent the grass from seeding your bed when using clippings?
I love your enthusiasm. Basil is by far my favourite herb and I always have lots of varieties including Greek and lemon basil, and a few of the large leaf ones from the Naples area have self-set from last year and popped up in a pot on the deck and doing better than in the polytunnel. I want to do an edible forest and also am plagued with Bindweed.
Incredible! Our garden isn't doing as well as yours. A very dry May and June for us as well. Our tomatoes are huge but no actual tomatoes on them yet, just flowers. Our potatoes are huge as well.
A nutrient dense baby’s head is a thing of beauty 😀
Enjoyed seeing your garden! Glad that things are doing well! I can relate to not having enough growing beds…i have added a few fruits this year, strawberries, blueberries and thornless raspberries. I harvested my rhubarb…the veggies are doing so much better than last year, I learned from my mistakes. Peas are ready to harvest, my carrots are at more than a 12 inches tall, my cucumbers are climbing their poles, my lettuce is ready to be picked. It is true that one gets into the habit of pinching the side shoots, cut of the bottoms leaves and tie plants. I do this while my morning coffee…I use clips that I got from the pound shop. What are the hoop tubes, did you make them yourself?
Your forest garden is growing even more beautiful Ben! You are so happy in your garden realm, and energized! Whew, I have to watch this one again to catch all the tips…
Another great video Ben, love the garden. It's an absolute oasis of calmness. I can imagine you're good lady has a right job finding you. Nice to see you have a go at some Celeriac.
Love that lime thing on fish heads. I sow spinach about now and it stands all winter.
Beautiful garden! As a first time home owner excited to learn to grow in my small garden, please keep posting as this one has been very inspirational! I've been looking at the sq foot gardening videos and looking at climbers and hanging baskets to make use of the vertical space.
We have had so much rain so far this summer (up to six inches) I haven't been able to get out into the garden to take care of things.The weeds are getting away from me. I had one day this week when it did not rain. I ended up using a weed wacker to cut the weeds back then put down some landscape cloth and mulch straw. I am still working 60 hours a week at my job leaving little time to enjoy my garden. I wish I could slow down but customers keep calling I am a plumber and it seems like everyone has an emergency.
Yeah u get nice plants then the uk weather comes along and blows the greenhouse away and snaps all the stalks of good plants,,,every year without fail the winds come mid summer and there's nothing worse and it puts you off
Garden looks gorgeous! It's the best when you can just walk outside for your food. I want to start composting seriously and growing from seeds next year thanks to your videos, and will look to your videos again for tips! We finished the asparagus just in time for the lettuce to come through, and it was planted in front of the asparagus, so the asparagus ferns have provided some light shade for our lettuce and it hasn't bolted yet and went gotten a good 5 weeks out of it! It's nearing the end, but I'm hoping it will last until the zucchini is ready in the next week or so! Then after that, bell peppers for eating, and tomatoes that will become sauce. My squash is also in random spots and always takes over as we mow around it 🙂 hoping to get our first crop of Asian pears, bartlet pears, golden delicious, grapes, and blackberries this year, and will have raspberries in the coming weeks as well! I love the seasonal shifts of gardening! Best wishes with the rest of your growing season!
Took your tip about growing potatoes in pots and tried it with 5 seed potatoes in 2 largish pots. Harvested a couple of days ago, and got a large number of really nice potatoes. It worked! I just kept filling up the pots with compost,until I got to the top, and watering when dry and voila! Certainly a lot easier to harvest, and also sure to get ALL the potatoes this way, as well.
Curious how you got your lettuce to grow like that. Mine always seems so measly. I grow it from seed early, so it was still cool weather as directed. Added compost to veg beds before transplanting, watered. And still they are a fraction of yours. Or maybe it's the variety.
Your dad jokes are so funny – I like also how you keep things simple
Just planted some pea and bean seeds from 2016. Did not know if anything was going to come up, but amazingly had about 60%germination! (I put 3 seeds in each hole and 2 plants usually have come up)
Also have been continuing to sow plants as the summer has been moving along, tucking things in around other plants, and realizing that my original ideas about gardening are way too formal. The folks that have spreadsheets and have it organized to the date as to when they sow things stress me out. I cant be that rigid, because I would miss many of the deadlines and feel like a failure.
I am happy that i have been eating my kale and swiss chard, potatoes and onions. Eating the things that I am growing makes me feel like a success.
Although our climates are very different (I live in Central California and it is very hot and dry), it is fun to watch what you are able to grow and your enthusiasm.
The fish I buried under my tomato plants were dug out, not by cats but by something else. I’m so gutted!!
I am quite the newbie when it comes to growing. Though I have a 300m2 garden (with lawn, bushes and trees) I do want to grow my own stuff. Work 60-80 hours a week, so I am not looking to become self-sufficient, but want to "get into it all". Could you please make a video for cooler winter, low maintenance and high yield vegetables and fruits. I heard roots like potatoe and carrots grow well? Anyway, thank you for all your videos and I plan to watch them into the future as I learn more about it all. Greetings from Faroe Islands
Hi Ben!
Where is your garden? I'm intrigued to compare location for temperatures and growing seasons for when you recommend planting things 🙂. Love watching all your videos, your enthusiasm gets me out into the garden more and more 👍🏼
Ben, nice look at your Garden. Thanks for the tour.
What kind of gooseberry is that? The berries are huge!
Dig deeper and bury fish way deeper. Many blessings everyone.
Saving back seedlings does mean a later harvest. I learned it several years ago. MAny blessings everyone.
I ve just replanted spinach[3 weeks ago]
I ‘saved ‘them from a garden center sale corner.
So after 3 weeks, some are having a growth…
At what stage, do i start ‘’plucking’’ their leaves, without damaging the whole plant?
[ never grew them][only ate them , in france, from a spinach tin [ cooked with creme fresh& thinking i ll be as strong as popeye]
Can you please explain the difference between the top side shoots and the top of the plant, just so the tops aren't picked by a beginner as it'll stop the growth
Fantasic! I find this so motivating. I can't even really explain why, I just get vibes that you're a really good guy excited about growing veg!
I started this year by watching your videos, despite having hope I was almost sure it was gonna be my 2 year of zero harvest and dying plants in my raised beds. Thanks to your knowledge however I have just harvested my first snap peas, green beans, cucumbers and radishes. Still waiting for my tomatoes and kale to be ready : ) Amazing channel and great video as always
What a beautiful garden ❤❤ thanks for all the advice.
We were just travelling through the UK during that drought period you mentioned. Terrible with the additional heat for your farmers and the herds, but great for touristing. Oddly enough, it rained the whole time we were gone from our home in Colorado, which is quite unusual. I am fully onboard with low-maintenance gardening. The crops I grow have to give me max reliable yield for minimal effort, especially because most of my energy goes toward battling the bindweed and mint (amazing how mint can take over). Love watching your videos, and terribly jealous of your climbing roses!
Lovely tour Ben! I smiled when thinking of the neighbor pitching green stuff over the fence because mine does the same for me. Some on my street also text for pick up😊
Your garden is looking amazing. I especially love your take of a forest garden. I have a polyculture cross forest garden vegetable garden and I absolutely adore it. Such a wonderful natural atmosphere. Semi organised chaos. Have you found you have less "pest" (I hate that term) damage in your forest garden? I have found it to be so beneficial.
I was recently reading about planting a brocken egg under the plant if yoh have predator wildlife
I did not know we (humans) can eat spinach flowers.
I love fresh spinach.
I've never seen green cabbage before.
Looks more like lettuce.
Does it go well with corned beef?