Today’s video covers 3 topics; seed saving, a hidden cost of self-sufficiency, and electroculture.
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#selfsufficiency #seedsaving #electroculture
20 Comments
Nice! for the first time i can watch your videos and feel like im on the right path. I use a lot of seaweed, its amazing, only drawback is the amount of plastic hidden in it 🙁 I have only had an allotment 1.5 years but it has so many advantages as well recycling the nutrients back to the earth where we have washed it away by poor land management. Also i never use recipes, so another win for me from this video, thanks Huw!
Still haven't won vs slugs mind, i feel like Pembrokeshires coastal slugs are on another level! they have eaten my winter onion seedlings after carefully placing seaweed all around them hoping itd protect them for a bit but i think all this rain has washed any remaining salt right off 🙁
Don't test the fringe things on an already brilliant garden. You need a garden that has issues to see if it makes a difference.
The current trend on electroculture reminds me of a number of years ago when the fad was on gardeners purchasing expensive test equipment to measure the Electrical Conductivity of their garden soil. I know one man that took a test meter to stores when shopping for compost so he could measure the electrical conductivity to ensure he was buying the best compost. He eventually learned that the moisture level had more to do with the measurable conductivity than the type of compost.
Your comments about permaculture and extreme viewpoints rings so true to me. Unfortunately some YouTubers who do lovely permaculture gardening have gone off on political tangents and try to shove their political stances onto their permie audience…who comes to them for GARDENING, not their opinions on electric cars or whether or not to spank their kids. I have had to unsubscribe from one previously fave channel and may be unsubbing another one shortly, just because I feel hijacked when I start watching a permie vid and then get someone's politics dumped on me. It's too bad. And you can't tell them anything, either, because they think everyone should take permaculture to the extreme lifestyle degree.
Great video, spot on. I’ve calculated I need approximately 1 ton+ of compost. I grew a number of large plants and have collected many large bags of neighbours leaves in addition to my 17 bed garden plants for materials .I built a 4’ cubed compost box with roof and have succeeded in getting good temps. I am still concerned that by spring I won’t have enough product to cover all my beds in the spring. I was able to fill it this fall.
I’m looking for ideas on potential crops I can grow that may have some astetic appeal along with large quantities of material for adding to my system. What are other people doing?
I’ve considered asking a coffee shop nearby for it’s used grounds. And this year grew 1000 head kale and sunflowers to help create material. I live in zone 3 so we have winter half of the year.
Hugh, you are meant to take the bung out of the kettle when you are boiling. Could cause an accident
I just started to make more compost by using leaf mold. I cut leaves up with mover and make small cylinder bins with fencing. Plus I pile leaves up over winter where I want to start new beds using the extra elsewhere in the spring. Works great!
Englishman brewing coffee while I'm over here in the US brewing tea. What the heck mate. 🤣😂🤣
I don't get carried away with making or buying compost. I stay in contact with a local animal rescue that has tons of animal compost from horses, rabbits and chickens and they give it away free. My only cost is sweat equity to go load it in my truck, drive it home and shovel it in my garden beds. Over the last year or so I've hauled roughly 10 yards of FREE compost. It's out there, you just have to put in the work. 😎
Love hearing your thoughts and opinions Huw 🙌We're still laughing about you laughing at Electroculture and forgetting the word for beach 😂 All the important stuff ! Hope you got your garlic in 💚✌🌿
By making my own compost has turned into a full time hobby, am always looking for different ways to make it. Make 2 or 3 truck fulls equivalent each year, took time but as a older gardener am experimenting with smaller containers making in 10, 20 and 40 litre covered buckets or bins mainly using household scraps, some leaves, grass, straw and a starter of a handful of my tiger worms. For the big heaps use old hay, horse manure, daggy wool, cardboard, weeds not seeding, and old balage that animals won't eat due to mould. Allso use thousands if not hundreds of thousands of tiger worms.
I love your practicality and advice.
I love the fact that huw has the same cafetiere as me 😂
Not much to contribute except to say I haven’t been able to view in a few weeks due to caring for my very ill dad. But I’m now curled up on the sofa with his 2 dogs, and watching this helped my soul. Just hearing those sticks crackle brought me joy and relaxation. Thank you! After my rest I may start planning my Spring garden 🙂
I have a compost path and compost bin. Also save old compost and add some comfrey. leaves in an old dustbin. This I use for my pot growing veg.
Scratching my head on kale seed. I've saved blue curly kale from 1 or 2 plants, and it always grows as blue curly. I always lose the other varieties to bugs, but I don't have room for 40 kale plants to grow to start with.
Lol, crystals and driftwood sound much more my speed than metal rods to conduct electricity.
I practice anarchy gardening.
I grow plants and then I look around and go, yep, that looks good.
Do a bit of weeding, bit of no dig with my homemade compost, and compost tea, job done, it's awesome and easy.
Grow plants, plant them, have a coffee/beer.
I'm glad you went with all 3!
My suspicions were correct regarding your views on seed saving. I went through a similar journey of trying to do what's best and most sustainable. But quickly discovered that as a solo gardener, I would never have time to maintain my garden if I dedicated myself to seed saving. Plus, I currently have a relatively small area to grow things. It would be a real challenge keeping everything organised.
And now I'm curious about electroculture. Not for my own use, but just to understand.
And I am enjoying these seemingly unscripted chats from the garden lately!
Be aware that taking seaweed from the beach is illegal in some places