The Old Orchard Garden – Episode Five – February 2024 Garden Tour and Plans!

Hello and welcome to The Old Orchard Garden! It’s very nearly the end of February so join me as I give you a quick update of what’s been happening in the kitchen garden. I also go through all the plans of what we’ll be growing in 2024.

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hello everyone and welcome back to a brand new episode now it’s currently the end of February which means it’s time for the February Garden Tour and because not much has changed in the garden since January I thought I would also go through the plans with you as [Music] well [Music] so yeah not a lot has changed in the garden since January but I mean it has only been a month and it’s not a particularly busy time of the year as it um it’s still still quite cold and we still been having to dodge the rain showers um but we are working our way through digging the beds and we are nearly done I think in the last video um we had just started the end bed that’s now done so that one’s completely done there’s just the um the garlic growing this end and then obviously the asparagus the other end but that’s completely dug and weeded this one um is basically done I mean there’s some carrots growing here and some uh parsnips there but I think we’re going to actually dig the rest of the carrots up now cuz we did get quite a bit carrot fly last year we didn’t protect them we didn’t put our um we usually put like a meter high mesh around to stop the carrot fly um but yeah we got quite a lot of carrot fly last year so I think we’re just going to dig them up um yeah that won’t take that long to dig over that little bit there so that’s basically done um the basica bed is also near enough done I mean there’s uh some kale there at the moment and some Sprouts so obviously when they come out we can just dig those areas over and um and weed them and then that one’s done again there’s rubab at the far end which is starting to show which is very exciting um so yeah those three beds are basically done hey Molly I won’t stand on you this time the last bed to do is the old potato bed which is the hardest one I have started it so I’ve done about a meter but it’s very hard going I think I mentioned in the last video that that was the worst bed for us because there was quite a lot of cooch grass in there um and obviously we didn’t weed it as much as we should have done last year because the potatoes were there because we were earthing them up and we couldn’t really weed um so yeah it sort of went to pot a little bit um so yeah digging that and weeding that is taking quite a long time I mean I think that was maybe a couple of days digging that meetting but because like I said there’s so so much cooch gross there so many of the white Roots it’s um yeah it’s hard work cuz obviously you know you’re bending over all the time and it’s it’s just taking longer to dig because you’re weeding a lot at the same time but we will get there like I said near enough three beds out of four um is good I mean before we started digging them I was thinking oh we’re never going to do this it’s going to take too long um but yeah uh I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now um but yeah I think that’s basically that’s basically all we’ve been doing um we pruned The Apple Tree the well there’s two apple trees um established apple trees in the orchard which were already here obviously the Bramley uh it’s quite a nice size so we just had to pre that a little bit but the other Apple which we don’t know we don’t know what it is but the other Apple was huge so we actually pruned it um this time last year we gave it a bit of a prune um and then we obviously Let It Be and then we’ve given it another bit of a prune now um it looks quite drastic but it was it was too big like we needed it smaller just so we were able to pick the apples and so yeah that’s been pruned and I’ve tided up all the prunings from the orchard now the chickens are allowed in here um it means that the orchan can have a little bit of a rest because obviously we seed the meadow seed um last April um yeah we’re I’m hoping I’m hoping that it’s going to grow okay um but I mean any time will tell um so yeah I that’s about it we haven’t really sewn many seeds I don’t like to so many seeds this early just cuz it’s still too cold um and obviously there’s not enough light yet um so I will start sewing seeds really in March April time and also what we do like to do as well we like to sew most of our seeds direct we did it last year um and it was really successful so things like the beans um and the swiish chard I think we sewed direct there was quite a lot of seeds that we just sewed direct um and yet it worked out beautifully uh so we’re going to be doing that again this year so there’s no rush to sew um yeah and the chickens are just happy happy happy chickens but yeah that’s about that’s about it for the garden tour in February I think I’m going to talk through the plans with you all in the poly tunnel because it’s quite nippy today it’s quite chilly um and at least I’ll be out of the wind in the poly tunnel and hopefully it’ll be a little bit warmer as well gosh it is so cold out there um that wind is just oh it’s biting um so I’ve made myself a cup of tea of course um and for all those interested it’s the apple apple and black bre um tea from Brew Company um yeah do like my herbal tea so tea is a must today cuz it’s cold um I mean it’s a must every day um anyway let’s get on with the plans it’s very exciting I’m really excited um about this year um I feel like I mean not that last year was an experiment but but because we moved and you know we’re in a different location and we’ve got a bigger space um last year felt like yeah felt like an experiment in terms of how much to grow and how much we could fit in and um yeah I I I still feel like we’re learning like we made quite a lot of mistakes last year um I think I might go through them first actually before I go through the plans um what we did last year um that went bad the chickens are right outside I can see them hope they don’t PE through the poly tunnel cuz they know I’m in here um and they just want me worms so yeah I hope they don’t Peck through I’ll be in big trouble um right so yeah let’s go through what um what I would change uh from what we did last year and there were a few crops which we sowed way too many of um so that will change this year for instance where are we oh yeah we grew way too many carrots we had six rows of carrots can you hear them um sorry I get distracted by the chickens so easily like they are a very high source of entertainment um yeah we grew way too many carrots so we had six rows of carrots and bear in mind our rows are 6 M um 6 M wide well in length um so yeah we had way too many carrots I don’t know why we sewed that many I think the plan was to try and sew them successional but we just never did for some reason um so we had way too many carrots and we also didn’t protect them from the carrot fly which I mentioned earlier um so yeah just wait too many I I think the thing we need to work on a lot this year is the whole successional sewing um and making sure that we just aren’t inundated with crops all at one time um we really need to work on that so yeah we had way too many carrots um we also had too many Sprouts so we had three rows of sprouts um yeah which was too I mean we we we’ve still got loads and and they’re fine like we are eating them but we it was just too many for us um so I think this year I think this year we’re just sewing one row of sprouts um to see how that goes because we didn’t have enough broccoli we only had one row of broccol last year so we’re going to do two rows of broccoli this year cuz we just tend to eat more broccoli than Sprouts um and obviously you get more Sprouts per plant than you do a broccoli um so yeah too many Sprouts too many carrots we also had um too much beetroot now my dad is the only person that likes beetroot in our family um so a whole 6 M length of beetroot do we have I think we had do you know what we might have had two rows of beetroot last year yeah we had two rows of beetroot my gosh so yeah way too much beetroot uh we’re just going to be sewing half a row of beetroot this year uh cuz like I said it’s just my dad that likes it so that should be plenty should be plenty for him also the onions we are changing so last year we had two rows of St gter and one row of Red Baron all the Red Baron went really quickly because we prefer red onion uh to the white onion so this year we’re having two rows of red and then the one row of white um I mean yeah you just you just need to grow what you eat basically don’t you and yeah if you eat more red onion then grow more red onion like it makes sense I don’t know why we didn’t do it last year um also peas we sewed way too close together uh we sewed the rose too close together we weren’t able well we were able to do it was just hard to get in between the RADS to harvest um it just yeah it was a complete sort of mess and it just made life so much more difficult so uh obviously this year we’re going to space the rose a little bit further apart to make it much easier to harvest just a little changes like that isn’t it they just like you don’t think they would matter too much but like it’s just going to make life so much easier um and then last thing to really focus on this year is to actually Harvest things and it sounds ridiculous but like because Summer obviously summertime is busy for everyone in the garden but with our business like that’s the peak time and we usually wa at the Garden shows are quite a lot in the summer as well so um yeah there are quite a lot of times when we don’t Harvest things in time for instance the sweet cor I think we only enjoyed about six cobs from there the rest like we just not that we forgot about it we just didn’t pick it in time and it just it went completely to waste um and we were so gutted about it cuz obviously you know we’ve been growing that from seed uh you know tend do it and then yeah we just we just let it go to waste and it we were so annoyed with ourselves so my aim for this year is to try and harvest things when they are ready to pick U make the most of the seasonal veg cook more cook more with the seasonal vegetables that we grow um and I also would quite like to uh look more into uh maybe like fermenting or you know just storing and and you know making chues and things like that actually using the stuff that we grow instead of just you know letting it go to waste uh sort of thing that’s that’s the plan for this year I mean I I think I I feel like I think that every year and then summer just gets really busy that I’m determined to do it we’ll do it um so yeah that’s just a few of the things that we would change for this year obviously we’re learning every year I mean I think I first got my allotment like 10 years ago and I still feel like I don’t really know anything about gardening like it just it’s it’s just one of those Hobbies isn’t it where you’re always always learning new things and changing things um uh so yeah that’s what we would change for this year let’s go through the plans let me sort my tea out as well while we’re here so for the people that have followed me for a while you know I like to go a little bit overboard with the plans um yeah I do like to go a bit overboard so I tend to do what I call like the serious plans uh which are all on graph paper uh that way you can get all the measurements exact um you can plan how many plants you need in each row how far the rows need to be what you’re fit into each bed um yeah it’s it’s really handy to do a graph paper one um let me show you last year’s actually so this is last year which is the whole uh kitchen garden plot the poly tunnel in a little flap there so that’s the um that’s the graph paper one of the whole kitchen Garden so that was last year and I did start to draw up one for this year that’s the poly tunnel bit and then I thought well actually that you know the whole main thing isn’t going to change so I just thought I might as well draw up the four vegetable beds on graph paper and just plan out the beds because the other you know the Main Kitchen Garden isn’t going to change the only thing that will really change is um the vegetable beds and what we’re growing in them uh so yes saved myself a little bit of time um doing that um and then I also got the watercolors out because I haven’t had the watercolors out for like more than five years maybe even more than that um I yeah I just felt the need to create with paint so I basically just drew like a prettier version of the four main vegetable beds obviously this isn’t a scale um that’s why I just call them the pretty ones uh but yeah it basically just just says what we’re growing in each bed um I also like to do a spreadsheet of when to sew things this is last year’s I haven’t printed out um this year’s one um with just what we’re growing the varieties the spacing how many plants we actually need um and then you know when we need to sew them plant them out all that Gump uh so to speak and then I also went overboard and did a watercolor version of the whole kitchen Garden like the um like the paper one but yeah just just pretty so that’s that one with the orchard oh Orchard’s down here with the orchard there and the chickens and everything um I will what I will do is I’ll probably actually flip the camera around um and then you can have a better look at the plans and I can go I can go through them in a little bit more detail for you it also give me a chance to drink my tea right so I’m just going to go through the plans uh quite quickly with you uh just to give you a rough idea of the whole layout um and then yeah what I will do afterwards then is we’ll go through all the varieties and all the seeds that we will be growing this year so this is what I call the Main Kitchen Garden we’ve obviously got some lawn over here um and then the yard and the workshop and the house is all over there um but this is the main sort of working Garden so we’ve got the orchard down here with the chickens you can see the little chickens there um the beehives uh which are empty at the moment um and then there’s a nice little picnic bench there then we’ve got the fruit cage which has the raspberries gooseberries and um black currents there’s the poly tunel which we are satin at the moment obviously this is n here yet but that’s where the greenhouse and the potting shed will be going with the water butts then there’s a uh raised cut flower bed which will go here with daas and gladioli and things like that in two more raised beds here with strawberries in and there will be an big arch Ray there joining the two beds together with some sweet peas growing on there then we have the four main vegetable Beds which are each I believe 6 M by by about 8.5 M uh in size so we’ve got the pagola which again isn’t there at the moment but hopefully we’ll be making it this year um a nice big metal pagola will go in the middle there with some climbing roses up them this is all surrounded by a hedge which we planted um when did we plant that just over a year ago anyway we planted the Hedge around there and we’ve also planted um an edible hedge around this area here and all the way up there um which again we only planted just over a year ago so um it’s it’s growing but obviously it’ll be a while until it’s a nice abundant hedge uh then we have this little area here which is the old pig sty which we won’t be using as a pig sty we’ll just be using a storage uh we got three compost bins um and yeah this is just where the wheelbarrows in storage and you know the compost will go uh we’re going to sort of fence it off uh so we can’t really see it cuz it’s not going to be a very pretty area but it will be functional and practical when we need compost so yeah that’s that little area there uh then we have these two flower beds here which are just outside the kitchen Garden in the laund area this one here has been dug um it needs rethinking and planning and I need to sit down and draw a proper plan for this I might need some help as well actually but I’ll cover that in another video um because we bought some plants for it last year and we just bunged them in um we didn’t really plan it it looked it did look really nice but I would quite like to plan this bed a bit more and it’s got quite a lot of roses in which we need to move over to this one but this one hasn’t been dug yet um but yeah they’re just going to be full of flowers and um yeah pretty pretty so that’s the main kitchen Garden area so then we’ve got the four vegetable beds again I’ve done them in the graph and then in the pretty obviously this one is to scale we know how many rows we can fit in and how many plants we need um and yeah this is just the sort of visual pretty one um but I what yeah what I think I’ll do is I will turn the camera back around and I’ll go through this um along with all the Vari ities and the seeds which will’ll be growing um but basically what we do is we rotate them at the moment because we’re currently no dig I hope to change that next year and go to no dig um but we’ve got the potato bed the brassas um and the sweet corn and pumpkins then the beans bed and then this is basically the root SL other bed um but yeah so we have rotated them and the potatoes were there last year so we rotate them around that way um but yeah I will turn the camera back around and we will go through all the seeds and the varieties which we’ll grow in this year drink that before it gets cold right let’s go through um all the seeds which we’ll be growing they all arrived I think last week actually I was a little bit late in um ordering them now I usually like to order the vegetable seeds from Kings and then I order all my flowers from chilon seeds um and then there’s like random ones which you pick up in the garden center which I didn’t go in for but they came home with you anyway so there’s a few um random ones in there these are actually quite pretty they’re from um National Trust but the yeah the packets are um just very pretty do like pretty looking things um so yeah all the seeds are here very very exciting I have the list here which I can go through um I sat down and did it actually the other night cuz I thought it would just be easier than trying to remember U my memory is not the best um right let’s go through the potato bed first which is obviously just full of potatoes um although there is rubab in the far end of that bed so this year we are growing two rows of salad potatoes and we can fit uh 21 of the potatoes in each row uh so we are are growing 21 of Charlotte and 21 International kidney uh which are Jersey Royals oh which I love they’re my favorite um so yeah two rows of the salad potatoes and then we have eight rows of the main crop potatoes um last year we grew King Edward Maris Piper and Cara this year we’re growing King Edward Maris Piper and because the garden center didn’t have Cara in stock I panicked um and just brought Desiree instead so we’ve got King Edward Maris Piper and Desiree um and yeah there’s eight rows we can fit I believe 15 potatoes in each row so we are growing four not four three rows of king Edward three rows of Maris Piper and two rows of desirey so yeah there’ll be 45 King Edward 45 Maris Piper and 30 desirey that’s so quite a lot of potatoes but we do eat potatoes a lot I mean they’re so versatile aren’t they um so yeah that’s the potato bed um yeah I have got the potato so I’ll be putting them out to I do actually need to do that I bought them the other day so yeah I will put them in a in like a little tray and let them chit um Brasa bed next um so not much is changing uh with how we did the the layout of the bed last year it did quite well um although like I said earlier we are growing less sprouts and more broccoli um I think that’s the only thing we’re really changing so with the Brassica bed we have one row of sprouts and we can fit 14 plants in one row so there’ll be 14 briet F1 Sprouts then there’s one row of cauliflower so there’ll be 14 Autumn Giant cauliflowers two rows of broccoli so 28 Iron Man F1 two rows of cabbage do you know what I think we’re going to have half a row of the red drum head red cabbages cuz I really like them and then I think we obviously there’s going to be um one and a half row which will be a mixture of um I want to say verus and what’s the other one I didn’t write them down because I I don’t think we really oh Golden Acre primo and verus they’re the ones we’re growing I don’t know why I didn’t write that down um and then we’re going to do the one row of kale like we did last year half will be midnight sun which is the curly it’s like a purpley one um and then the other half of the row will be the Nero de Toscana kale um which again is my favorite one uh then we’ve got one row of swed which is called Tweed and then also in the brassed we’ve got the block of sweet corn um and that will be a block of 25 sweet corn plants they are Swift We Grow them every year they’ve always been very good we just need to remember to harvest them in time then amongst all of that will be the squash so we are growing butternut squash um Butternut Hunter and then also Crown print so there’ll be two Crown prints and four butternut squash I love squash so so much um we didn’t have much of a harvest last year actually but um hopefully this year will be a bit different so yeah there’ll be there’ll be six squash just rambling around between the sweet corn and everything then there’ll also be two wigwams with four Jack bitt pumpkins growing up them they’re the little tiny pumpkins because for some reason I can’t buy munchkin pumpkins anymore um but Jack B little are exactly the same they just don’t have as much as a cute name as munkin pumpkins um and then obviously there’s the row of garlic which is already in there um growing nicely so that’s the Brasa bed the bean bed was our best bed last year and we’re not changing anything apart from making the rows between the peas um further apart so we can Harvest them we’re not changing anything else so I’m going to have the row of kandula uh along the edge of the path again which will be the mixture of Indian prints and a touch of red buff um which I do every year because I just I like the pink buff ones and the orange together just look really nice uh then there’ll be the what is it two rows of broad beans again the aquadulce Claudia there’ll be 82 plants of them uh then we have the five double rows of peas which are a mixture of early onward and Hearst green Shar two rows of Runa beans which are Moonlight um and I’ve got down here there’s 62 plants of those uh also growing three corett um last year I grew three and we did originally think that it was too too much um but the chickens really liked them as well so if there was ever a time when we didn’t Harvest one in time I just gave it to the chickens and they really enjoyed it so I just thought I’m just going to grow three again because you know if we don’t eat them the chickens can enjoy them as well um the variety of that is sunripe which is a yellow one um I like to grow the yellow ones just cuz they’re easier to spot sounds really odd um but they’re easier to spot amongst the green leaves so um yeah they’re they’re a lot easier to to know when to harvest cuz you can see them it’s not like you miss them and then suddenly they’re like this big um and then there’s two wigwams with Botti beans on them um and there’s eight botes per Wigwam so 16 all together they are the lingua lingua D faka don’t know if I’m saying that right and also up the wigwams there will be um so two Jack bittles on each Wigwam so four more Jack bittles um cuz again I just I really like them they’re delicious uh so that’s the bean bed with the lavender so the lavender goes along The Edge the top edge of this bed and the next bed um again that’s gr really really well I can’t wait for it to be huge um so last bed is the root SL other bed and in there we have three rows of Swiss chard now you all know how much I go on about Swiss chard I love it again we did think about growing less because three rows is quite a lot but um yeah again the chickens really really like it and we use it all the time um I make quite a lot of kiches with it which we freeze um which yeah is really good so three roses perfect um that variety where are we is Rainbow Lights um and again I’ve got 63 plants down here which gosh it does sound like a lot doesn’t it anyway we’ve got three rows of onions one row of the St gter white variety and then two rows of The Red Onion Red Baron um and here I’ve got for we’ll have 41 St gter and 82 Red Baron um I mean onion stores really well anyway doesn’t it so that’s no problem it was yeah it’s fine um and then there’ll be one row of shalots I don’t have the variety down because the garden center didn’t have any um so I need to find some yeah there’ll be one row of shots three rows of leaks which are muscle bar again we grow this I mean we didn’t grow it last year but we grow we tend to grow this variety all the time and it’s a really good variety uh then there’ll be two rows of flowers and I I don’t have which ones will be there I have a few which I’m going to sew but I don’t know which ones I’m actually going to be planting out in the vegetable patch yet but I’ll go through the flowers in a second and then we are trying celery for the first time this year which is I’m really excited about it actually I do quite like celery don’t know why we haven’t grown it before I’ve always I suppose I’ve always thought it’s a difficult one to grow so we just haven’t bothered and but we’re going to try this year so uh this will be four half rows of celery where are we and they are golden self blanchon variety and then in the other half of that bit we’re going to have what is it oh yeah one half row of celeriac which never grown again giant Prague one half row of fennel again have never grown it before that is Romanesco and then two half rows of Bolt bardi beetroot for my dad then we’ve got one row of parsnip which are the Gladiator variety and three rows of carrot which will be a mixture of Amsterdam forcing 3 and Autumn King 2 um and again like I mentioned earlier we’re going to try and succession will grow them so um we’re not just inundated with carrots um and then yeah there’s a globe AR choke in the corner um which I might actually just go and buy go and buy one uh just to save sewing it um but yeah that’s the main vegetable beds um and all the varieties um I hope I didn’t go through it too quickly I do realize like how much I like how much I talk when I start talking it’s quite hard to stop um but with the um with the flowers I feel like I’m not really growing many this year I feel like my main priority is on the vegetable side of it um we haven’t really got the flower beds sorted yet or planned out um and yeah for some reason they’re just like the flowers are just at the back of my mind um so I am going to grow a few there’s going to be um some sunflowers obviously the Cula sweet peas um I’ve sewn some corn flour cuz I love cornflour um and I’ve also got seeds for fever few chamomile Amy mes Nigella alcha mollis um lunaria anua um florist still as well so there’s a few which I’m going to be sewing I just don’t know where they’re going yet um but we’ll figure that out we we’ll figure that out later on that we’ll find room for them we will um and then I’ll also got some daers as well which I will probably just put for now into the flower beds cuz the cut the cut flower rais bed we we still haven’t got um uh but yeah yeah the flowers I’m not really focusing much on at the moment um do you know what we do need to go through the poly tunnel we’re satting it um where is that little plant so I will show you a closeup of a little polyl plant I mean it’s not that interesting so along um along this side is going to be the tomatoes in the Cucumber um and there will be 22 Tomatoes all together um again we’ve got we’ve got Sun gold variety which we’re going to be sewing and I think we’ve got Gardener’s Delight I think I think there’s another one which I haven’t written down which is helpful isn’t it but yeah there’s going to be 22 tomato all together um and only I think three or four cucumbers or maybe just two cucumbers I think we we had three cucumbers last year and a girkin and they were prolific like we were overrun um but again chickens really liked them spoiled chickens um so yeah we are growing uh mini munch and Merlin cucumbers not growing gerkens this year because I pickled some girkins and we just had so many like I just didn’t know what else to do with them so we’re not growing girkins this year just the mini munch and the Merlin cucumbers um so that’s all going this side and then on the other side we currently have four rows of salad potatoes International kidneys at the far end um and then we will have six sweet peppers again I don’t know the varieties I should have planned this video out a bit better shouldn’t I but there’ll be six sweet peppers and then there’ll be 14 rows of salad uh which will just be your basic salad stuff you know like lettuce spring onion radish rocket you know all all your basic salad stuff and again we’re going to try and successional sew them so we’ve got salad throughout the whole sort of year um then we’ve got two new things we are going to try to grow melon we’re going to try at least to grow one I mean it’ be nice if we got more than one and that variety is blenham orange so there’ll be one melon and one laer lofer um plant I’ve always wanted to grow my own loofer um and I’ve seen quite a lot of people do on Instagram and I was like you know I’m going to try uh so yeah very excited about growing growing the loofer um and I did actually learn cuz I was a little bit confused cuz some people call him luffer some people call him lofer um but luffer is the gourd luur is the dried sponge inside so there you go little little um little fact for you there um yeah that’s it that’s that’s all we’re growing this year all the varieties we’re growing um last thing I think I will say about the whole planning thing is it’s quite handy to have a diary now some years we like we start off really well with the Diaries uh like we write in there like every day or every time we do something and we write in there but I’m very determined to carry on through the whole year uh cuz it starts to dwindle out a little bit obviously when you get a bit more busy you forget to write in it and stuff um but yeah basically just writing there whenever I do a job in the garden whenever I sew something as sometimes I write the weather down um it’s just it’s really handy to look back on next year um just to know when you sew things and you know just when you do things in the garden really really handy so yeah it’s nice to have a diary but I think that’s about it for this video um yeah probably talked for way too long um but yeah I really really hope you enjoyed the video and um and the little bit of tour like I said not much has changed it will probably start to get quite busy now especially with the sewings and once it starts to warm up in March I’ll start sewing things and then obviously start um direct sewing maybe April time but yeah very very exciting time of year I hope you enjoyed the video thank you so much for watching and I we’ll see you in the next [Music] one [Music]