How to Grow Food launches this week! https://geni.us/HowToGrowFood
Rhubarb and Daubenton Kale plants (amongst many other interesting things): https://dyfiplants.co.uk/
In this video I share nine crops, split between three different categories, on what to start prioritising or focusing on first if you are either new to gardening or you’re trying to shift towards saving money and reducing dependence on global food systems.
#vegetablegarden #growyourownfood #selfsufficiency
29 Comments
Excellent video. Thankyou!
How big are your raised beds? I'm just about to create mine.
Please wear hearing protection when using a post driver. That sharp impact noise so close to your ears can be very damaging to your hearing, and going deaf as you get older is linked to a whole lot of major health consequences including a sharply elevated risk of dementia.
Dissing dandelions? 😮 salad, wine, dye, cordage … it’s an amazing plant!
Dandelions should not end up in your compost bin! They are a powerhouse of nutrients! Please explore about them! 💚
There's an interesting contrast between food plants that are good to grow at home because they're easy to grow and very productive, like many root vegetables, and food plants that are good to grow at home because they don't store and transport well so the bought version tends to be very expensive and often not great quality, like mushrooms. Climbing beans sit in both categories at once and therefore they're my first choice for small gardens or beginner gardens.
You definitely read my mind because I'm growing a lot of vegetables that are super productive to make the most of my small space. I'm in Florida so I was able to get a jump start on others before the really hot weather kicks in. I forgot about trying bok choy, thanks!!
You're a good egg Huw. Great video as always!
I have 4 vertical garden towers that stagger plant herbs and lettuce. So much abundance.
I have a veg garden and also grow some berries and currants here in the SW. During 2021, when I had more time (due to covid restrictions), I weighed every thing I harvested. At the end of the year, I figured out what all those crops would have cost to buy in a supermarket. It was around £2K. I discovered that about three quarters of that was the cost of the soft fruit even though, in terms of weight, I had far more veg than fruit. So, if saving money is a top priority, based on my experience, soft fruits are your friends.
Thank you for being so informative and pleasant to listen to. Makes me want to get going. Is there a reason butter beans aren’t offered as seeds? What range of beans could we grow for dried purposes in casserole?
I started in 2019 to start growing food for my family and for a job if I lost my job and little did I know a pandemic would happen a year later 2023 I raised a turkey for Thanksgiving then last year I grew sweet potatoes and my dad made a pie i'm hoping to bring more food to the table this year
"Stuff That!" I'm eating for free, they are spending $10 to $20 per meal!
Remember. No amount of money can buy the quality of food you pick fresh from your garden.
The one year I grew Chinese cabbage, I guess we got a lot of rain because a couple rotted & the one that made it, well, the leaves were chewed up & the interior was FILTHY with earwigs & their dirt!! After peeling away every horrifying leaf, I did end up with a clean center but it was small, lol. I’ll try again, but grow in a pot I can put inside my screen porch out of the rain.
Not everyone lives in a mild climate where lettuce can produce for 8 months a year 😉 And it's effectively impossible to preserve and has so little nutrition. Very much a "why bother" plant, for me.
Huw, if you don't mean "self-sufficient" then don't say "self-sufficient". "Stuff that"? You may have just lost me. If you want to talk about how to reduce your grocery bill and improve your nutrition by growing some of your own food, that's fantastic. But don't pretend that's "self-sufficient" because it's just not.
I have 2 gooseberry, 2 blackcurrant & 1 red currant in a 3×1.2m bed in front of my greenhouse.
13kg of gooseberries, 6kg of blackcurrants & more than 3kg redcurrants last year.
That's more than £140 worth of berries off 3.6m².
Then there's 3 oblique cordon apples growing against the fence, which gave 60+ eating apples & 20+ Bramley's & the morello on the north facing fence, with 2kg of cooking cherries.
My fruit & veg area at home is 12mx3m & last year gave me 190kg of organic produce (plus another 50kg from my 8'x6' greenhouse) & by my reckoning cost less than £30 to give back over £700 in produce, all of it pesticide free.
None of this was done to a plan – just worked out as I went along.
Oh & I've a 6m x 13m mini allotment too…
Dandelion greens are super tasty if picked young and fried up like collard greens, with a bit of bacon fat and lots of garlic.
I've been watching your videos for a long time, and I really like the little interjections of personality that you're doing now " Ergh Lettuce!"
👍
you can eat Kumara leaves too, i do as if you have the vining variety as i have it can become a real weed! also Skirret is an amazing plant too! doesn't take up any space and its perennial.
I could listen to you all day! Thank you for yet another informative and relatable video!😁
Yes, you have weeds to!
What are they?
Some great tips here Huw! So many uses for crops I had no idea about! Can’t wait document my first season on YT 😎🤝🏼
Cost is always an interesting one. If you choose the absolute cheapest veg in the supermarket it’s pretty cheap to buy food but how I always thought of it is upgrading what I can afford. So for example, potatoes are cheap, new baby potatoes aren’t. Same with leaks, salad tomatoes vs cherry etc. plus also the quality. The PSB were eating at the moment tastes amazing. To get something as good in the shops you’re probably looking at a bespoke retailer, selfridges food hall etc.
Thanks for the video. I have started broad beans for nitrogen fixers bit found out they are poisonous to hens so moving them to an area the hens can't reach. Just thought I mention this as it was new to me😊
Baby dandelion leaves taste great!! And the petals are lovely in a grated carrot salad
Dandelions are very useful plants. Don't disregard them. You can make wine from the flowers, eat the leaves in salads or dry them with the flowers to use as a tea to stimulate the gall bladder, and roast the roots to grind and use as a coffee substitute. I also mix the ground roast root with proper coffee to make it go further. There is inulin in the roots which is good for peristalsis. And they are free!!